It was much easier and healthier for me to just leave Twitter (never gonna call it the other name). In fact, I’ve left nearly all of social media. It would be nice to get away from all algorithmic content feeds. Maybe someday.
I suspect experiences using social media apps differ wildly from person to person.
X is the same thing, but with the lies amped up 10x and fractured into discontextualized atoms of outrage to keep you scrolling.
Grandparents sharing nonsense on Facebook also think themselves highly informed — after all they’ve spent the past ten years in retirement “doing their own research”.
Absolute nonsense. Believing X is a simple distribution or sample of reality is bonkers.
I had an amazing experience with Facebook shorts! What happened was I...
I had an amazing... (hits the close button)
Consider an analogy with a knife. If someone quits using knives simply because they had previously cut themselves, and someone says: “wait, there’s at least one useful application for these things”, and demonstrates the useful application, that could be enough for that person to discover how useful knives can be when used right.
Exact same goes for any tool that can cause both harm and benefit, like social media apps.
I was just making fun of desperate engagement baiting Facebook short videos that of people just about to get kicked by a camel or whatever, looping right before whatever they're baiting actually happens.
Mine discovered that I go wild for horse videos. The fewer humans on screen, the better.
To me the big blow was seeing the response to what’s happening in Gaza and what narratives people and algorithms in combination end up promoting. The thoughtful, balanced, humanistic view gets approximately zero traction, while completely untruthful propaganda (on both sides) has enormous reach.
Maybe it’s an insurmountable problem. Human defense mechanisms in combination with algorithms will always push people to tribalism and cheering for atrocities. I hope not, but seems like it.
I guess you could take the OPs approach of filtering out all the propaganda and keep contributing. But then you are effectively working for a propaganda machine free of charge, helping create value that will draw others in to be subjected to the propaganda.
If you need an example on the other side you can take this popular post that claims the German foreign minister has said Israel has a right to target civilians [2], when in fact she says Israel has a right to target civilian infrastructure, if it is being used for military purposes.
Community notes do not appear because the algorithms require people who typically disagree to agree, which I doubt will ever happen in a military conflict.