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submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by Hirom@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

Social media divides us, makes us more extreme and less empathetic, it riles us up or sucks us into doom scrolling, making us stressed and depressed. It feels like we need to touch grass and escape to the real world.

New research shows that we might have largely misinterpreted why this is the case. It turns out that the social media internet may uniquely undermine the way our brains work but not in the way you think.

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[-] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 79 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Why are people weaving social media and the internet into a single thread? The internet is so vast, social media makes up a tiny sliver of it.

The real problem with the internet isn’t Facebook or Twitter or Reddit, it’s the fact the entire experience is pretty much controlled by Microsoft and Google. As they shape your content, lock you out of areas and generally dictate what’s “legal” or even what gets found during your searches.

It’s no longer an information superhighway but rather turning into a giant storefront. And that’s the problem. I search for anything and the first 3 pages are Amazon link backs. Or fake websites with AI generated content used only for ad impressions.

Facebook and the like definitely erode some parts, but as a whole, there is way more fuckery going on by big tech.

And this isn’t even mentioning the tracking and fingerprinting and violations to privacy and security we are all promised.

the entire experience is pretty much controlled by Microsoft and Google

and cloudflare

[-] mog77a@beehaw.org 5 points 10 months ago

Doesn't seem to matter where you go these days, you still run into cloudflare, somewhere along the chain. They're omnipresent in a way other companies aren't.

Pain in the ass sometimes, but god damn do they make great services.

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this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
152 points (100.0% liked)

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