Social Media - is it really a good thing?

[City Hobgoblin]

About 30% good

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

. . . . . .

An example being that the algorithms work to direct people to topics that will purposely antagonize you. If you get angry or pissed off you are far more likely to continuously respond to a heated debate you are having with someone than you would a positive interaction. Ergo the idea of social media actually being a negative thing in your life.

. . . . . .

This seems to cover half the topics on BM. What are you upto, Ric?

 

[stonerblue]

I have a facebook business page and it has done wonders for my visibility. Most of my posts reach 3k people which is far more than the traditional advertising i used to buy.
My fb personal page gets friend requests every day, and every day i ignore them. I just interact with my family very close friends and that's usually through pm's.
Twitter confuses the shit out of me whenever i see stuff on here that others post.

 

[richardtheref]

When I worked for an insurance company we caught about 66% of fraudulent claims via Facebook. The amount of people who said they had never met another person involved in the accident and then found out via FB was amazing. How stupid are some people.
One even left open a conversation where they talked about how they were going to scam the insurers.

 

[Fame Monster]

No, get them regulated so they're not used as propaganda tools and get them paying tax.

 

[Magicpole]

Its like the invention of wheel. That allowed tanks and they killed people, British Leyalnd cars to humiliate people and programmes like the Wheel of fortune to be made and Rui every Sunday in my house. Its here, it aint going away and we need to try and control it more and reduce the abuses.

 

[crooky]

I think it's pretty much universally accepted that it isn't a good thing.

But there was a guy in the local neighbourhood who has severe dementia that went missing the other day. People put posts on Facebook etc and within a few hours he'd been found.

Not sure that would've been possible without access to social media so it does have its good points.

 

[JRockBlues]

Like everything in life it has its good and bad parts. As long as you don't get too invested with it then there's no harm.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

I used Twitter mainly for work reasons. I only really follow other professionals, but I occasionally use it to see what's trending, especially after incidents in the football. Never actually post my political views on there though, firstly because I use my real name, and secondly, because it's designed to not allow people to debate properly or with any nuance.

But yeah, why anyone would want every fleeting thought about the news of the day publicly available under their real name is beyond me. I'm sure I've said some things I regret in the past, but I did so anonymously. I'm the same on Facebook. It's for chatting with my friends and let my mum see my photos. That's it.

 

[peoffrey]

Someone once quipped that Facebook was full of people you wish you didn't know and Twitter full of people you wish you did.

The internet has made everyone think they're a player these days. Look at LinkedIn profiles and the shit people claim they do. Job titles etc.