Soldato
With all the furore over the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal, do you believe that social media has been a network positive or negative on the world?
Would it be possible to create a poll?
Would it be possible to create a poll?
Has social media been a net positive or negative on the world?
- Thread starter mrochester
- Start date
Caporegime
Bit of both, I grew up with 'social networkong'.....AOL, chat forums, faceparty, msn messenger, MySpace, Facebook and a few others,met some great people on them and have some lovely friendships.
I do believe however that lately (last few years) it appears to be taking over people's lives, quite literally can't even sit there without resisting the urge to open up facebook or Instagram (or any other equivalent, inuring these forums for instance)...it's quite sad really.
Saw two people walking along together earlier, clearly with eachother, just walking both with their necks at 90degree angles staring at heir phones.
I do believe however that lately (last few years) it appears to be taking over people's lives, quite literally can't even sit there without resisting the urge to open up facebook or Instagram (or any other equivalent, inuring these forums for instance)...it's quite sad really.
Saw two people walking along together earlier, clearly with eachother, just walking both with their necks at 90degree angles staring at heir phones.
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Positive when it first started becoming big with MySpace, Bebo, the start of Facebook, etc. But now it is an absolute disaster. People don't speak to each other anymore, privacy is dead and these companies are using our personal data against us, and now people tend to go straight to Twitter or their other app of choice to accuse others of things in the public eye rather than go to the police. I bet it's ruined a lot of lives over the years.
positive news doesn't sell, when you're bombarded for years with negative new constantly that's how you tend to think. look at all the anti EU lies people still believe after decades. in other words gutter press is still far worse and social media has huge benefits as well as large negatives.
and governments should do far more with data protection that they are currently doing, eu has introduced some great laws over the last few years. trouble is laws never move fast enough.
and governments should do far more with data protection that they are currently doing, eu has introduced some great laws over the last few years. trouble is laws never move fast enough.
Add to this that Twitter is being used as a credible news source and I think you've hit the nail on the head.
Soldato
I would say almost completely negative. Epeenism, lies and false representation bombarded at you from a thousand people you either no longer know or never actually liked. Its like being boiled alive in a vat of happy lies and meaningless quizzes whilst you know that everyone else' on there has a life as **** as yours.
Soldato
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- 17 Jun 2012
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Absolutely negative, it started out as harmless novelty and has been turned into a massive all encompassing propaganda tool for devious people.
If there were a switch then I'd flick it off without a moments hesitation.
If there were a switch then I'd flick it off without a moments hesitation.
Man of Honour
Absolutely brilliant.
I run two Facebook sites with 1000s of members where bands & Landlords advertise their gigs and another site where you can sell/trade musical instruments.
I also run a private family site (I have a massive family) where we all keep in touch and share photos.
I run two Facebook sites with 1000s of members where bands & Landlords advertise their gigs and another site where you can sell/trade musical instruments.
I also run a private family site (I have a massive family) where we all keep in touch and share photos.
I think you must have that wrong, it's only good for showing off and posting quizzes, there's no do not accept button for random invites/friends etc.
Soldato
Facebook - fairly negative I'm afraid. It brings out the narcissistic side of people in that I'll ignore some of the people's walls. Think you can mute them while keeping them as friends. Also, I don't like that Facebook doesn't have a structure i.e. I post something, then I have great difficulty finding that post again, plus I don't know where my posts will end up. Also, I find it difficult to quickly locate pages that I have 'liked'. I have to go to my own wall, then click on 'likes', then I have to scroll down several pages worth to find my liked pages. I'll post this much for now but might start my own "Facebook for dummies" thread in the future. The main positive of Facebook though is groups. I can pin those to the left hand side of the page for ease of access and I use them like forums although the groups aren't threaded and structured like forums are.
Forums - mostly positive. I like that they are structured and threaded, and that it is easy to find your own posts. It's more personal as well as you actually get written responses, not just 'likes' or 'thumbs up'.
deviantART - again mostly positive. This is because it is structured in that everyone have their own page, a gallery attached to it, and favourites folders which is equivalent to Facebook likes. That's another reason why I don't like Facebook is that I can't group my likes into a gallery like you can on deviantART. I want to be able to find art / drawings / crafts that I have previously liked and have them grouped in a graphical way like on dA.
Twitter, Instagram, MySpace, Snapchat, Pinterest - N/A, not on any of those.
YouTube - the best! Again it's the structure of the site, having your own videos listed graphically in a grid, seeing other users' videos in a grid and being able to build playlists and see other people's playlist. Also, the comments section is usually constructive on the videos that I watch. If there are trolls, then I just ignore them.
Forums - mostly positive. I like that they are structured and threaded, and that it is easy to find your own posts. It's more personal as well as you actually get written responses, not just 'likes' or 'thumbs up'.
deviantART - again mostly positive. This is because it is structured in that everyone have their own page, a gallery attached to it, and favourites folders which is equivalent to Facebook likes. That's another reason why I don't like Facebook is that I can't group my likes into a gallery like you can on deviantART. I want to be able to find art / drawings / crafts that I have previously liked and have them grouped in a graphical way like on dA.
Twitter, Instagram, MySpace, Snapchat, Pinterest - N/A, not on any of those.
YouTube - the best! Again it's the structure of the site, having your own videos listed graphically in a grid, seeing other users' videos in a grid and being able to build playlists and see other people's playlist. Also, the comments section is usually constructive on the videos that I watch. If there are trolls, then I just ignore them.
Caporegime
Mostly positive.
It gives everyone a voice which is still an amazing acheivment.
It also gives everyone a voice which is an amazing negative.
It gives everyone a voice which is still an amazing acheivment.
It also gives everyone a voice which is an amazing negative.
Bit of a mixed bag, definitely in the early days and possibly for teens now it's a good thing, although cyber bullying seems more rife. Nowdays you can't have fun on Facebook anymore it's become too serious and if you say the wrong thing you can even jeopardize your career etc. Twitter is good for some aspects like keeping up to date with sports but it's again too serious and shouldn't be used for news. In my opinion the verified real accounts should be removed so it can be more fun. Of course there's privacy too which is definitely worse and the amount of shared personal data is mental.
Soldato
Absolutely this.
Well it's changed a bit from Friends Reunited when people would tentatively put their name down on a profile. One or two would add a few lines about what they were doing. Before the Internet when you left school and moved away you probably wouldn't hear from anyone again apart from say at a 10/20 year reunion party or the like if you went. You would only know one or two close friends if you had any.
Now people post anything and everything.
Is it really a good thing, hard to judge really. I think it's overrated and should be seen as a gimmick. I also think it's forced governments to become more transparent. All about instant knowledge and communication. The Internet certainly was a lot more fun before SN'ing as hardly anybody used it.
Probably got good and bad aspects to it. I would imagine it puts a lot more pressure on teenagers to fit in and look trendy or look like your popular and gave loads of friends. Who knows.
Now people post anything and everything.
Is it really a good thing, hard to judge really. I think it's overrated and should be seen as a gimmick. I also think it's forced governments to become more transparent. All about instant knowledge and communication. The Internet certainly was a lot more fun before SN'ing as hardly anybody used it.
Probably got good and bad aspects to it. I would imagine it puts a lot more pressure on teenagers to fit in and look trendy or look like your popular and gave loads of friends. Who knows.
do they? or is it a subset of people, people im friends with do not in any shape or way post everything.
Social media rather than being inherently bad, shows up society for what it is, and it shows clear failings in the education system. The inability for people to evaluate sources of information is an embarrassment to schooling.
Man of Honour
More negative than positive. In fact, very little positive imo
To quote Ricky Gervais (I know he's popular on here
), it's bought us in to an era where being popular is more important than being right. And where people don't care about the argument, but who's giving the argument, and if they don't like them then they're automatically wrong.
"My opinion is worth more than your fact"
To quote Ricky Gervais (I know he's popular on here
), it's bought us in to an era where being popular is more important than being right. And where people don't care about the argument, but who's giving the argument, and if they don't like them then they're automatically wrong."My opinion is worth more than your fact"
Bit of both. As a tool it's undoubtedly useful, it's just people that's the problem. Although I suppose it's easy to ignore the incessant attention seekers.
It's like anything. A tool, it's up to you how you use it. I just personally prefer not to use it.
It's like anything. A tool, it's up to you how you use it. I just personally prefer not to use it.