Joined
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4,668 Posts
Passed the fourth month without FB and the liberation is intoxicating. No longer being manipulated by the FB algorithms has given me some insights about how social media has poisoned the political and social landscape.
Unless you step back from the insidious manipulation its' difficult to know how determining these companies have become. FB has recently said it has taken down Russians trolls trying to influence the upcoming mid term elections in the U.S., a bit late in the day to suddenly become the hero.
Facebook stock has also taken a wallop in the last several weeks and I have no doubt that in light of the way it was used to manipulate voters in the U.S. many have either curbed their FB habit or totally stepped back. My children were the first to abandon it several years ago, when it first came out they totally embraced it. Now it is cool not to be on FB, not that I am cool but it is interesting to observe trends in digital media. Young people have become wise in their old age.
McLuhan's aphorism that "The Medium is the Message" is more relevant than ever before. We can't control the medium but we can avoid it as much as possible. I think it is even more important to support certain portions of the new media landscape with sites like Truthdig, Democracy Now, Tom's Dispatch, etc.
The movement to abandon certain social media or at least to try and not let it control us is socially important. Corporatism has destroyed and crept into every aspect of our digital lives. Purging the greed and corruption of these companies will not be an easy task.
Facebook Makes You Fat.
Unless you step back from the insidious manipulation its' difficult to know how determining these companies have become. FB has recently said it has taken down Russians trolls trying to influence the upcoming mid term elections in the U.S., a bit late in the day to suddenly become the hero.
Facebook stock has also taken a wallop in the last several weeks and I have no doubt that in light of the way it was used to manipulate voters in the U.S. many have either curbed their FB habit or totally stepped back. My children were the first to abandon it several years ago, when it first came out they totally embraced it. Now it is cool not to be on FB, not that I am cool but it is interesting to observe trends in digital media. Young people have become wise in their old age.
McLuhan's aphorism that "The Medium is the Message" is more relevant than ever before. We can't control the medium but we can avoid it as much as possible. I think it is even more important to support certain portions of the new media landscape with sites like Truthdig, Democracy Now, Tom's Dispatch, etc.
The movement to abandon certain social media or at least to try and not let it control us is socially important. Corporatism has destroyed and crept into every aspect of our digital lives. Purging the greed and corruption of these companies will not be an easy task.
Facebook Makes You Fat.
