4 ms·

Sure, but my point is that you had to actively go out and find it. You didn't get an in-lined feed of social media 'suggested posts' that gradually took you fro

by NamTaf 4y ago

Sure, but my point is that you had to actively go out and find it. You didn't get an in-lined feed of social media 'suggested posts' that gradually took you from being angry at the machine to some radicalised position. My broader point is that you can replace that scenario with just about any subgroup with an extremist representation and it holds. Incels are a prime example. QAnon too. The list goes on. The people who end up extreme in those viewpoints don't start there, they get taken on a journey to there though lots of very marginal successive influences. A social media algorithm is purpose-built to achieve that because it turns out that is the exact same pattern as 'you hovered over a cute cat video once, so we guess you like cats, so we're going tto bombard you with cute cat vids to drive up your engagement'.

PheonixPharts 4y ago
I think another part of the problem is that that social media feed is ultimately still alienating. There's a world of difference between bonding with friend over how stupid and mean other kids are, blowing up your back yard together and laughing about it that night and the tiktok world of just getting angry over a constant stream of other alienated people screaming into the void. Without the companionship you never really get catharsis, just an endless cycle of building up rage and furthering your own sense of alienation.
thrown_22 4y ago
>Sure, but my point is that you had to actively go out and find it. You didn't get an in-lined feed of social media 'suggested posts' that gradually took you from being angry at the machine to some radicalised position. That used to be called talking to friends. If anything social media is less dangerous because the _really_ illegal stuff is not something they can show. Clockwork Orange, the Destructors and Kids were a lot less fiction than people would like to believe today.

by NamTaf 4y ago

PheonixPharts 4y ago

I think another part of the problem is that that social media feed is ultimately still alienating. There's a world of difference between bonding with friend over how stupid and mean other kids are, blowing up your back yard together and laughing about it that night and the tiktok world of just getting angry over a constant stream of other alienated people screaming into the void. Without the companionship you never really get catharsis, just an endless cycle of building up rage and furthering your own sense of alienation.

thrown_22 4y ago

>Sure, but my point is that you had to actively go out and find it. You didn't get an in-lined feed of social media 'suggested posts' that gradually took you from being angry at the machine to some radicalised position. That used to be called talking to friends. If anything social media is less dangerous because the _really_ illegal stuff is not something they can show. Clockwork Orange, the Destructors and Kids were a lot less fiction than people would like to believe today.