37 ms·

IMHO we could all use a little more humility, openness that our convictions may be wrong, openness to additional nuance in our positions, and sympathy for peopl

IMHO we could all use a little more humility, openness that our convictions may be wrong, openness to additional nuance in our positions, and sympathy for people with different opinions. Especially in online discourse. We don’t need tools that catalyze groupthink stratification.

zoul 5y ago
I for one could use a little less madness such as QAnon. It used to amuse me from some theoretical viewpoint, but since it has penetrated mainstream it just drains me.
- number6 5y ago
  My approach was to block the tweet, the author, everyone who liked it and the whole platform on top of it, as it was a huge timesink with net negative, for me. But my viewpoint might be too extreme.
  - zoul 5y ago
    Did the same, use Mastodon now. It cannot replace the good parts of Facebook or Twitter for me, but it’s interesting in its own way and it’s not poison.
  - dspillett 5y ago
    Amateur. I had the sense not to join on the basis that Twitter is to full of the sort of people who like Twitter, preemptively blocking the whole lot! [I jest, a little, I know some find it useful, but I don't feel I've missed anything of significance by staying away from that particular "information" channel]
  - netsharc 5y ago
    I wonder what would happen if I literally block every username on Twitter... Their database will probably not like it.
- AceyMan 5y ago
  isn't this a solved problem with usenet + filters? Newsgroups were a solution before their time it turns out.
mescaline 5y ago
Some of us are important and think we don't need unimportant information in our brains. Some of us are unimportant and think we need important information in our brains and everyone else's too.
- therufa 5y ago
  define important
grapeskin 5y ago
I feel like the people who always use these features spend all day talking about how awful the divide in the world is growing and how there's not enough love, while in another tweet dehumanizing people for petty disagreements. When (not if) the Black Mirror feature of blocking people irl becomes reality, I'm very sure people will be eagerly lining up to block people for having opinions that were somehow wrong, and they'll have no way to ever redeem themselves.
- raziel2p 5y ago
  I think your feeling is wrong in this case. I think it is more aimed at the people who think neo-nazis, incels etc. are lost causes, or at the very least cannot be saved over the internet alone.
  - jedimind 5y ago
    And by pure chance alone, every person such people disagree with happen to be 'neo-nazis, incels etc' right? Not that those labels are ever maliciously applied to shut down a debate and gain upper hand by vilifying the opposing party...
    - sofixa 5y ago
      I don't know, I've yet to see someone called an incel or neo-Nazi where they didn't tick at least the majority of boxes to be qualified as such. It's not like some sort of magic card you can pull out in the majority of discussions.
      - jedimind 5y ago
        I see, you haven't been on reddit yet, lucky you.
  - Levitz 5y ago
    I don't think you can possibly aim this towards ideas, it's just a tool to develop an echo chamber. You can use it to block neonazis, you can use it to block trans activists, it's about dismissing some kind of content either way.
fit2rule 5y ago
ComradePhil 5y ago
We absolutely do. If you know some people are fundamentally wrong, it is absolute waste of time to entertain their world view. Can they still come up with something useful in the distant future? Sure! Can they change given enough time and information? Sure! Can what you think is fundamentally wrong change given enough time and information? Sure! So, you can prune your blocks every news cycle or every 2 years or 5 years or 10 years or whatever you are willing to tolerate. Grouthinking is necessary to build a new ideology, which may sound wrong today but may be the ideology of the future. To build your own groupthink and allow for others to have theirs, it is necessary to have several different independent ones co-exist. While companies like Facebook has helped to some degree, companies like twitter rely on keeping the debate going at all costs which is why tools like this are great.
klodolph 5y ago
Twitter is already a “tool that catalyzes groupthink stratification”, the problem is that you have some high-profile Twitter personalities that weaponize their fanbase against targets of opportunity on Twitter—sometimes unintentionally, other times maliciously. The bad actors on Twitter sometimes get banned but that shouldn’t be the only solution. Blocking a tweet and everyone attached doesn’t just mean that you are removing them from your feed, it means that you are removing yourself from their feed. It means that your tweets won’t get retweeted, tagging the Twitter personality you think is a threat. I don’t know if you’ve ever had something retweeted by a real Twitter personality that hates you. It can basically make the platform unusable for a period of time, or worse.
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zoul 5y ago

I for one could use a little less madness such as QAnon. It used to amuse me from some theoretical viewpoint, but since it has penetrated mainstream it just drains me.

number6 5y ago
My approach was to block the tweet, the author, everyone who liked it and the whole platform on top of it, as it was a huge timesink with net negative, for me. But my viewpoint might be too extreme.
- zoul 5y ago
  Did the same, use Mastodon now. It cannot replace the good parts of Facebook or Twitter for me, but it’s interesting in its own way and it’s not poison.
- dspillett 5y ago
  Amateur. I had the sense not to join on the basis that Twitter is to full of the sort of people who like Twitter, preemptively blocking the whole lot! [I jest, a little, I know some find it useful, but I don't feel I've missed anything of significance by staying away from that particular "information" channel]
- netsharc 5y ago
  I wonder what would happen if I literally block every username on Twitter... Their database will probably not like it.
AceyMan 5y ago
isn't this a solved problem with usenet + filters? Newsgroups were a solution before their time it turns out.

mescaline 5y ago

Some of us are important and think we don't need unimportant information in our brains. Some of us are unimportant and think we need important information in our brains and everyone else's too.

therufa 5y ago
define important

grapeskin 5y ago

I feel like the people who always use these features spend all day talking about how awful the divide in the world is growing and how there's not enough love, while in another tweet dehumanizing people for petty disagreements. When (not if) the Black Mirror feature of blocking people irl becomes reality, I'm very sure people will be eagerly lining up to block people for having opinions that were somehow wrong, and they'll have no way to ever redeem themselves.

raziel2p 5y ago
I think your feeling is wrong in this case. I think it is more aimed at the people who think neo-nazis, incels etc. are lost causes, or at the very least cannot be saved over the internet alone.
- jedimind 5y ago
  And by pure chance alone, every person such people disagree with happen to be 'neo-nazis, incels etc' right? Not that those labels are ever maliciously applied to shut down a debate and gain upper hand by vilifying the opposing party...
  - sofixa 5y ago
    I don't know, I've yet to see someone called an incel or neo-Nazi where they didn't tick at least the majority of boxes to be qualified as such. It's not like some sort of magic card you can pull out in the majority of discussions.
    - jedimind 5y ago
      I see, you haven't been on reddit yet, lucky you.
- Levitz 5y ago
  I don't think you can possibly aim this towards ideas, it's just a tool to develop an echo chamber. You can use it to block neonazis, you can use it to block trans activists, it's about dismissing some kind of content either way.

fit2rule 5y ago

ComradePhil 5y ago

We absolutely do. If you know some people are fundamentally wrong, it is absolute waste of time to entertain their world view. Can they still come up with something useful in the distant future? Sure! Can they change given enough time and information? Sure! Can what you think is fundamentally wrong change given enough time and information? Sure! So, you can prune your blocks every news cycle or every 2 years or 5 years or 10 years or whatever you are willing to tolerate. Grouthinking is necessary to build a new ideology, which may sound wrong today but may be the ideology of the future. To build your own groupthink and allow for others to have theirs, it is necessary to have several different independent ones co-exist. While companies like Facebook has helped to some degree, companies like twitter rely on keeping the debate going at all costs which is why tools like this are great.

klodolph 5y ago

Twitter is already a “tool that catalyzes groupthink stratification”, the problem is that you have some high-profile Twitter personalities that weaponize their fanbase against targets of opportunity on Twitter—sometimes unintentionally, other times maliciously. The bad actors on Twitter sometimes get banned but that shouldn’t be the only solution. Blocking a tweet and everyone attached doesn’t just mean that you are removing them from your feed, it means that you are removing yourself from their feed. It means that your tweets won’t get retweeted, tagging the Twitter personality you think is a threat. I don’t know if you’ve ever had something retweeted by a real Twitter personality that hates you. It can basically make the platform unusable for a period of time, or worse.

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