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That's arguable. Digital platforms are both facilitating and changing human interaction - for both better and worse.

by pax 9y ago

coldtea 9y ago
But mostly, between echo chambers, fake news, cyber-bullying, shallow social media, etc, for worse.
- vertex-four 9y ago
  Only if you choose the default. Lasting, meaningful friendships can be made - the trick is to ignore the "broadcast" tooling that's heavily suggested to you by entities that can only exist so long as they have an ever-increasing income - the walls, the feeds, even to some degree the forums - and stay instead in the private messaging systems, the tiny chatrooms, etc. I use IRC as my primary "social media" tool of choice, but some days, I barely look at the channels - my online life is spent in the PMs with the people I've known for years.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  > But mostly, between echo chambers, fake news, But is it really so? Echo chambers and fake news are as old as civilization, only we used different words for them in the past. The villages in which our great^n-grandparents lived were even more of an echo chamber - all the opinions you've ever heard were the ones of a few dozen people you could communicate with. "Fake news" existed in the form of hostile gossip then. Newspapers gave us access to more information, and with it, organized fake news - and the choice of which paper you read created your echo chamber. The real problem is, the world is just too complex for our minds to handle. It's only becoming apparent because progress of technology gives us more of the world to see.
jononor 9y ago
Yes, but many popular modern platform facilitate very transactional interactions, this-for-that. They are also generally high-frequency, low-"touch". People will strive to find those rarer valuable connections, and many will succeed - now with digital platforms, as before without them. But I can't help the feeling that platforms are seeking more to exploit the human need for connection than to actively support it.

That's arguable. Digital platforms are both facilitating and changing human interaction - for both better and worse.

by pax 9y ago

That's arguable. Digital platforms are both facilitating and changing human interaction - for both better and worse.

coldtea 9y ago

But mostly, between echo chambers, fake news, cyber-bullying, shallow social media, etc, for worse.

vertex-four 9y ago
Only if you choose the default. Lasting, meaningful friendships can be made - the trick is to ignore the "broadcast" tooling that's heavily suggested to you by entities that can only exist so long as they have an ever-increasing income - the walls, the feeds, even to some degree the forums - and stay instead in the private messaging systems, the tiny chatrooms, etc. I use IRC as my primary "social media" tool of choice, but some days, I barely look at the channels - my online life is spent in the PMs with the people I've known for years.
TeMPOraL 9y ago
> But mostly, between echo chambers, fake news, But is it really so? Echo chambers and fake news are as old as civilization, only we used different words for them in the past. The villages in which our great^n-grandparents lived were even more of an echo chamber - all the opinions you've ever heard were the ones of a few dozen people you could communicate with. "Fake news" existed in the form of hostile gossip then. Newspapers gave us access to more information, and with it, organized fake news - and the choice of which paper you read created your echo chamber. The real problem is, the world is just too complex for our minds to handle. It's only becoming apparent because progress of technology gives us more of the world to see.

jononor 9y ago

Yes, but many popular modern platform facilitate very transactional interactions, this-for-that. They are also generally high-frequency, low-"touch". People will strive to find those rarer valuable connections, and many will succeed - now with digital platforms, as before without them. But I can't help the feeling that platforms are seeking more to exploit the human need for connection than to actively support it.