Social Media

[Jb85]

Social media….pffft

It generally is about attention seeking knobs trying to make themselves look better trying to portray a perfect life when we all know deep down they are broken individuals

 

[Zeock]

I do have Reddit, Discord (both of those I barely use, perhaps once a week) and a Youtube channel but I haven't got any other social media apps because they simply do not interest me. I definitely prefer forums to social media.

 

[jon81uk]

I do have Reddit, Discord (both of those I barely use, perhaps once a week) and a Youtube channel but I haven't got any other social media apps because they simply do not interest me. I definitely prefer forums to social media.

Reddit isn't really social media, I see it as a collection of forums really. Each sub-reddit is just a forum on a different topic, its not so much about posting your life updates (Facebook) or opinion (Twitter) for everyone to see, as you need to post in a specific sub-reddit against a pre-defined theme (like a forum).

 

[RyanUK]

Just wondering if anyone here uses an iPhone or iPad and has the YouTube app installed? I do - and since December it has had a notifications issue where it keeps telling me the number of unwatched videos. To clear it, you have to go into the app and tap the bell icon. It clears the notification badge but returns again very soon with a stupidly high number. The number has crept up slowly from about 30 to this figure today.

Does anyone else have this problem?

 

[BarryZola]

Personally I don't bother with the app. I just have Youtube bookmarked in my web browser and go into Youtube that way. I'm not sure what benefit the app would bring apart from saving a few seconds and clicks when you want to open it. If it's causing you issues you could consider deleting the app.

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

Just wondering if anyone here uses an iPhone or iPad and has the YouTube app installed? I do - and since December it has had a notifications issue where it keeps telling me the number of unwatched videos. To clear it, you have to go into the app and tap the bell icon. It clears the notification badge but returns again very soon with a stupidly high number. The number has crept up slowly from about 30 to this figure today.

Does anyone else have this problem?

I’ve got various iOS devices and have never seen that on the YouTube so presumably I’ve got notifications turned on my account. If I want to catch up with any new posts I just hit the Subscriptions tab in the app and it shows me recently posted videos by the channels I follow, I find some apps can be a bit too obtrusive or unnecessarily with their notifications sometimes.

 

[Burbs]

Just wondering if anyone here uses an iPhone or iPad and has the YouTube app installed? I do - and since December it has had a notifications issue where it keeps telling me the number of unwatched videos. To clear it, you have to go into the app and tap the bell icon. It clears the notification badge but returns again very soon with a stupidly high number. The number has crept up slowly from about 30 to this figure today.

Does anyone else have this problem?

I get this but then if you’re subscribed to a high number of channels then the number of notifications is likely to creep up pretty quickly. You can always turn notifications off in settings if it annoys you.

 

[jon81uk]

You can always turn notifications off in settings if it annoys you.

I have very very few apps allowed to show the notification count badge.

 

[Matt N]

Just wondering if anyone here uses an iPhone or iPad and has the YouTube app installed? I do - and since December it has had a notifications issue where it keeps telling me the number of unwatched videos. To clear it, you have to go into the app and tap the bell icon. It clears the notification badge but returns again very soon with a stupidly high number. The number has crept up slowly from about 30 to this figure today.

Does anyone else have this problem?

I use YouTube on my iPad, and I certainly don’t have this problem. Have you got the bell turned on for a number of channels or something?

My notifications number just seems to clear when I view the Notifications tab.

 

[Rick]

I feel like a philistine reading this conversation. I use YouTube in private mode, not signed in. Search what I want to see, watch it and leave.

I used to have YouTube premium and subscribed to the odd channel, but found that if you don't have enough self control you can lose days watching absolute nonsense, but not so much now.

 

[RyanUK]

I get this but then if you’re subscribed to a high number of channels then the number of notifications is likely to creep up pretty quickly. You can always turn notifications off in settings if it annoys you.

I’m not logged into YouTube or subscribed to any channels. I don’t really want to go adjusting my iOS settings either.

However, one thing I’ve noticed today is they’re all recommended videos. I might turn off the recommendation notifications and see if that helps.

 

[Burbs]

I don’t really want to go adjusting my iOS settings either.

You can change notification settings for individual apps without changing anything else.

 

[RyanUK]

Yeah, I’m an iOS whizz, however I feel reluctant to adjust the setting because YouTube can’t address the app issues, and it’s had updates since Christmas. Seems a little petty but my attitude is it’s their problem so they fix it (YouTube’s problem).

 

[Matt N]

Sorry to bump this thread, but I've been having some thoughts about social media lately. And I was wondering; am I the only one who's started to grow increasingly cynical towards social media as of late? Is it just me getting older, or has something changed in the social media landscape in recent years?

Even just a few years ago, I would have been a staunch defender of social media against some of the more cynical types in discussions like these. I've never really been an overly prolific social media user, and there are a number of social media sites I have never dipped my toes into, but I have a Facebook account, and I got somewhat into it for a period. I saw many benefits of social media and few drawbacks. I felt that having these sites that allowed you to connect with family and friends and like-minded people were brilliant, and that social media did so many brilliant things.

But lately... I don't know. I feel like the mask has slipped from social media for me recently, and despite only being 21, I'm finding myself feeling increasingly out of touch with the modern social media landscape and not really understanding it.

I once used to enjoy looking through my News Feed on Facebook, but it's started to become increasingly irrelevant and dull for me. If I scroll through my News Feed now, I have very few posts from friends or pages I follow these days, and most of it is random meme pages and AI-generated stuff related to things I've either never looked at or might have vaguely showed interest in once. I have an account on Twitter/X, but have never posted, and while I admittedly find it useful for updates on fast-developing situations on occasion, I just find that it's so... hateful whenever I look at it in any depth. Most places on Twitter seem to just be laced with hate and anger, and it just seems like a horribly angry and unforgiving space to engage in. And if I'm being completely honest, I've never understood some of the other newer ones or felt any desire to engage in them. I don't really understand TikTok, or the current craze for short form content more generally, at all if I'm honest. It just looks like short videos of people dancing to jaunty music, and personally, I don't really understand it. It's the same with the likes of Snapchat and Instagram as well.

On the contrary, I am admittedly partial to a good bit of YouTube. I have a definite list of YouTubers I enjoy watching, and I do generally find it enjoyable. While I don't have an account, I'll also admit to finding Reddit quite an entertaining and informative read on certain topics. An occasional browse through Reddit is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. But even with these two, which aren't quite as much along the lines of "conventional" social media networks and are somewhat less "personality"-based, I'm finding myself increasingly noticing the pitfalls and annoyances. I watch YouTube less than I used to, and with Reddit, I sometimes find that elements of that lack of forgiveness and anger from the likes of Twitter can creep into it.

Going away from specific sites, there also are a couple of observations I've begun to notice about social media in general, and the influence of it more widely upon the world, as of late.

Firstly, I've begun to realise that I think social media has made the world more binary and unforgiving. In years gone by, I feel like you were more able to have a constructive, balanced debate, see nuance and calmly critique the opinions of others without things getting too heated, even on relatively controversial topics. On sites like this one, I think you can still do that to a degree, which is one of the main things that keeps me coming back here! But I feel like people today are more immersed in their own echo chamber and less able to deal with people who don't agree with them, and because of this, people have become afraid of others who disagree with them even slightly and treat them like an enemy. So many areas of discourse have become so binary and angry lately, and it feels increasingly like you're forced to "take a side" and dogmatically agree with everything that "side" believes. In political debate, for example, you're either a "woke lefty progressive" or a "far right fascist" with no in between. In debates around gender identity, you're either a "gender critical TERF" or a "trans rights activist" with no in between. There are so many other areas where this has happened that I could reference. I feel like this two-sided nature and blind dogmatic support of "your side" has stifled constructive and balanced debate around topics, and I almost entirely blame this on social media. I think the likes of Twitter and Facebook, and the algorithms that feed you only what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear, have a lot to answer for in this regard. On a somewhat related note, I've also come to blame this social media driven black-and-white echo chamber on other things, such as the rampant spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories and lack of fact-checking.

I've also grown to realise that there's a certain level of... fakeness, for lack of a better term, about certain social networks. For a brief period in my mid to late teens, I tried partaking in the more "performative" side of Facebook to a small extent, as I felt like I had to to win kudos with people. I had my misgivings about this at the time, and after a period, I realised that it just wasn't the real me. I didn't feel comfortable doing it, I didn't know who it was benefitting, and it all felt very fake. Now I'm less focused on chasing likes (and honestly never post at all and don't even read that often), I feel happier and like my interactions with people are more "genuine", for lack of a better term, and reflective of the person I really am. Increasingly, it seems like some of the posts from friends I do see on my Facebook feed seem similarly fake, and some people post things along the lines of "Let's see who my real friends are. Comment below if you're my real friend" (I have never posted anything like this). With posts like these, I think to myself "Wouldn't you know who your real friends are without needing them to comment it to you on Facebook?".

I don't deny that social media is brilliant in many ways, and has done some brilliant things. But I feel like I'm starting to see downsides to it a lot more nowadays... does anyone else feel similarly? Or is it just me getting older and more out of touch?

 

[Benzin]

100% on the "fakeness" and "everything is binary" situations across social media.

Look at the aftermath of Brexit. Or any recent vote. There's absolutely zero nuance to it these days. "My team won therefore your views are worthless".

Then they realise that their own team played them for the idiots they are. But some perform impressive feats of mental gymnastics to ensure they still "win".

But as we see across a number of fandoms, negativity sells. So we end up with a load of clickbait that is often based across the latest craze (currently "wokeism", not that anyone can truly explain what that truly means) that leads to people continuing to be entrenched in their views because the algorithm pushes the things that they watch to them.

Take the recent Witcher 4 announcement trailer showing the protagonist being a female who has had a MASSIVE presence in the series. Suddenly it's woke, because it's no longer a male character. See similarly games where the female characters aren't the pre-determined ideal of "hot" like the Horizon games.

People are just toxic and social media bubbles have only exacerbated this. Just have to see the dreadful amount of family channels (which essentially evidence their own child abuse) and fake doctors or whatever pushing some nonsense like raw milk is better for you. The wingnuts of the world were given a platform where they can remove those being "negative" or "afraid of their challenging views against the so-called experts" and embrace those willing to risk their lives.

Critical thinking is dead. And I'd probably attribute social media's descent into this being from when monetary capabilities were possible. Hence why certain people who once had a particular worldwide have "changed" to suit a more income based one.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

Sorry to bump this thread, but I've been having some thoughts about social media lately. And I was wondering; am I the only one who's started to grow increasingly cynical towards social media as of late? Is it just me getting older, or has something changed in the social media landscape in recent years?

Even just a few years ago, I would have been a staunch defender of social media against some of the more cynical types in discussions like these. I've never really been an overly prolific social media user, and there are a number of social media sites I have never dipped my toes into, but I have a Facebook account, and I got somewhat into it for a period. I saw many benefits of social media and few drawbacks. I felt that having these sites that allowed you to connect with family and friends and like-minded people were brilliant, and that social media did so many brilliant things.

But lately... I don't know. I feel like the mask has slipped from social media for me recently, and despite only being 21, I'm finding myself feeling increasingly out of touch with the modern social media landscape and not really understanding it.

I once used to enjoy looking through my News Feed on Facebook, but it's started to become increasingly irrelevant and dull for me. If I scroll through my News Feed now, I have very few posts from friends or pages I follow these days, and most of it is random meme pages and AI-generated stuff related to things I've either never looked at or might have vaguely showed interest in once. I have an account on Twitter/X, but have never posted, and while I admittedly find it useful for updates on fast-developing situations on occasion, I just find that it's so... hateful whenever I look at it in any depth. Most places on Twitter seem to just be laced with hate and anger, and it just seems like a horribly angry and unforgiving space to engage in. And if I'm being completely honest, I've never understood some of the other newer ones or felt any desire to engage in them. I don't really understand TikTok, or the current craze for short form content more generally, at all if I'm honest. It just looks like short videos of people dancing to jaunty music, and personally, I don't really understand it. It's the same with the likes of Snapchat and Instagram as well.

On the contrary, I am admittedly partial to a good bit of YouTube. I have a definite list of YouTubers I enjoy watching, and I do generally find it enjoyable. While I don't have an account, I'll also admit to finding Reddit quite an entertaining and informative read on certain topics. An occasional browse through Reddit is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. But even with these two, which aren't quite as much along the lines of "conventional" social media networks and are somewhat less "personality"-based, I'm finding myself increasingly noticing the pitfalls and annoyances. I watch YouTube less than I used to, and with Reddit, I sometimes find that elements of that lack of forgiveness and anger from the likes of Twitter can creep into it.

Going away from specific sites, there also are a couple of observations I've begun to notice about social media in general, and the influence of it more widely upon the world, as of late.

Firstly, I've begun to realise that I think social media has made the world more binary and unforgiving. In years gone by, I feel like you were more able to have a constructive, balanced debate, see nuance and calmly critique the opinions of others without things getting too heated, even on relatively controversial topics. On sites like this one, I think you can still do that to a degree, which is one of the main things that keeps me coming back here! But I feel like people today are more immersed in their own echo chamber and less able to deal with people who don't agree with them, and because of this, people have become afraid of others who disagree with them even slightly and treat them like an enemy. So many areas of discourse have become so binary and angry lately, and it feels increasingly like you're forced to "take a side" and dogmatically agree with everything that "side" believes. In political debate, for example, you're either a "woke lefty progressive" or a "far right fascist" with no in between. In debates around gender identity, you're either a "gender critical TERF" or a "trans rights activist" with no in between. There are so many other areas where this has happened that I could reference. I feel like this two-sided nature and blind dogmatic support of "your side" has stifled constructive and balanced debate around topics, and I almost entirely blame this on social media. I think the likes of Twitter and Facebook, and the algorithms that feed you only what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear, have a lot to answer for in this regard. On a somewhat related note, I've also come to blame this social media driven black-and-white echo chamber on other things, such as the rampant spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories and lack of fact-checking.

I've also grown to realise that there's a certain level of... fakeness, for lack of a better term, about certain social networks. For a brief period in my mid to late teens, I tried partaking in the more "performative" side of Facebook to a small extent, as I felt like I had to to win kudos with people. I had my misgivings about this at the time, and after a period, I realised that it just wasn't the real me. I didn't feel comfortable doing it, I didn't know who it was benefitting, and it all felt very fake. Now I'm less focused on chasing likes (and honestly never post at all and don't even read that often), I feel happier and like my interactions with people are more "genuine", for lack of a better term, and reflective of the person I really am. Increasingly, it seems like some of the posts from friends I do see on my Facebook feed seem similarly fake, and some people post things along the lines of "Let's see who my real friends are. Comment below if you're my real friend" (I have never posted anything like this). With posts like these, I think to myself "Wouldn't you know who your real friends are without needing them to comment it to you on Facebook?".

I don't deny that social media is brilliant in many ways, and has done some brilliant things. But I feel like I'm starting to see downsides to it a lot more nowadays... does anyone else feel similarly? Or is it just me getting older and more out of touch?

The social media landscape really starting shifting in the early 2010s, once the VC investors and Wall Street started to demand their pound of flesh and these companies needed to start to make a profit.

In the case of Facebook and Twitter, engagement sells. You need to keep people using your app for as long as possible, in order to sell advertising at the highest amount. Facebook had shockingly low user engagement around 2013/2014, which was a problem for them. Infamously the app/network with the highest amount of user engagement was Grindr. (How long are people actively spending using your app every day). Facebook, and Instagram, only totted up around 40 minutes on average per day. Grindr was clocking up several hours.

This was when the apps switched from realtime news feeds, to algorithmically driven feeds. No longer were you seeing what your friends, and those you were following, published in realtime. Instead you would see a curated feed based on what was most likely to get you to stick around longer. What would get you to comment, what would get you to share.

Very quickly political interest groups realised how to game the algorithms, as did a few online outlets like BuzzFeed and Breitbart. Eventually online influencers also worked out what was likely to get them in your feed, but importantly everyone was trying to get your attention. This lead to the dawn of "fake news" and "misinformation" and the meds which existed on the internet from about 2015 until 2023.

During this period there was increased pressure on the social networks to intervene, to moderate their content, to wrest control. Hearings were held in Congress and Parliament on foreign state interference in elections, through social media leveraging, as well as on the harms to individuals and questions around freedom of speech.

Facebook's approach to this increased pressure to moderate, and to wrestle control of its social network, was to start to rely heavily on AI generated content. It's much more brand safe to push content which can't be problematic, and which you internally generate, based on over a decade of user information.

Twitter's approach, before Musk, was to deplatform and moderate. Musk doubled down on "free speech", he tweaked the algorithm even more to promote extreme ideas into your feed to prompt a reaction and it left to a schism. X's user engagement figures remain as high as ever, but it's had an exodus of advertiser's and users.

TikTok isn't without its own problems. Earlier this week an appeals court rejected ByteDance's objections to Congress's "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act". The law will force TikTok's parent company to sell TikTok, or risk it closing down for good in the US, by January 17th 2025.

TikTok is likely to seek an injunction to allow it to operate whilst it asks the Supreme Court to consider an appeal, but there's no guarantee that the Supreme Court will take the case and, if it does, it has a history of ceding to Congress on matters of national security.

We're in a dawn now where "broadcast" social media is possibly coming to an end. The type of social media where you push out content to the widest possible audience. We're seeing a shift in peer-to-peer social media instead. Discord, WhstsApp, Snapchat (to a degree), Telegram and other private messengers will be the new battle grounds. Presuming we're not all chatting to AI chatbots for all of our online social interactions.

 

[Matt.GC]

It was always going to lead to this. It's only more pronounced now due to it's increased popularity.

From a personal point of view, I would recommend not using it. Sure, I enjoy a bit of YouTube, I have WhatsApp but basically use it as a convenient text message service only, and I maintain a Facebook account for 2 main reasons but never use it. But that's as far as it goes (this forum doesn't count as it's moderated in my eyes).

Musk's propaganda platform is fast becoming a niche echo chamber. If people with self respect abandon Social Media platforms then they either die or change. It really irks me the amount of people that complain about how terrible they are, yet still use them. As if they're essential, like some sort of necessity.

I find that odd. There was a life before all this crap, and there will be a life beyond it. It just seems like such a stressful existence keeping up with all this stuff for no benefit. Why would you want to wind yourself up like that? Leave the gas lighters to talk amongst themselves, and get on with your life.