9 ms·

Everything must come to an end, even for Facebook. We didn't think Altavista or Myspace would "die" either..

papito 5y ago
Altavista did not lock hundreds of millions of people in an alternate reality. During COVID lockdowns, my Mom called me, and asked if it was true that at night choppers were going to spray something over NYC. "Ah", I thought, "Facebook".
- SevenSigs 5y ago
  They did that in a city I was in, in Florida, but using trucks.. They were poisoning everything to kill mosquitoes/larvae.
- uuddlrlr 5y ago
  It's good she asked, and spraying municipalities from planes is pretty common[0]. China was doing similar with sanitizer trucks running up and down streets so it's not terribly unfounded--actually that fake news is likely better than >99% of the actual crap on there. [0] https://www.clarke.com/blog/aerial-mosquito-control-applications-work/ https://www.clarke.com/blog/aerial-mosquito-control-applicat... Edit: footage of the trucks because they're neat https://futurism.com/neoscope/watch-china-spray-entire-city-blocks-contain-outbreak https://futurism.com/neoscope/watch-china-spray-entire-city-... No idea what the efficacy is.
  - papito 5y ago
    The point is, this was not based in fact. There was no such plan ever, especially with helicopters. Someone generated the bullshit, and we have to spend energy disputing it.
    - aeturnum 5y ago
      > There was no such plan ever, especially with helicopters. The NY health department does use helicopters to drop larvicide on likely mosquito spawning grounds[1]. Your mom did believe a false story and also there absolutely was (and is) a plan to use helicopters to distribute an an anti-disease treatments over NYC. I think the tricky part of the misinformation we are all dealing with is that many elements of it (method of distribution, the idea of spraying down a city) are things that are happening in some way - the false narrative is the particular combination people believe in. I think it's part of why flat denials are often ineffective. [1] https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/west-nile-virus-spray.page https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/west-nile...
      - papito 5y ago
        She didn't "believe" anything - she read it on Facebook. Someone else believes it, without evidence, types it in, and then millions of people either believe it or are not sure of what is true anymore. You are posting links to official government websites - do you think the people who get their information from Facebook verify it via official government sources? Do you think that most of them go "oh, that sounds weird, let me check the official NYC page"? I do it, you do it, but most people do not.
    - uuddlrlr 5y ago
      I did specifically call it fake news; but it's a harmless example compared to the other stuff people get wrapped up into believing, in large part thanks to algorithms.
- astura 5y ago
  This is not an "alternate reality," New York City does "spray something" by truck and chopper at night. https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/west-nile-virus-spray.page https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/west-nile... >Adulticide: Trucks spray this pesticide to kill adult mosquitoes. It is used when testing has shown a high risk to human health. Spraying occurs in the evening in residential areas and parks. >Aerial Larviciding: Helicopters drop eco-friendly larvicide over marshes and other large natural areas to kill young mosquitoes before they become adults. The City does not use helicopters to treat residential areas.
  - papito 5y ago
    "The City does not use helicopters to treat residential areas." So how is that true? Let's just think about helicopters spraying Manhattan with a ... sanitizer? The idea is insane. People read this on Facebook and think it might be true, so what else will they believe?
    - smolder 5y ago
      > So how is that true? This question says to me you misunderstood something in their post, which states that helicopters do spray larvicide, just not on residential areas.
- dmix 5y ago
  My mom believed a ton of crazy conspiracies before Facebook. Just like a ton of people in her generation did. No one was surprised when she continued doing that on the internet. Alternative medicine, aliens, JFK, secret gov technology etc etc was all super popular on TV, Hollywood movies, and in best selling books growing up in the 80s/90s.
  - the-dude 5y ago
    > JFK, secret gov technology What is crazy about this exactly?
    - jazzyjackson 5y ago
      the conspiracies surrounding them
      - helloworld11 5y ago
        Loony, completely unsubstantiated fringe deviations aside, governments really do develop and build secret technology in secrecy, in ways that can only be guessed at by very hazy inference for a time. And there are enough weird things about the JFK assassination for it to be understandable that many people, even serious investigators, spent decades with doubts about the basic lone gunman narrative.
        dylan604 5y ago
        >governments really do develop and build secret technology in secrecy, Well, if they developed them in public, they wouldn't be secret.
      - smolder 5y ago
        First, being pedantic, you mean the conspiracy theories surrounding them. Certainly there are some crazy theories. At the same time, given the suspicious circumstances of JFK's killing, there's a decent chance a conspiracy to kill him between some people did occur. With secret government technology... I don't know if that counts as conspiring. We know they develop things in secret. Of course, you can have crazy theories about what they're developing. It's also, in either case, crazy to believe a theory is true without any evidence.
- Black101 5y ago
  They did that in a city I was in, in Florida, but using trucks.. They were poisoning everything to kill mosquitoes/larvae.
ajsnigrutin 5y ago
Yep... honestly, i liked facebook in the beginning.. it was all people I knew personaly, their photos, their stories, statuses, their vdeos.. they.. people,... people I know. a few years later, ads, ads, influencers, ads, news story, newsstory, ads, ads... so i deleted my acccount. Instagram was the same... people I knew, photos of them... now it's ads, ads and influencers... I deleted instagram.
- cblconfederate 5y ago
  Turns out , if you tell people to market themselves as if they are toothpaste, they will lie and lie and lie some more. Shocking
  - dylan604 5y ago
    Wait what? Everyone wants to be famous? People have narsicissitic tendancies that get amplified on social media, and then becomes a feedback loop? No, that can't be. Social media is pure and wholesome, and there's no way it could be more of a problem than a good.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]

Altavista did not lock hundreds of millions of people in an alternate reality. During COVID lockdowns, my Mom called me, and asked if it was true that at night choppers were going to spray something over NYC. "Ah", I thought, "Facebook".

SevenSigs 5y ago
They did that in a city I was in, in Florida, but using trucks.. They were poisoning everything to kill mosquitoes/larvae.
uuddlrlr 5y ago
It's good she asked, and spraying municipalities from planes is pretty common[0]. China was doing similar with sanitizer trucks running up and down streets so it's not terribly unfounded--actually that fake news is likely better than >99% of the actual crap on there. [0] https://www.clarke.com/blog/aerial-mosquito-control-applications-work/ https://www.clarke.com/blog/aerial-mosquito-control-applicat... Edit: footage of the trucks because they're neat https://futurism.com/neoscope/watch-china-spray-entire-city-blocks-contain-outbreak https://futurism.com/neoscope/watch-china-spray-entire-city-... No idea what the efficacy is.
- papito 5y ago
  The point is, this was not based in fact. There was no such plan ever, especially with helicopters. Someone generated the bullshit, and we have to spend energy disputing it.
  - aeturnum 5y ago
    > There was no such plan ever, especially with helicopters. The NY health department does use helicopters to drop larvicide on likely mosquito spawning grounds[1]. Your mom did believe a false story and also there absolutely was (and is) a plan to use helicopters to distribute an an anti-disease treatments over NYC. I think the tricky part of the misinformation we are all dealing with is that many elements of it (method of distribution, the idea of spraying down a city) are things that are happening in some way - the false narrative is the particular combination people believe in. I think it's part of why flat denials are often ineffective. [1] https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/west-nile-virus-spray.page https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/west-nile...
    - papito 5y ago
      She didn't "believe" anything - she read it on Facebook. Someone else believes it, without evidence, types it in, and then millions of people either believe it or are not sure of what is true anymore. You are posting links to official government websites - do you think the people who get their information from Facebook verify it via official government sources? Do you think that most of them go "oh, that sounds weird, let me check the official NYC page"? I do it, you do it, but most people do not.
  - uuddlrlr 5y ago
    I did specifically call it fake news; but it's a harmless example compared to the other stuff people get wrapped up into believing, in large part thanks to algorithms.
astura 5y ago
This is not an "alternate reality," New York City does "spray something" by truck and chopper at night. https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/west-nile-virus-spray.page https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/west-nile... >Adulticide: Trucks spray this pesticide to kill adult mosquitoes. It is used when testing has shown a high risk to human health. Spraying occurs in the evening in residential areas and parks. >Aerial Larviciding: Helicopters drop eco-friendly larvicide over marshes and other large natural areas to kill young mosquitoes before they become adults. The City does not use helicopters to treat residential areas.
- papito 5y ago
  "The City does not use helicopters to treat residential areas." So how is that true? Let's just think about helicopters spraying Manhattan with a ... sanitizer? The idea is insane. People read this on Facebook and think it might be true, so what else will they believe?
  - smolder 5y ago
    > So how is that true? This question says to me you misunderstood something in their post, which states that helicopters do spray larvicide, just not on residential areas.
dmix 5y ago
My mom believed a ton of crazy conspiracies before Facebook. Just like a ton of people in her generation did. No one was surprised when she continued doing that on the internet. Alternative medicine, aliens, JFK, secret gov technology etc etc was all super popular on TV, Hollywood movies, and in best selling books growing up in the 80s/90s.
- the-dude 5y ago
  > JFK, secret gov technology What is crazy about this exactly?
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    the conspiracies surrounding them
    - helloworld11 5y ago
      Loony, completely unsubstantiated fringe deviations aside, governments really do develop and build secret technology in secrecy, in ways that can only be guessed at by very hazy inference for a time. And there are enough weird things about the JFK assassination for it to be understandable that many people, even serious investigators, spent decades with doubts about the basic lone gunman narrative.
      - dylan604 5y ago
        >governments really do develop and build secret technology in secrecy, Well, if they developed them in public, they wouldn't be secret.
    - smolder 5y ago
      First, being pedantic, you mean the conspiracy theories surrounding them. Certainly there are some crazy theories. At the same time, given the suspicious circumstances of JFK's killing, there's a decent chance a conspiracy to kill him between some people did occur. With secret government technology... I don't know if that counts as conspiring. We know they develop things in secret. Of course, you can have crazy theories about what they're developing. It's also, in either case, crazy to believe a theory is true without any evidence.
Black101 5y ago
They did that in a city I was in, in Florida, but using trucks.. They were poisoning everything to kill mosquitoes/larvae.

ajsnigrutin 5y ago

Yep... honestly, i liked facebook in the beginning.. it was all people I knew personaly, their photos, their stories, statuses, their vdeos.. they.. people,... people I know. a few years later, ads, ads, influencers, ads, news story, newsstory, ads, ads... so i deleted my acccount. Instagram was the same... people I knew, photos of them... now it's ads, ads and influencers... I deleted instagram.

cblconfederate 5y ago
Turns out , if you tell people to market themselves as if they are toothpaste, they will lie and lie and lie some more. Shocking
- dylan604 5y ago
  Wait what? Everyone wants to be famous? People have narsicissitic tendancies that get amplified on social media, and then becomes a feedback loop? No, that can't be. Social media is pure and wholesome, and there's no way it could be more of a problem than a good.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]