The math is funny. Do you think anyone will check it? I don’t think this is provable mathematically nor does it need to be and you would really need more actual data to attempt it trying to granularly go through the evolution of social media and who comes and goes and why, some polling would be necessary. I don’t disagree with many of the premises.
In any case, I think a huge factor in the big mess that is social media is the decline of civility. Before you say DUH, the precursors to social media generally started out with the ability to be anonymous which I think a majority availed themselves of. Obviously many many accounts online are fake or anonymized but I think my biggest shell shock because you DID see the social media bias drift problem there too (and sometimes outright bias- owing to moderator cliques) in small groups that were intended to be “open minded” was when I started seeing people post pretty horrible stuff with their name and have a little cheering section. What’s pretty horrible stuff objectively? Wishing someone who isn’t Hitler or Osama (despite apparently everyone being Hitler and Osama) some excruciating death and there isn’t any comedic macabre element it’s just mean spirited. This predated cancel culture so no one seemed concerned their employer might see it and can them. Obviously that’s not a desirable correction but I think people not being embarrassed to put their name on impulsive and debased words (not to be confused with the horrible but sometimes light and unserious way in which friend groups make extreme comments among each other) and people not being even more embarrassed to cheer it on has made social media a sinkhole way more than misinformation has. The misinformation is secondary to how people analyze what they take in and how they choose to behave in response. There is no solution with AI because it’s still people trained and no one wants it to be trained by the masses banking on a worse result(though I’m not so sure if certain rules were in place but it’s a big if) and what seems to invariably happen with moderators is what you see in the universities- a small activist minority hijacks the enterprise. Me personally I would really try to screen out activists of any stripe from moderation but that’s not an easy task and chances are eventually you’ll get activists- there are certain reasons why it’s even more prevalent with unpaid moderators- who has the time? I’m just happy my Twitter is mostly animal videos at this point though I noticed my google feed keeps dishing really sad animal story clickbait and I need to not click. And I used to mock people who watched animal videos. On the whole though I strongly recommend short curated animal videos. Since they’re typically centered around silly antics, intelligence, communication, and exorbitant affection it’s a nice reminder of the better parts of who we are.
The Math was honestly just there for fun, as the effort needed to actually get accurate readings on a platform's sentiment, and get enough datapoints to track it, plus the limited number of examples we have of social media actually evolving to an echo chamber, would be incredibly high. I spent years getting an economics degree and I developed a skill of formalizing statements about groups of people that unless you're actually working as an economist, there's almost no application in real life for.
I like your insight on the decline of civility a lot. I'll have to think about it for a while before coming up with a response. I intend to make a follow up to this essay anyway, so if I can think of some valuable comment I'll add it there.
The math is funny. Do you think anyone will check it? I don’t think this is provable mathematically nor does it need to be and you would really need more actual data to attempt it trying to granularly go through the evolution of social media and who comes and goes and why, some polling would be necessary. I don’t disagree with many of the premises.
In any case, I think a huge factor in the big mess that is social media is the decline of civility. Before you say DUH, the precursors to social media generally started out with the ability to be anonymous which I think a majority availed themselves of. Obviously many many accounts online are fake or anonymized but I think my biggest shell shock because you DID see the social media bias drift problem there too (and sometimes outright bias- owing to moderator cliques) in small groups that were intended to be “open minded” was when I started seeing people post pretty horrible stuff with their name and have a little cheering section. What’s pretty horrible stuff objectively? Wishing someone who isn’t Hitler or Osama (despite apparently everyone being Hitler and Osama) some excruciating death and there isn’t any comedic macabre element it’s just mean spirited. This predated cancel culture so no one seemed concerned their employer might see it and can them. Obviously that’s not a desirable correction but I think people not being embarrassed to put their name on impulsive and debased words (not to be confused with the horrible but sometimes light and unserious way in which friend groups make extreme comments among each other) and people not being even more embarrassed to cheer it on has made social media a sinkhole way more than misinformation has. The misinformation is secondary to how people analyze what they take in and how they choose to behave in response. There is no solution with AI because it’s still people trained and no one wants it to be trained by the masses banking on a worse result(though I’m not so sure if certain rules were in place but it’s a big if) and what seems to invariably happen with moderators is what you see in the universities- a small activist minority hijacks the enterprise. Me personally I would really try to screen out activists of any stripe from moderation but that’s not an easy task and chances are eventually you’ll get activists- there are certain reasons why it’s even more prevalent with unpaid moderators- who has the time? I’m just happy my Twitter is mostly animal videos at this point though I noticed my google feed keeps dishing really sad animal story clickbait and I need to not click. And I used to mock people who watched animal videos. On the whole though I strongly recommend short curated animal videos. Since they’re typically centered around silly antics, intelligence, communication, and exorbitant affection it’s a nice reminder of the better parts of who we are.
The Math was honestly just there for fun, as the effort needed to actually get accurate readings on a platform's sentiment, and get enough datapoints to track it, plus the limited number of examples we have of social media actually evolving to an echo chamber, would be incredibly high. I spent years getting an economics degree and I developed a skill of formalizing statements about groups of people that unless you're actually working as an economist, there's almost no application in real life for.
I like your insight on the decline of civility a lot. I'll have to think about it for a while before coming up with a response. I intend to make a follow up to this essay anyway, so if I can think of some valuable comment I'll add it there.