4 ms·

This is why certain groups have such a strong interest in controlling twitter, facebook, google, etc. Most people simply go along with what they perceive as th

This is why certain groups have such a strong interest in controlling twitter, facebook, google, etc. Most people simply go along with what they perceive as the majority opinion. This used to take the form of doing whate everyone around you does, which is why political views tended to group up so much by community. But we no longer have communities, we no longer speak to actual people, especially not about anything like politics. So that instinctive conformity is now based on easily falsified information presented though the media. This is why facebook prevents certain topics from trending, and puts others that are not naturally trending into the trending queue.

RodericDay 10y ago
Yeah, a lot of people just play it safe. "Nobody gets fired for buying IBM" and all of that stuff.
ZoF 10y ago
If I could Correct the Record here, no one is trying to control the narrative on these platforms. Sounds like a Republican funded lie to me :^)
- jmorphy88 10y ago
  Lol. Care to comment on the many bannings/suspensions of prominent right-wing commentators/journalists on Twitter (Milo, Ricky Vaughn, Chuck Johnson, James O'Keefe, to name a few), the practice of "shadowbanning", as well of Facebook's well-documented history of deleting/censoring of posts about refugee crime in Europe and outright censorship of anti-refugee comments in Germany (under the guise of calling it "hate speech" of course...)?
  - ZoF 10y ago
    I was kidding fam... I even used 'Correct the Record' in my comment... C'mon son.
TeMPOraL 10y ago
> But we no longer have communities, we no longer speak to actual people, especially not about anything like politics. Oh but we do have communities, and we do talk to actual people (also about politics!) - it's just no longer strongly tied to your location. Blame the invention of the telephone, that lets you stay in touch with your family and friends at long distances, and the invention of the car, that lets you visit them often.
- MustardTiger 10y ago
  >Oh but we do have communities, and we do talk to actual people (also about politics!) No, we don't. Communities have bonds. Seeing facebook spam is not the same as talking to a person, and joining a group of people who post likeminded facebook spam is not a community. It just scratches the same instinctual itch as a community. >Blame the invention Blame has nothing to do with it. Understanding how and why people control information to manipulate the public and undermine democracy is important. Trying to blame dead people for technology they invented is not.
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    > No, we don't. Communities have bonds. Seeing facebook spam is not the same as talking to a person, and joining a group of people who post likeminded facebook spam is not a community. It just scratches the same instinctual itch as a community. You and I may be using Facebook differently. I'm not thinking about random Facebook groups and news feeds of people you don't even remember. But e.g. for me, there are people with whom, due to temporal and geographical constraints, Facebook (both site and Messenger) is the primary means of communication, and said communication is frequent and often deep. It's just another tool, not unlike the phone or telegram or paper mail. > Understanding how and why people control information to manipulate the public and undermine democracy is important. How: with free speech. Why: because they have goals they want to achieve. This actually is democracy working as designed - people being free to bullshit one another. The hope might have been that bullshitting from different actors will cancel out, but that doesn't generally work due to, among other things, simple randomness.

RodericDay 10y ago

Yeah, a lot of people just play it safe. "Nobody gets fired for buying IBM" and all of that stuff.

ZoF 10y ago

If I could Correct the Record here, no one is trying to control the narrative on these platforms. Sounds like a Republican funded lie to me :^)

jmorphy88 10y ago
Lol. Care to comment on the many bannings/suspensions of prominent right-wing commentators/journalists on Twitter (Milo, Ricky Vaughn, Chuck Johnson, James O'Keefe, to name a few), the practice of "shadowbanning", as well of Facebook's well-documented history of deleting/censoring of posts about refugee crime in Europe and outright censorship of anti-refugee comments in Germany (under the guise of calling it "hate speech" of course...)?
- ZoF 10y ago
  I was kidding fam... I even used 'Correct the Record' in my comment... C'mon son.

TeMPOraL 10y ago

> But we no longer have communities, we no longer speak to actual people, especially not about anything like politics. Oh but we do have communities, and we do talk to actual people (also about politics!) - it's just no longer strongly tied to your location. Blame the invention of the telephone, that lets you stay in touch with your family and friends at long distances, and the invention of the car, that lets you visit them often.

MustardTiger 10y ago
>Oh but we do have communities, and we do talk to actual people (also about politics!) No, we don't. Communities have bonds. Seeing facebook spam is not the same as talking to a person, and joining a group of people who post likeminded facebook spam is not a community. It just scratches the same instinctual itch as a community. >Blame the invention Blame has nothing to do with it. Understanding how and why people control information to manipulate the public and undermine democracy is important. Trying to blame dead people for technology they invented is not.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  > No, we don't. Communities have bonds. Seeing facebook spam is not the same as talking to a person, and joining a group of people who post likeminded facebook spam is not a community. It just scratches the same instinctual itch as a community. You and I may be using Facebook differently. I'm not thinking about random Facebook groups and news feeds of people you don't even remember. But e.g. for me, there are people with whom, due to temporal and geographical constraints, Facebook (both site and Messenger) is the primary means of communication, and said communication is frequent and often deep. It's just another tool, not unlike the phone or telegram or paper mail. > Understanding how and why people control information to manipulate the public and undermine democracy is important. How: with free speech. Why: because they have goals they want to achieve. This actually is democracy working as designed - people being free to bullshit one another. The hope might have been that bullshitting from different actors will cancel out, but that doesn't generally work due to, among other things, simple randomness.