Should TAN ban MySpace?
Morsecode saved lives social media costs lives.
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I might have missed it but whatās the reason embedded videos canāt be played anymore within the thread like before?
Probably not TAN/Discourse-related but an attempt to drive traffic towards the main Xesspool site?
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Probably. There is another sneaky new thing they are doing of placing unlabelled ads in your feed.
It makes me laugh when Musk people say āremember when everyone said the cuts he was making was going to break the platform?ā ignoring how broken it now is. I routinely have my feed reset while Im in the middle of reading something
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I read a piece at the time who said you will hardly spot the degrading over time but if you go away say for a year and come back youāll notice it.
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I agreed whole heartedā¦ and then opened X in the very next tab to get updated on the daily news. The thing is, I canāt always wait for @Magnus to update the Ukraine or Iran threads or @Livvy to post something so I have to find it and I do so via a carefully curated list of sources that Iāve found is trustworthy, I donāt even look at the āFor Youā tab and the āFollowing Tabā is set to show updates chronologically and I donāt interact with anyone at all. Thus in this way, I find that algorithms have no effect on the news Iām looking for yet even so, I reference any sort of ābigā, weird or funny news with other sources before taking it as fact.
I appreciate that this is akin to a hooded wanderer in an apocalyptic world trying to make sense of it all but it works. For me. Iād prefer entirely that I wouldnāt need to do it but the news networks are either useless, too slow or have their own agendas as well with all the tech bros exhibiting fascist tendencies so with a modicum of common sense and decency on my part (I like to believe), I think Iām personally on an even keel with what I view.
We are fucked, though.
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Isnāt that the crux of it, though? Social media is full of crap and we need someone to curate it. In fact, that is probably the thing I miss from linear broadcast TV and Radio. I donāt necessarily want an algorithm to feed me what is essentially the same content remixed.
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But why the need to be constantly updated? Are you a journalist or an investor? If not, I donāt understand the need to be ahead of the news cycle. If, as you say, every story has to be verified by reliable sources, why not just wait for those sources? It doesnāt really matter whether you are aware of a rumour an hour in advance if itās totally unreliable, does it?
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I donāt need to be I suppose but in fast moving news events, conventional media is found wanting and simply canāt keep up, a point Iāve made before.
Itās also an element of modern culture, I suppose, I multitask constantly and find it difficult to switch off in all honesty.
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Never been on twitter or X but very annoyingly X keep on coming up on my screen,think I know why but it really gives me the shits and guarantees Iāll never have a bar of it.
I understand, and really donāt want to be critical of you personally as youāre clearly a fine bloke, but is there any point in being up to date on half truths?
People like me and RedWhippet grew up in a world where radio and tv were sources of breaking news and when it arrived it was pretty accurate, but really, apart from local catastrophes or truly seismic events like 9/11, does it really matter whether you wait an hour to find out about Trumpās latest u-turn or the latest conflict in a far away land?
Itās probably not great for oneās mental health to be a permanent headline junkie either.
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This is a key point and ultimately rolling ābreaking newsā comes at the cost of sober fact checking, analysis and contextual positioning that was so crucial to the success of reputable news sources in the past.
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Not at all, no worries. Iād like to think with my personal method of consumption itās not really half truths. A filter and a method is required, of course, and careful attention should be paid to whatās being aired and whoās airing it but in a strange way it is quite rewarding as well. So Iām informed, Iād like to think, capable of filtering out bullshit and up to date. Others might wonder ābut whyā but personally, itās the way I like to be. I donāt follow football unless I search for it, btw, thatās a cesspit on its own.
Thereās also other informative aspects of it that I follow, not just to get the news a few hours earlier. For instance, the Auschwitz Memorial account; I spent much of this week reading of Eichmann, Heydrich and lesser known camps such as Sobibor and learned much on a topic that Iād already considered myself quite learned on, all of which I might not have gotten had I not seen a post of theirs.
So yes, I agree social media in itās form as it is is a blight on society. At the same time, I do feel that it also can have much to offer. Unfortunately, as is generally the case, the lowest common denominator takes over and shouts the loudest.
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Although that sort of information is available elsewhere. (They have a detailed website.)
What you want is that potentially interesting content is brought to your attention. There are better ways of doing that.
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I am personally not on X and not even when it was Twitter. But why is there a need to police what others are choosing to consume information from? I get that alot of you feel X is a shithole and you are entitled to that. I can even accept if one day this forum choose to ban whatever media sources. But itās almost as if we are judging people for continuing to use a medium just because you donāt agree with it
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Indeed so, youāre right on both counts. I would say though, that itās impossible to know everything or even know that something might interest you if you donāt see it. Letās use the Holocaust as an example. Before this week, I thought I had a decent enough knowledge of it, and I did. Knowledge Gaines from documentaries, books, films, videos, articles etc to am extent that I rarely now find myself searching for it yet still, a relatively obscure post piqued my interest which took me on a small journey of my own which discovered new aspects to a subject beyond my previous knowledge. Iām also discovering a new emotional side to the Holocaust that previously was not there, that of a husband and a father, a connection that perhaps was missing through my teens and twenties. So yes, all available elsewhere and I could have searched for it on my own and found it but that one random post led me to it where I might not have found the time or inclination to do it on my own.
Social media is vile, vacuous and deplorable at the moment and taken over by bad faith actors in general. One has to walk a careful line to find the value in it but there is such value. Hopefully we can mature as a species so that such a real time, sharing platform can be used for the good of people instead of enflaming hatred and sowing division.
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I grew up in that world too, even as a teenager I would read a newspaper at least a couple of times a week. The football section of guardian and Sunday Times cover to cover. As a young adult I bought a newspaper every day. Today however honesty itās 5+ years since I have read a newspaper.
We saw a vicious cycle decline in newspapers. Lack of independence, being bought by billionaires, and dropping sales meant the quality dropped starkly. Proper journalism was replaced with repurposing pa Reuters report and adding an opinion. We lost the depth in news coverage. A depth TV was never suited to (beyond one off specials).
Another problem with 24 hour news, the media interest in stories became increasingly short term. Something like a war in Ukraine or Gaza today might be primary story for a couple of months, until something else comes along. You might hear nothing on the TV for a few months besides maybe a BBC hardship piece, (normal people caught in the middle, with first half explaining the context of war)
Social media is horrible. At the same time you can find a depth that is missing from other sources. When was the last time you read or saw an update in the Sudan war ? Or the million refugees in Bangladesh or global aid funding collapse?
The other aspect very easy to take for granted media in say the UK. I use a VPN so I can see BBC news or channel 4. Much of the news in NZ is dumbed down, and very insular.
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