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The thing I have noticed about my friends on facebook is how their opinions have got stronger or more extreme. My ultra catholic relatives have become more ext

The thing I have noticed about my friends on facebook is how their opinions have got stronger or more extreme. My ultra catholic relatives have become more extreme in their views. The opinions of my left and right leaning friends have become more extreme. The outgoing party animal types seem to want to post more and more about how much they party. The people who sometimes feel down post more and more about how awful it is and how much help they need. I know it is all down to how facebook has us all figured out and shows us stuff that only reinforces previously held beliefs and opinions. The problem is that is seems to have also created a strange desire among many reasonable people to unwittingly troll others. For example people who used to rarely talk about politics will post provocative things that seem designed to elicit negative responses. I have Catholic in-law relatives that have I met only only once at my wedding posting on my timeline demanding I promise to not vote to repeal the 8th in the forthcoming Irish abortion referendum. My polite refusal to give an answer only angers them, yet somehow I am at fault. Those who only see stuff about what they already believed will only believe in it stronger. And what do you do when you really believe in something? You try to spread your belief, which social media makes it easy to do. But of course in doing so you will potentially anger or annoy other who might have listened to your message if it wasn't so in-your-face. The problem is that this spills over in to the real world. Religious people may avoid interacting with someone because they said something trivial on facebook they didn't like. Come election time people will be less willing to switch political parties because someone who supports a different party said something rude. Even without the political meddling, targeted advertising and profiling, social media lacks the context and nuance of the real world. Something that in itself only serves to negatively reinforce opinions.

Malice 9y ago
Based on your comments, I've realized that I do the thing you're talking about. I'm going to change my behaviour as a result. Thanks for posting this.
autokad 9y ago
it use to be that talking about politics at work was considered bad form, and now people think its practically their duty to do so. people are 'in-your-face' with politics these days, and while I dislike it, I can hardly blame them. holywood stars, musicians, and now athletes use their elevated status to get their word above all others (even if their fan base dont want to receive it), and being silent allows what ever they wanted passed.
- QAPereo 9y ago
  I very politely, without judgement or a sense of superiority, say that I don’t talk politics and religion. If you’re firm and consistent, and not haughty, people usually respect it in my experience. If they don’t, politely listen and then reiterated that you don’t talk about that subject.
  - Boothroid 9y ago
    What's sad is that holding different views has become such a flashpoint. I'm quite able to have people question, attack, deride my beliefs without getting emotional about it - who knows, they might even have a point - as if I, or anyone else is any kind of all-seeing, perfectly informed entity that is able to exercise perfect judgement. But as I've learnt here on HN, not everyone else is as happy with having their beliefs challenged, indeed for many the default response is to lash out. It seems to me like people make their mind up about what they prefer, then seek evidence to support this, and then having invested in that viewpoint and built their worldview around it they will go to great lengths to defend it, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I'm sure I'm as prone to this as anyone else! If only people were a bit slower to assert their beliefs as correct.
    - QAPereo 9y ago
      I'm sure I'm as prone to this as anyone else! A critical bt of insight that some people just live in denial of. We’re all far more alike than not, but some live and die on the need to think of themselves as a breed apart.
- Caveman_Coder 9y ago
  > "it use to be that talking about politics at work was considered bad form, and now people think its practically their duty to do so." I think talking about politics at work is more prevalent in "tech" companies where people have bought the whole "making the world a better place" shtick. When I was at Google it seemed that political discussions were more common than technical ones (personal experience and completely anecdotal fwiw). When I moved to less "tech" environments (utility industry), the talk at work is about the tech we're working on, our families, and our hobbies. Much more laid back. Even though I know there are co-workers with differing political opinions (one with a Trump bumper sticker and a few others who were staunch Clinton supporters), it doesn't really matter. We're here to do a job (a.k.a. trade our time and engineering capabilities for money), support the business, and build systems for the electric grid, not opine about our political opinions. Shocker...people have different opinions about public policy.
sreenadh 9y ago
What you are talking about is "echo chamber". By subscribing to a select few people who share your mind set, you only get messages from them and when that is all you see, you think that is general consensus and you dig in. What you see on a social media page is in no way a reflection of how the general population thinks. I once saw the homepage of my colleagues facebook page and I was not sure if it was actually facebook. We did not even share a single post and all the news feed was a direct reflect on the person he was, which took me months of daily interaction to understand.
dilemma 9y ago
This is a form of r/iamverysmart. "Everyone around me is living in a filter bubble and blind to reality while I am the sole person to see through it all." Everyone's perception is shaped by their environment - you are no exception.
- DoubleGlazing 9y ago
  Very meta. Look, I just don't want to be treading on eggshells when using social media.
- cirgue 9y ago
  > Everyone's perception is shaped by their environment - you are no exception. Different people interact with media differently. We can probably say something interesting about loud people with extremist opinions on the internet that aren't true of everyone else.
liberte82 9y ago
I see all of this too, this is really well written. My greatest fear is that there is no escape from this. Our brains just aren't developed to resist this type of gaming. On an individual level, sure, there will be people who turn away from it, shut down Facebook and live a simpler life. But on a mass societal level? I don't know if there's a solution, and things are only getting more extreme - it really frightens me.
alexasmyths 9y ago
This is the 'comment of our times'. I know it's hard to turn off FB because there are some elements of real utility, but you can do it. You're not going to miss out on as much as you think. And as for the article: the press is just as easily blamed - they take 'some random tweet' made by 'some random person' and hold it up as testament to 'what people are saying' and fan the flames. It's click-bait, and their revenue life-blood in a dwindling market for paid journalism, so that ugly factor drives them to betray their otherwise reasonably professional motivations as well. 'Change the channel' :)
- distances 9y ago
  And if you only want to use some parts of FB, say the events, just block the main feed. There are browser plugins, or you can use uBlock's element blocking feature.

Malice 9y ago

Based on your comments, I've realized that I do the thing you're talking about. I'm going to change my behaviour as a result. Thanks for posting this.

autokad 9y ago

it use to be that talking about politics at work was considered bad form, and now people think its practically their duty to do so. people are 'in-your-face' with politics these days, and while I dislike it, I can hardly blame them. holywood stars, musicians, and now athletes use their elevated status to get their word above all others (even if their fan base dont want to receive it), and being silent allows what ever they wanted passed.

QAPereo 9y ago
I very politely, without judgement or a sense of superiority, say that I don’t talk politics and religion. If you’re firm and consistent, and not haughty, people usually respect it in my experience. If they don’t, politely listen and then reiterated that you don’t talk about that subject.
- Boothroid 9y ago
  What's sad is that holding different views has become such a flashpoint. I'm quite able to have people question, attack, deride my beliefs without getting emotional about it - who knows, they might even have a point - as if I, or anyone else is any kind of all-seeing, perfectly informed entity that is able to exercise perfect judgement. But as I've learnt here on HN, not everyone else is as happy with having their beliefs challenged, indeed for many the default response is to lash out. It seems to me like people make their mind up about what they prefer, then seek evidence to support this, and then having invested in that viewpoint and built their worldview around it they will go to great lengths to defend it, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I'm sure I'm as prone to this as anyone else! If only people were a bit slower to assert their beliefs as correct.
  - QAPereo 9y ago
    I'm sure I'm as prone to this as anyone else! A critical bt of insight that some people just live in denial of. We’re all far more alike than not, but some live and die on the need to think of themselves as a breed apart.
Caveman_Coder 9y ago
> "it use to be that talking about politics at work was considered bad form, and now people think its practically their duty to do so." I think talking about politics at work is more prevalent in "tech" companies where people have bought the whole "making the world a better place" shtick. When I was at Google it seemed that political discussions were more common than technical ones (personal experience and completely anecdotal fwiw). When I moved to less "tech" environments (utility industry), the talk at work is about the tech we're working on, our families, and our hobbies. Much more laid back. Even though I know there are co-workers with differing political opinions (one with a Trump bumper sticker and a few others who were staunch Clinton supporters), it doesn't really matter. We're here to do a job (a.k.a. trade our time and engineering capabilities for money), support the business, and build systems for the electric grid, not opine about our political opinions. Shocker...people have different opinions about public policy.

sreenadh 9y ago

What you are talking about is "echo chamber". By subscribing to a select few people who share your mind set, you only get messages from them and when that is all you see, you think that is general consensus and you dig in. What you see on a social media page is in no way a reflection of how the general population thinks. I once saw the homepage of my colleagues facebook page and I was not sure if it was actually facebook. We did not even share a single post and all the news feed was a direct reflect on the person he was, which took me months of daily interaction to understand.

dilemma 9y ago

This is a form of r/iamverysmart. "Everyone around me is living in a filter bubble and blind to reality while I am the sole person to see through it all." Everyone's perception is shaped by their environment - you are no exception.

DoubleGlazing 9y ago
Very meta. Look, I just don't want to be treading on eggshells when using social media.
cirgue 9y ago
> Everyone's perception is shaped by their environment - you are no exception. Different people interact with media differently. We can probably say something interesting about loud people with extremist opinions on the internet that aren't true of everyone else.

liberte82 9y ago

I see all of this too, this is really well written. My greatest fear is that there is no escape from this. Our brains just aren't developed to resist this type of gaming. On an individual level, sure, there will be people who turn away from it, shut down Facebook and live a simpler life. But on a mass societal level? I don't know if there's a solution, and things are only getting more extreme - it really frightens me.

alexasmyths 9y ago

This is the 'comment of our times'. I know it's hard to turn off FB because there are some elements of real utility, but you can do it. You're not going to miss out on as much as you think. And as for the article: the press is just as easily blamed - they take 'some random tweet' made by 'some random person' and hold it up as testament to 'what people are saying' and fan the flames. It's click-bait, and their revenue life-blood in a dwindling market for paid journalism, so that ugly factor drives them to betray their otherwise reasonably professional motivations as well. 'Change the channel' :)

distances 9y ago
And if you only want to use some parts of FB, say the events, just block the main feed. There are browser plugins, or you can use uBlock's element blocking feature.