In light of the Facebook whistleblower revelations, I'm surprised no one has started a thread about social media. So...
Disclosure: TheologyWeb is my only social media account. My wife is on Facebook.
The premise of Facebook is good but the execution seems to have gone badly. After watching if for a few years, it certainly seems to me that the only thing Mr. Zuckerberg cares about is money and the more of it he has, the better. The last ads I saw on TV for Facebook emphasized finding friends with common interests. Certainly listening to my wife describe what she sees, it doesn't seem to work that way. I can't recall her saying anything about here's a nice group to join up with. What I hear about are ads, her soap opera updates, a picture posted by an artist friend, and the occasional message from a friend. It doesn't seem real positive nor does it make me eager to sign up.
Then there is the general trend in social media that outrage gets liked or attention. I even see this on TheologyWeb. While there are exceptions, once a thread gets past 20 to 30 posts, it's highly likely to have devolved into a name-calling, ad hominin attacking exchange that does nothing to improve anyone's life. There do seem to be some people who more often than not prefer to fight rather than discuss. Its probably a cause (not the only cause by any means) of why our society has become more polarized.
So what should be done? As much as I'm not a fan of government regulation, it's obvious to me that Facebook (and the others) won't regulate themselves. It's time for the government to start regulating social media. Probably not on content, but on privacy and how they emphasis or hide posts. I'm not thrilled with the idea of based on truth because today's misinformation can turn into tomorrow's fact. I'm not overly familiar with the European rules or California's but they might be a place to start.
Also maybe they need to start regulating the algorithms. I work in the financial world and I've read discussion about how the regulators are going after banks who do loan approvals or declines by a computer algorithm. For example, regulate the algorithms so companies are punished if they cause teen girls to get links to diet products or anorexics sites,
Yes, it will be a mess and tricky to get right. But the current system isn't working.
Disclosure: TheologyWeb is my only social media account. My wife is on Facebook.
The premise of Facebook is good but the execution seems to have gone badly. After watching if for a few years, it certainly seems to me that the only thing Mr. Zuckerberg cares about is money and the more of it he has, the better. The last ads I saw on TV for Facebook emphasized finding friends with common interests. Certainly listening to my wife describe what she sees, it doesn't seem to work that way. I can't recall her saying anything about here's a nice group to join up with. What I hear about are ads, her soap opera updates, a picture posted by an artist friend, and the occasional message from a friend. It doesn't seem real positive nor does it make me eager to sign up.
Then there is the general trend in social media that outrage gets liked or attention. I even see this on TheologyWeb. While there are exceptions, once a thread gets past 20 to 30 posts, it's highly likely to have devolved into a name-calling, ad hominin attacking exchange that does nothing to improve anyone's life. There do seem to be some people who more often than not prefer to fight rather than discuss. Its probably a cause (not the only cause by any means) of why our society has become more polarized.
So what should be done? As much as I'm not a fan of government regulation, it's obvious to me that Facebook (and the others) won't regulate themselves. It's time for the government to start regulating social media. Probably not on content, but on privacy and how they emphasis or hide posts. I'm not thrilled with the idea of based on truth because today's misinformation can turn into tomorrow's fact. I'm not overly familiar with the European rules or California's but they might be a place to start.
Also maybe they need to start regulating the algorithms. I work in the financial world and I've read discussion about how the regulators are going after banks who do loan approvals or declines by a computer algorithm. For example, regulate the algorithms so companies are punished if they cause teen girls to get links to diet products or anorexics sites,
Yes, it will be a mess and tricky to get right. But the current system isn't working.
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