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Linus: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Are “A Disease”
- welcomebrand 8y agoHe's about right but it's not really a ground breaking observation.
- nkozyra 8y agoAgreed, it seems a casual observation that's heading toward universal opinion. Though I agree with the sentiment, I'm not sure Linus carries much authority in speaking about social media.
- bauerd 8y agoI'm not so sure a lot of people outside of HN view social media as a disease …
- thejohnconway 8y agoSocial media gets a lot of bad press in the mainstream media. A lot of people in non-tech circles talk about how to spend less time on Facebook, etc., because they feel it has a negative impact. Personally, I think it's a shame big social media is such a general disaster, because I've always had a good experience on Facebook and Twitter.
- hi5eyes 8y agoits becoming quite a common take on social media, especially all the "look at my blog post on how i quit social media" posts on reddit youtubers/ig accounts are very open about the effects of social media, maybe you should check some other sites to see HN... isn't that unique in this view
- saagarjha 8y agoOf course, Google+ is fine ;)
- luckylion 8y agoGoogle+ obviously didn't optimize for engagement, that's why nobody was using it!
- nkozyra 8y agoIn the end I don't think anyone had any idea what Google+ was supposed to be or do, most of all Google themselves.
- luckylion 8y agoSounds more and more like a temporary modern art installation.
- thepangolino 8y agoThe main issue was with Google+ was the painfully slow roll out.It killed any chance of viral spread of it it. Same thing happened with Google Wave.
- pwinnski 8y agoYes, the incredible slow rollout of thefacebook.com killed that one, too.
- simonh 8y agoI was using it a ton, precisely because I could choose which groups I joined and how I engaged with it. It was precisely because fancy pants forum software isn't a great platform for algorithm generated engagement spam that I liked it so much.
- severine 8y agoThe link should be changed to the original interview: https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/25-years-later-interview-linus-torvalds https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/25-years-later-intervie... Very recent discussion: 25 Years Later: Interview with Linus Torvalds https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19559970 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19559970 296 points by axiomdata316 5 days ago | 145 comments
- seba_dos1 8y agoAlso, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19570880 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19570880
- lunchladydoris 8y agoAre they a disease, or are they symptoms?
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago> Are they a disease, or are they symptoms? They’re akin to the lead in lead poisoning. Not the disease per se, but the cause thereof. Broadly speaking, ad-driven social networks are incentivised to spread enraging content. That, in turn, incentivises content producers to make such content for broadcast.
- setquk 8y agoNeither. They are an infection vector.
- fxbl0i 8y ago"Creator of Linux", just in case Linus Torvalds doesn't ring a bell
- pandemic_region 8y agoyou can never be enough clickbaity.
- pingutrucxxX 8y agoEspecially when you need to downvote or delete this post. I referring to this which is my own and not parent.
- officialjunk 8y agoNot that I disagree with the idea, but aren't these communication tools highlighting or magnifying some basic human behavior traits? I would imagine this happens on a smaller scale through face to face interaction. Is it just the scale of it all that is the issue?
- time0ut 8y agoMy opinion is that, while those traits are there, Facebook et al actively manipulate people to express those traits. Yes, similar things happen in face yo face interactions... with psychopaths. In this way, social media is more like a predator than a disease.
- jjaredsimpson 8y agoThis example is fresh in my mind but might be crude Every public bathroom is a mess. Urine on seats and the floor. But I've never gone to someone's house and seen their bathroom in that condition. People act badly when no one is watching and they have reason to believe their badness won't be discovered. I'm skeptical of the value of anonymity to the collective where it's obvious to see the value to the individual
- checksauce 8y agoOne thing I find attract of anonymity is that a person can make statement without risking it being permanently associated with him for the rest of his life. He can test ideas, push boundaries, perhaps discover something about himself or his previous assumptions. We are only sharing information after all
- jjaredsimpson 8y agoIf most anonymous speech were like The Federalist Papers then I would agree. I think the mean-value of anonymous speech is either zero or negative. I'm aware this is a feeling and not something I can prove.
- 8y ago
- 3xblah 8y ago"Add in anonymity, and it's just disgusting," Torvalds said. "When you don't even put your real name on your garbage (or the garbage you share or like), it really doesn't help." Except when you see people you knew and respected before social media existed posting and "liking" the same garbage. They either just do not care or they do not know any better. The lack of anonymity lends itself to the emergence of countless self-promoters who specialise in posting yet more garbage, on a regular basis. The aim of which is often directly or indirectly commercial.
- Causality1 8y agoAnonymity made for a healthier internet in my opinion. Nobody cared if xXNinja_420Xx said he was going to kill you or that all left-handed people deserve to be in concentration camps. Everyone still runs their fool mouth same as they used to except now you know it's your cousin Drew or Samantha from accounting saying it. Putting a name and a face on internet bullshit was a horrible development.
- laHiesh1 8y agoGiven today's culture anonymity is even more important than it ever was. Someone across the world can boycott your place of work and get you sacked for voicing unfashionable opinions. Who will provide for your family then? Don't expect to lean on your partner either, they'll probably push to get her/him sacked too for associating with you.
- renholder 8y agoTrue. Look at the blowback from Beto's writing from his childhood and how he had to apologise for it[0], some twenty or thirty years later. [0] - https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/03/16/beto-orourke-poems-children-car/ https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/03/16/beto-orourke-poems-ch...
- xXNinja_420Xx 8y agoAll left-handed people deserve to be in concentration camps.
- dagaci 8y agoI've never been much engaged in FB,TW or Instagram or too many Social platforms. But I still have to disagree with Mr Linus, after all where would we be without the Slashdot effect? Social media simply accelerates aspects of what we are as humans. Its well known that we humans are genetically more attracted to the negative than the positive for obvious reasons ... and just to be circular: when was the last time something positive Linus said made the news? So rather than say Social media is an external invading disease i would rather say it is an expression of what makes us human.
- kingkawn 8y agoI have spent some time studying genetics, and really have no idea what you mean by “Its well known that we humans are genetically more attracted to the negative than the positive for obvious reasons”
- whyever 8y agoThis thesis is from psychology, not genetics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias
- seotut2 8y agoThere were a number of studies in psychology related to the negativity bias. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativity_bias .
- onlydeadheroes 8y agoThis is the kind of thinking social media enables. When everyone in your group already agrees with what you say, the standards of thought fall due to lack of challenge.
- dagaci 8y agoI didn't think it was so challenging to use the term "genetics" after all from a reasonable point of view our genes are the blueprint of the body and our emotional responses derive from that...
- RickJWagner 8y agoI think Linus is right. It's a bit ironic, though, him calling Facebook a 'disease' when Steven Balmer famously called Linux a 'cancer'.
- mutt2016 8y agoIt's a cancer. It now has its own subsystem in windows.
- fb03 8y agoMaybe it's medicine. It's being applied in an attempt to better the host's health condition :-) I believe we can all agree that the command line and the whole PowerShell thing in Windows is...funny.. to say the least.
- ranagol 8y agoNice one bro... or even more terrifying: windows is forming around Linux... :OO
- azangru 8y agoI feel that the only reason this has made the news beyond the Linux community (there was also Business Insider [1] and The Inquirer [2] recycling this quote) is because of how fashionable it has recently become to hate on social media. And while I share much of Linus's distaste for social media (although I am shocked to see he argues against anonymity), the way that papers are now running with this story looks like cheap sensationalism. [1] - https://www.businessinsider.com/linus-torvalds-says-twitter-facebook-instagram-a-disease-2019-4?r=US&IR=T https://www.businessinsider.com/linus-torvalds-says-twitter-... [2] - https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3073753/linus-torvalds-calls-social-media-a-disease https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3073753/linus-torv...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]