4 ms·

FB deservedly gets a lot of criticism. I personally feel Twitter doesn't get its fair share of blame. IME Twitter is the most toxic social media platform out th

FB deservedly gets a lot of criticism. I personally feel Twitter doesn't get its fair share of blame. IME Twitter is the most toxic social media platform out there. Twitter deserves a fair share of blame for the divisive political culture we live in right now. I hope these companies go bankrupt and it'd be nothing but a blessing for humanity.

scarface74 5y ago
If your FB newsfeed is toxic, it’s because you have toxic friends.
zeepzeep 5y ago
idk, it's pretty civil in my bubble, though obviously there is some drama every now and then like now (Jonathan Scott ^^)
bobiny 5y ago
It’s easy to mute accounts you don’t want to see on Twitter, even ones shown as ads.
- twitterhell 5y ago
  If you mute the account, the conversation still happens. So awesome if you dont like a point of view. Terrible if you're gay, female, muslim, or any other hated minority subgroup that gets stalked and slandered on Twitter. If someone is posting slanderous material on Twitter, and you mute it, it isnt a solution. Even if you block it, it barely helps.
  - bobiny 5y ago
    I don’t understand. If you don’t want to see what someone says, you can mute or block them. What do you mean by conversation still happens?
stevofolife 5y ago
But how can you blame Twitter for the divisive political culture when “we” are the ones generating the content? I’m not sure if I understand how Twitter is systematically dividing the culture. I really don’t think Twitter is the root cause of this. But I may be wrong.
- zeepzeep 5y ago
  The problem is that these sites have optimized their algorithms to show you content which provoke a reaction, they don't care if positive or toxic. At least that's what FB does, dunno about Twitter tbh.
  - invisible 5y ago
    Whenever this topic comes up, I think a lot of people assume this is some elaborate ML algorithm, but I believe it's really just "trending things go up, _sometimes_ categorized and targeted." It's a really basic algorithm that captures the equivalent of groupthink.
  - scarface74 5y ago
    But FB doesn’t randomly put “toxic” content in my feed. It’s because I’m either following “toxic” news originations or someone showed your crazy uncle how to get on line and you accepted his friend request. My feed has pictures of family, dumb non political memes, people talking about sports or “uplifting sayings and scripture verses” (I usually unfollow people who post too much of the latter)
  - el-salvador 5y ago
    > The problem is that these sites have optimized their algorithms to show you content which provoke a reaction, they don't care if positive or toxic. Twitter should learn from Tiktok and Spotify. Their algorithms work very differently. Spotify has allowed me to discover some great songs just by creating a Song Radio from a song I liked. And it has also broadened the genres I listed. And spending 5 minutes on Tiktok's For You Page can help me feel better after a stressful day. On the other hand 5 minutes on Twitter can easily lead to more stress in my case.
danielvaughn 5y ago
It really is absurd. I don't get why the focus is all on FB. I honestly only keep FB around because my family is on it, and sometimes I use FB messenger with my friends. It has zero impact on my life. On the other hand, a single glance into twitter can lead to 2-3 hours of a sustained state of mild rage, and you just feel bad when you finally exit the app.
- umeshunni 5y ago
  The focus is on FB because they are the ones taking ad revenue away from news publishers and traditional media. That gives the media more incentive to publish negative articles about them. When in doubt, follow the money.
  - bduerst 5y ago
    This is poisoning the well because there are legitimate reasons being reported to dislike FB's smarmy practices; it's not all sour grapes from media.
- lariati 5y ago
  Same here. I really feel like I should curate a twitter profile but it is just bad for my mental health. To me, it feels like a small library of really cool books but the library happens to be housed randomly inside of a giant lunatic asylum.
- el-salvador 5y ago
  > On the other hand, a single glance into twitter can lead to 2-3 hours of a sustained state of mild rage, and you just feel bad when you finally exit the app. Definitely. It's really one of the few sites I block using my hosts file when I get a new computer.
samwillis 5y ago
I think the difference is that the toxicity on Twitter is much more visible, it overflows onto everyones timelines, trending topics and in reply’s to celebrities and politicians. On Facebook it’s all “behind closed doors” in groups and on pages. They are both bad, but in very different ways.
mrweasel 5y ago
The most damage Twitter does isn't even Twitters fault. Journalist f-ing love Twitter and believe that everything important is on Twitter, and everything on Twitter is important. News media is becoming the weird echo chamber of journalist talking to journalists, press people and analysts on Twitter and reporting on their Twitter conversations. Some stories are completely missed, due to not being Twitter friendly (to many words, hard to boil down to a tweet). Other non-stories are blow out of proportions because it was big on Twitter, even if no one outside Twitter cares.
screye 5y ago
Twitter aggressively censors anyone without institutional approval. Twitters scratch the elites' backs, so the elites scratch back. Trump was banned from Twitter first. Any one with mildly right wing opinion is insta-banned from twitter. Blue checkmarks are strongly tied to institutional approval and fringe institutional voices are given a megaphone. Twitter perpetuates the current class system. So those in power have no qualms with it.
- AniseAbyss 5y ago
  Trump is part of the elite just not the elite Twitter is part of. You think the elite all think the same? No they have their political differences. But you don't have to cry for him the GOP has its own media empire.
- scarface74 5y ago
  Since when wasn’t someone who is supposedly a billionaire not part of the “elite”?
  - screye 5y ago
    The cultural elite is completely different from having money. It is the same reason that Trump was ridiculed for putting ketchup on steak or why journalists/post-docs are willing to make pennies on jobs that grand them access the cultural elite. I give the example of Trump because he the clearest contrast that differentiates wealth from the elite. Phrases like 'Nouveau Riche' or 'Paise aaye, par aukaad nahi aaye' (money without class) have existed in different cultures for centuries. This is not a new concept.
    - scarface74 5y ago
      Someone who owns private airplanes and golf courses aren’t part of the “cultural elite”? Before Trump’s conversion to a populist in 2016, he was very much part of the cultural elite and spent most of his time hanging out with celebrities and Democrats.

scarface74 5y ago

If your FB newsfeed is toxic, it’s because you have toxic friends.

zeepzeep 5y ago

idk, it's pretty civil in my bubble, though obviously there is some drama every now and then like now (Jonathan Scott ^^)

bobiny 5y ago

It’s easy to mute accounts you don’t want to see on Twitter, even ones shown as ads.

twitterhell 5y ago
If you mute the account, the conversation still happens. So awesome if you dont like a point of view. Terrible if you're gay, female, muslim, or any other hated minority subgroup that gets stalked and slandered on Twitter. If someone is posting slanderous material on Twitter, and you mute it, it isnt a solution. Even if you block it, it barely helps.
- bobiny 5y ago
  I don’t understand. If you don’t want to see what someone says, you can mute or block them. What do you mean by conversation still happens?

stevofolife 5y ago

But how can you blame Twitter for the divisive political culture when “we” are the ones generating the content? I’m not sure if I understand how Twitter is systematically dividing the culture. I really don’t think Twitter is the root cause of this. But I may be wrong.

zeepzeep 5y ago
The problem is that these sites have optimized their algorithms to show you content which provoke a reaction, they don't care if positive or toxic. At least that's what FB does, dunno about Twitter tbh.
- invisible 5y ago
  Whenever this topic comes up, I think a lot of people assume this is some elaborate ML algorithm, but I believe it's really just "trending things go up, _sometimes_ categorized and targeted." It's a really basic algorithm that captures the equivalent of groupthink.
- scarface74 5y ago
  But FB doesn’t randomly put “toxic” content in my feed. It’s because I’m either following “toxic” news originations or someone showed your crazy uncle how to get on line and you accepted his friend request. My feed has pictures of family, dumb non political memes, people talking about sports or “uplifting sayings and scripture verses” (I usually unfollow people who post too much of the latter)
- el-salvador 5y ago
  > The problem is that these sites have optimized their algorithms to show you content which provoke a reaction, they don't care if positive or toxic. Twitter should learn from Tiktok and Spotify. Their algorithms work very differently. Spotify has allowed me to discover some great songs just by creating a Song Radio from a song I liked. And it has also broadened the genres I listed. And spending 5 minutes on Tiktok's For You Page can help me feel better after a stressful day. On the other hand 5 minutes on Twitter can easily lead to more stress in my case.

danielvaughn 5y ago

It really is absurd. I don't get why the focus is all on FB. I honestly only keep FB around because my family is on it, and sometimes I use FB messenger with my friends. It has zero impact on my life. On the other hand, a single glance into twitter can lead to 2-3 hours of a sustained state of mild rage, and you just feel bad when you finally exit the app.

umeshunni 5y ago
The focus is on FB because they are the ones taking ad revenue away from news publishers and traditional media. That gives the media more incentive to publish negative articles about them. When in doubt, follow the money.
- bduerst 5y ago
  This is poisoning the well because there are legitimate reasons being reported to dislike FB's smarmy practices; it's not all sour grapes from media.
lariati 5y ago
Same here. I really feel like I should curate a twitter profile but it is just bad for my mental health. To me, it feels like a small library of really cool books but the library happens to be housed randomly inside of a giant lunatic asylum.
el-salvador 5y ago
> On the other hand, a single glance into twitter can lead to 2-3 hours of a sustained state of mild rage, and you just feel bad when you finally exit the app. Definitely. It's really one of the few sites I block using my hosts file when I get a new computer.

samwillis 5y ago

I think the difference is that the toxicity on Twitter is much more visible, it overflows onto everyones timelines, trending topics and in reply’s to celebrities and politicians. On Facebook it’s all “behind closed doors” in groups and on pages. They are both bad, but in very different ways.

mrweasel 5y ago

The most damage Twitter does isn't even Twitters fault. Journalist f-ing love Twitter and believe that everything important is on Twitter, and everything on Twitter is important. News media is becoming the weird echo chamber of journalist talking to journalists, press people and analysts on Twitter and reporting on their Twitter conversations. Some stories are completely missed, due to not being Twitter friendly (to many words, hard to boil down to a tweet). Other non-stories are blow out of proportions because it was big on Twitter, even if no one outside Twitter cares.

screye 5y ago

Twitter aggressively censors anyone without institutional approval. Twitters scratch the elites' backs, so the elites scratch back. Trump was banned from Twitter first. Any one with mildly right wing opinion is insta-banned from twitter. Blue checkmarks are strongly tied to institutional approval and fringe institutional voices are given a megaphone. Twitter perpetuates the current class system. So those in power have no qualms with it.

AniseAbyss 5y ago
Trump is part of the elite just not the elite Twitter is part of. You think the elite all think the same? No they have their political differences. But you don't have to cry for him the GOP has its own media empire.
scarface74 5y ago
Since when wasn’t someone who is supposedly a billionaire not part of the “elite”?
- screye 5y ago
  The cultural elite is completely different from having money. It is the same reason that Trump was ridiculed for putting ketchup on steak or why journalists/post-docs are willing to make pennies on jobs that grand them access the cultural elite. I give the example of Trump because he the clearest contrast that differentiates wealth from the elite. Phrases like 'Nouveau Riche' or 'Paise aaye, par aukaad nahi aaye' (money without class) have existed in different cultures for centuries. This is not a new concept.
  - scarface74 5y ago
    Someone who owns private airplanes and golf courses aren’t part of the “cultural elite”? Before Trump’s conversion to a populist in 2016, he was very much part of the cultural elite and spent most of his time hanging out with celebrities and Democrats.