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Comment by nomilk | Hacker News Reader

Social media apps have downsides, but I find the algorithmic short videos on facebook ("reels") quite incredible. The algo seems to suggest mostly science; niches I would never have known about, let alone had an active interest in, had the algo not suggested them.

I suspect experiences using social media apps differ wildly from person to person.

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X is by far the least fun social media app. I tried it and I never got the appeal. Just stick to insta for lighthearted content.

Fun and useful are different things though. I use X for 'news', debate, and updates on anything global. YouTube for specific tech tutorials and 'junk' viewing (e.g. something light-hearted while eating). And insta/fb reels for filling in idle gaps (e.g. while waiting in a queue). I gave up legacy media about 3-4 years ago and although Twitter is trash, would take it over mainstream media any day of the week (same with BlueSky and Mastodon, but I simply haven't needed those since they're approximately equivalent to X).

Didn’t we use to laugh at boomers who got their news from their Facebook feed?

X is the same thing, but with the lies amped up 10x and fractured into discontextualized atoms of outrage to keep you scrolling.

Yup. The variance of truthiness on X is probably the highest of all platforms. Meaning you get the most accurate news if you can filter/discern well enough, at the risk of being brainwashed if you can’t. Since alternatives also brainwash, X is more or less pareto optimal

There is a heavy Dunning-Kruger effect where people think they are very discerning and sophisticated in how they filter, but gradually descend into depths of misinformation without realizing.

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”.

>The variance of truthiness on X is probably the highest of all platforms. Meaning you get the most accurate news if you can filter/discern well enough

Absolute nonsense. Believing X is a simple distribution or sample of reality is bonkers.

I guess people like me have zero interest in global news, debate and updates on anything global. Or rather, not zero interest, but zero time for it after filling the day with other (more important to me) things.

i followed 1000 scientists on X last year. Quantum mechanics, particle physics, general relativity, astrophysics and cosmology, molecular bio, chemistry, math, microbiology, environment, linguistics, psychology, middle east, islam, French. Oh and work stuff: programming languages, compilers, AI, venture capitalists of all stage. Where else can you find this? The main issue with X is it is a mirror. It puts us in a room with people like ourselves. If you like to argue, it will send you a lot of bait. I just stopped doing that. Muted a few keywords (nazi, greta, trump, elon, gun). And read a lot of paper summaries about black holes! (Oh and unfollowed most of the VCs, that was terrible)

> I find the algorithmic short videos on facebook ("reels") quite incredible

Mine discovered that I go wild for horse videos. The fewer humans on screen, the better.

I had an amazing experience with Facebook shorts! What happened was I...

I had an amazing... (hits the close button)

That misses the point.

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.

What do you think my point was?

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.

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