Okay, so since I've had this on my mind since my recent announcement on
twitter that I was fucking off from that hellsite - I wanted to open a discussion on Social Media and if it's had a overall positive or negative impact on society as a whole, as opposed to how it was before with basic IM services, IRC, and web forums / BBSes.

On one hand, social media has brought people from around the world together
in common interests, allowed for a more rapid spread of information and
overall helped bring about a lot of good in the world, such as helping those
in need, rallying people together for worthy causes and donating to the downtrodden and to initatives to help others.

On the other, it's polarized - at least in the west, as far as I can see, people politically, even me (hence why I left before the hatred took hold as
it were) - people have become dehumanized by others just for having a
different opinion at worst, and at best, for engaging in questionble
behavior. It's been used as a tool to cause unrest either for the sake of
clout or for the sake of benefactors behind closed doors. Sites like Twitter and Facebook are explicitly guilty of taking a side in this polarization and ergo have potentially caused years, if not decades worth of socio-political damage by feeding hatred from both sides of the coin and letting it all
breed. People have been attacked and lost their jobs due to hate mobs that
are driven by virulence and not reason or any semblence of sympathy.

I can't help but see it more as a net negative than a positive, as these platforms I feel have done more harm than good in relation to the stability
of society as a whole. It's driven us apart more than brought us together,
and for that reason alone I can't stand being there any longer, lest I become the very demon I seek to see destroyed.

But.. what's your all's take on it?

Born too late to experience the scene.
Born just in time to see it come back.
Nodoka Hanamura - NeoCincinnati BBS SYSOP - neocinci.bbs.io

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Nodoka Hanamura wrote to All <=-

<SNIP>

I can't help but see it more as a net negative than a positive,
as these platforms I feel have done more harm than good in
relation to the stability of society as a whole. It's driven us
apart more than brought us together, and for that reason alone I
can't stand being there any longer, lest I become the very demon
I seek to see destroyed.

But.. what's your all's take on it?

Agreed on all counts. The only "social media" I participate in is
FaceBook, and most of that is just reading and seeing pics from my
kids. Don't even bother with Twitter, IG, whatever else. Been
thinking about shutting down the FB account too, it's just a sewer
and has no real benefit to me.



... Pros are those who do their jobs well, even when they don't feel like it. --- MultiMail/Linux v0.52
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Re: Social Media Impact on Society
By: Nodoka Hanamura to All on Wed Jun 24 2020 07:38 am

Okay, so since I've had this on my mind since my recent announcement on twitter that I was fucking off from that hellsite - I wanted to open a discussion o
Social Media and if it's had a overall positive or negative impact on society as a
whole, as opposed to how it was before with basic IM services, IRC, and web forums
BBSes.

I am too young to have experienced the original world of BBSes and Usenet. The technology existed when I was young, but it never caught in the country. I think that,
for a lot of Spaniards, Internet started being a thing when Tuenti was born.

IMO the only real value of modern social media, for an individual, is finding people
you are looking for, which is precisely what Facebook was created for. You felt curious for what had happened to that school friend of yours one you were in college
so you looked him up on Facebook.

I firmly believe that the marketing power of Social Media is extremely overrated. A
lot of people thinks that getting a product known is just a matter of creating a
Facebook page and keeping it up to date. This includes many professionals (one of my
publishers is very guilty of this). Wrong, wrong, wrong. Social Media only works once
you have a critical mass or friends that is already eager to follow you. You don't
create the mass of followers with social media. You create it somewhere else. Social
Media is for keeping them around once you have them.

Anyway, big clearnet web services nowadays suck, and this includes Social Media. It is
all so political that you can't join a silly web game, use a funny mariachi picture as
an avatar, and expect not to get banned for racist sthereotyping and whatnot. So I say
screw them all. Long live the darknet, long live small hobby sites, long live hobby
services.

--
gopher://gopher.operationalsecurity.es

---
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On 24 Jun 2020, Arelor said the following, in Brief:
(Sorry, but your text got recieved kinda cut out at parts so I'm making it clearer here, sorry if I get any points wrong)

- I grew up around the time of BBSes but they weren't popular in Spain where
I live
- The only real value of Social Media in My (Arelor) opinion is for getting
in touch with old friends and family.
- I strongly believe that the value of Social Media is blown way out of proportion.
- Clearnet services suck because of how PC and overly authoritarian they are, long live the darknet

============================================================

Second the notion. Although I use services like Discord, Second Life and
Steam, the former is more for keeping in touch with friends and keeping tabs
on things of interest (Like certain games), SL is a lot more anarchic (I've often called how SL is run a bit of a Minarchy), and Steam is more for
playing games than socializing for me, because once the former came around,
the latter became irrelevant to me in the chat department. It's only useful
for joining friends in game and sharing screenshots and mods, and beyond
that, not much else outside of the store and library.

Born too late to experience the scene.
Born just in time to see it come back.
Nodoka Hanamura - NeoCincinnati BBS SYSOP - neocinci.bbs.io

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A44 2020/02/04 (Linux/32)
* Origin: NeoCincinnati BBS - neocinci.bbs.io:23

On 24 Jun 2020, Gamgee said the following...

Nodoka Hanamura wrote to All <=-

<SNIP>

I can't help but see it more as a net negative than a positive,
as these platforms I feel have done more harm than good in
relation to the stability of society as a whole. It's driven us
apart more than brought us together, and for that reason alone I can't stand being there any longer, lest I become the very demon
I seek to see destroyed.

But.. what's your all's take on it?

Agreed on all counts. The only "social media" I participate in is FaceBook, and most of that is just reading and seeing pics from my
kids. Don't even bother with Twitter, IG, whatever else. Been
thinking about shutting down the FB account too, it's just a sewer
and has no real benefit to me.

That's a name I haven't seen in a while. But then again you're active around here and I'm not, so that's to be expected :P

And exactly. Twitter's just been so vitriolic lately that I don't want a
thing to do with it anymore. I have my friends from there on my Discord
server, and that's all I need really.

Born too late to experience the scene.
Born just in time to see it come back.
Nodoka Hanamura - NeoCincinnati BBS SYSOP - neocinci.bbs.io

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A44 2020/02/04 (Linux/32)
* Origin: NeoCincinnati BBS - neocinci.bbs.io:23

Re: Social Media Impact on Society
By: Arelor to Nodoka Hanamura on Wed Jun 24 2020 09:34 am

I am too young to have experienced the original world of BBSes and Usenet. The technology existed when I was young, but it never caught in the country. I think that, for a lot of Spaniards, Internet started being a thing when Tuenti was born.

I've never heard of Tuenti. I just looked it up, and it looks like it's a mobile tech company?

IMO the only real value of modern social media, for an individual, is finding people you are looking for, which is precisely what Facebook was created for. You felt curious for what had happened to that school friend of yours one you were in college so you looked him up on Facebook.

That's true. Some people don't like to use social media though. There are some people I've tried looking up online and have not been able to find them. At least, not easily. Some people might have a common name, but the one you're looking for might not have a profile on Facebook etc.

Nightfox

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Re: Re: Social Media Impact on Society
By: Nodoka Hanamura to Arelor on Wed Jun 24 2020 01:49 pm

- I grew up around the time of BBSes but they weren't popular in Spain where I live

I find it curious to hear that BBSes weren't very popular in some areas. BBSes were a big thing in the US. Were they not popular there due to the costs involved (for phone calls, computer equipment, etc.)? Or social factors, or something else?

Nightfox

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On 24 Jun 2020, Nightfox said the following...

Re: Re: Social Media Impact on Society
By: Nodoka Hanamura to Arelor on Wed Jun 24 2020 01:49 pm

- I grew up around the time of BBSes but they weren't popular in Spai where I live

I find it curious to hear that BBSes weren't very popular in some areas. were a big thing in the US. Were they not popular there due to the costs ed (for phone calls, computer equipment, etc.)? Or social factors, or som
else?

That'd be a question for Arelor to answer, I was quoting him.

Born too late to experience the scene.
Born just in time to see it come back.
Nodoka Hanamura - NeoCincinnati BBS SYSOP - neocinci.bbs.io

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A44 2020/02/04 (Linux/32)
* Origin: NeoCincinnati BBS - neocinci.bbs.io:23

Re: Re: Social Media Impact on Society
By: Nodoka Hanamura to Arelor on Wed Jun 24 2020 01:49 pm

Second the notion. Although I use services like Discord, Second Life and Steam, the former is more for keeping in touch with friends and keeping tabs on things of interest (Like certain games), SL is a lot more anarchic (I've often
called how SL is run a bit of a Minarchy), and Steam is more for
playing games than socializing for me, because once the former came around, the latter became irrelevant to me in the chat department. It's only useful for joining friends in game and sharing screenshots and mods, and beyond that, not much else outside of the store and library.

My friends tried to drag me to Discord in order to play role playing games via audio
conference, but I didn't like the tech very much. I will take Mumble any day. In any
case, I find audio chat distracting and I would not use it unless I had to attend an
audio meeting with an specific purpose.

Games and game platforms as social platforms... I can totally see that. In fact, they
useed to say that users came to web games for playing, and stood around because of the
friends they made in there. The really professional games will include (literally)
addictive features so players keep coming back, but when I was in those sorts of games
half the fun was talking to people with shared interests. The problem is games are
heavily policed and interaction is too stiff.


--
gopher://gopher.operationalsecurity.es

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Re: Social Media Impact on Society
By: Nightfox to Arelor on Wed Jun 24 2020 12:02 pm

I've never heard of Tuenti. I just looked it up, and it looks like it's a mobile t
company?

Long story short:

Tuenti was born as a social media platform. It soon became a hit among Spanish teenagers because it was invite only and thus was a "parent free" zone. In fact I
think it was the #1 social media platform in Spain, beating Facebook.

Then Telef¢nica bought them for lots of Megabucks. For those who don't know, Telef¢nica is a big Spanish ISP. They basically managed to crash the service. They
tried to salvage their business by creating a virtual ISP under the Tuenti trademark
and selling phones and data plans that were tighly integrated with the social media
platform. In due time, they got rid of the social media service but the trademark
survives as a virtual ISP.

I hope that helped.

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gopher://gopher.operationalsecurity.es

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Re: Re: Social Media Impact on Society
By: Nightfox to Nodoka Hanamura on Wed Jun 24 2020 12:04 pm

I find it curious to hear that BBSes weren't very popular in some areas. BBSes wer
big thing in the US. Were they not popular there due to the costs involved (for ph
calls, computer equipment, etc.)? Or social factors, or something else?

Nightfox

I wouldn't know.

My hipotesis is that the software was documented in English, and everybody knows that
things that only exist in English don't exist for Spaniards. But that is speculation.

On the other hand, in the early days the whole telecom industry in Spain was managed
by a big socialized state monopoly called Telef¢nica, which was not exactly very
innovative. Quite the contrary. Maybe that has something to do with the issue...

(In case you are scratching your head, the government ended up liberalizing the telecom market and Telef¢nica became a regular ISP)

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