4 ms·
It’s easier to be nontoxic when you don’t have to confront the evidence contrary to your echo chamber
by pmarreck 2y ago
It’s easier to be nontoxic when you don’t have to confront the evidence contrary to your echo chamber
- SanjayMehta 2y agoTheir concept of shared blocklists is quite fascinating; designed to reinforce group think.
- gspr 2y agoWould you call it the same when a bunch of your friends recommend you stay away from someone? Or the opposite, introduce you to someone they like?
- themaninthedark 2y agoOnly for the most part; people online aren't my friends, there is not enough interaction/depth of interaction to get to really know them and being online tends to turn people into fuckwads(1). They just happen to be you're kind of fuckwads. (1)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_disinhibition_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_disinhibition_effect
- SanjayMehta 2y agoThat’s a stretch. It’s well accepted that people tend to be more unpleasant online, and text doesn’t translate nuance well enough to avoid misunderstandings, no matter how many emojis are assigned to the task.
- intended 2y agoBlocklists are used by women quite extensively, to block everything from specific terms to specific harassers and specific communities and topics.
- pmarreck 2y agoBeing put on a shared blocklist isn't a "stay away from this person"; it's a "tell these thousand people to stay away from these other thousand people regardless of actual basis, because 1 person got offended"
- moomin 2y agoActually, shared blocklists originated in the desire to avoid harassment. You can make a case for that being group think if you like, but I doubt you'll convince me.
- SanjayMehta 2y agoI think your statement is the very definition of group think. One person makes a blocklist and everyone else blindly adopts it.
- pseudalopex 2y agoMany people make block lists. And asserting people adopt them blindly is begging the question.
- pmarreck 2y agoIf this answer is satire, it is very clever. In practice, shared blocklists are not utilized to stop harassment, they are utilized to enforce ideological conformity and lack of critical-thinking
- diggan 2y agoSince moderation of some sort is pretty essential on the open web today, you can either subscribe to the "group think" of the platform you're currently using (like X/Twitter today), or you could do it the Bluesky way, let people chose what blocklists to follow. As someone who generally don't do blocklists/mutes/blocking much at all, I know what approach I prefer. I like that people have a choice at least, compared to the alternative approaches.
- konart 2y agoLivejournal had (has?) this concept for 15-20 years. Just saying.
- TMWNN 2y ago>Livejournal had (has?) this concept for 15-20 years. ... and became irrelevant about 20 years ago.
- aaron695 2y ago[dead]
- akie 2y agoEveryone can join BlueSky, so why wouldn't they need to confront opposing "evidence"?
- calamity_elf 2y agovery easy to block and filter to your tastes.
- akie 2y agoAs far as I know you can deliberately choose who you follow (like on Twitter) and which algorithm you use to compose your feed (unlike Twitter). It gives me more power to decide what is important to me and what isn't. How is that not an improvement?
- bakugo 2y agoTry joining and posting any political statements that aren't strictly far-left, and you'll find out why pretty fast.
- the_real_cher 2y agoJoin until banned for some wrong thing post
- i-LINK 2y agoAn echo chamber, also known as "a community" or "having friends," is basically how most human interaction worked before the Web popularized constant, context-collapsed arguing with various types of reactionaries, conspiracy theorists, bio-essentialists, "race realists," "climate skeptics," etc., about which "evidence" sounds or feels the most correct (rather than what evidence is actually provably correct).
- pmarreck 2y agoFair enough. I suppose that's one way to look at it. Except perhaps greatly-magnified online.
- mrighele 2y agoI think it is the opposite. When you are in your echo chamber you don't realize that your view is toxic because what you get is positive feedback and think that it is in fact "normal". Bluesky has plenty of toxic communities (e.g. the trans one), but hey are on the "good side" of the political spectrum so they get a pass.
- pmarreck 2y agoYeah, that's exactly the problem I'm referring to.