alt Hacker NewsAnyone here who spends time around their aging parents and their friends sees what shows up on their phones. The image of an 70+ year old man poolside scrolling through IG reels seeing ragebait about democratic cities is burned into my brain. I wouldn't stand a chance against it either.
I truly believe we're here because of Facebook.
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You're describing a couple members of my family except... they don't use any Facebook products. Humans have been surrounding themselves with people that parrot their beliefs for generations; the internet just made it easier for fringe beliefs to reach critical mass.
If it not Facebook, it would be some other medium. What's the alternative, prevent people from talking to each other unsupervised?
> I truly believe we're here because of Facebook.
"Fox news has done to our parents what they thought gangsta rap would do to us". This applies to Facebook as well. I wish they would have stayed in their "I don't know how to use the computer" phase.
I would add Fox News in tandem with Facebook, but otherwise, yes. One is the spigot, the other is the hose.
My mom is 76 and absolutely believes the most pressing issues are trans high school swimmers and illegal voting and the biases of the Kennedy Center.
Sure, I have my opinions on those but I’m not saying as a society we aren’t allowed to debate those issues. I’m saying that in some news sources, they’re pure ragebait and completely drown out much more pressing and existential topics we should be solving. They’re simple distraction tactics and a continuation of the culture wars from the 80s and 90s.
Democratic institutional norms and a system relying on informed citizenry will always face new obstacles, but technology companies, particularly social media, adtech analytics, decline in established journalism have done so much damage and contributed to more conspiracy theories. Makes me feel even more icky about firms a16z pouring tons of money into things that undermine these norms… https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49416055
I think as a species we were destined to invent The Algorithm regardless.
Facebook (and social media in general) just accelerated cultural issues that were already there.
The right has seen Democrats (and "leftists" in general) as communists and degenerates for nearly a century. Literally nothing about Trump or Trumpism is new, it just wasn't normalized. There was a consensus reality around politics and culture that had to be maintained which no longer does.
I got a FB message from an older relative urging me to vote for the President's party so we could all get the $5000 checks he promised.