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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Americans got tired of big social media in 2017. Or at least, we stopped wanting to look at it, and we stopped pretending to like it.
This feels true to me as someone who uses the internet every day, but I also know it’s true because when The Verge partnered with Reticle Research to conduct a representative survey of Americans’ attitudes towards tech’s biggest power players, 15.4 percent of Facebook users said they “greatly” or “somewhat” disliked using the product, while 17 percent of Twitter users said the same. That made them the most disliked of the six companies in question, which also included Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. More than 10 percent of respondents described Facebook’s effect on society as “very negative,” and 10.5 percent said the same about Twitter — in both cases a higher number than the other four companies combined.
The survey doesn’t reveal why Americans feel the way they do, but last December, writing about the impulse to call 2016 “the worst year ever,” The New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino articulated a pretty good guess as to why spending your time on the web’s massive, news-saturated platforms might feel so bad: “There is no limit to the amount of misfortune a person can take in via the internet,” she says. 2016 couldn’t possibly be the worst year in history, Tolentino decided, but it was the year that convinced her the promise of the social media had been false, and that “the internet would only ever induce the sense of powerlessness that comes when the sphere of what a person can influence remains static, while the sphere of what can influence us seems to expand without limit, allowing no respite at all.”
[...] The old promise of the internet — niche communities, human connection, people exchanging ideas, maybe even paying each other for the work they’d made — never really lost its appeal, but this year it came back with a miniature vengeance.
We can see this longing for community — and specifically, the sort of small, weird communities that populated and defined the early internet — everywhere. There’s Amino, the Tumblr-inspired app that lets fandoms build online spaces that are essentially club houses, then coordinate the creation of elaborate works of fan art, fiction, cosplay, and fandom lore. At the request of its largely teenage audience, the platform released its first cosplay yearbook this December, and doled out honors to the best writing, photography, and tutorials around cosplay. The thousands of fandom-specific rooms are lively and strange, each with their own moderators and byzantine rules.
And there’s the kids who are bending major platforms to their will, having their fun on Instagram but circumventing the intended use by making “finstagrams,” separate, strange accounts that aren’t tied to the Facebook social graph and therefore let users post weirder, funnier content they wouldn’t share to everyone they know.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 02 2018, @01:26PM (27 children)
If you greatly dislike using it, why are you using it?
Is someone holding a gun to your head?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday January 02 2018, @01:50PM (6 children)
I think because it's still the best social platform out there and a lot of people, especially older folks are now using it to keep in touch with family. I even have an account that gets uses rarely and keep in touch with distant family who otherwise would be forgotten about. So I get why people would want it.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @04:11PM (2 children)
We are cleaning out the house of a 95 year old friend who died recently. She collected many things, including old post cards. Many of them are over 100 years old, when it cost a penny to mail a card. The ones that are written on, usually have the equivalent of "What's up?" for the message -- so the desire to maintain contact, however trite the message, seems to go way back.
Based on this sample of hundreds of cards, it looks like post cards became the text messages of their day. A little digging into post card history suggests that the earliest ones (c.1890) had the picture on one side and address on the other, no room for any message at all -- so the message was effectively, "I was here", based on the location of the photo. Then in the early 1900's the card printers noted that people were scrawling notes around the outside of the address (we have some like this), so divided the back side for half note & half address/stamp -- the format that is most common today.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:04PM
That's why the older folks like it. They get to see plenty of pictures of the grand kids, family photos, vacation photos, and comment on them. I can appreciate it for that ability.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:34PM
Yes, I've seen a stash of such postcards after the death of an older relative too. It's also important to remember that in many locations (particularly large cities), the post office used to deliver multiple times per day.
And somehow they managed to communicate with only punctuation and the occasional smiley face or something... No emojis necessary.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:03PM (2 children)
I like email: no likes unlikes, etc.
No garbage, no shite. I can make it long or short.
I just couldn't take FB.
Someday, maybe people will get smart, but it'll probably be shit that replaces it. Stupids gotta have stupid.
AND, how many people on FB do you REALLY want to interact with?
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:23PM
Limit function approaches zero.
There are better ways to interact. There is something called 'outside'.
paid for by Americans for Renewable Complaining and Sustainable Whining.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday January 02 2018, @07:38PM
Oh really? No garbage at all in emails? No wasted pointless posturing and feel-good nonsense?
Thexalon
Grand Poo-Bah, Loyal Order of Water Buffalo Lodge 35
123-456-7890
Fax: 493-555-2385
email.address.I.just.sent.this.from@waterbuffalolodge.info
1450 Grand Office Park Rd
Springfield, AN 12345
"I think that what really makes my days better is inspirational quotes commonly found in email signatures"
------------------------------
-- Sent from my iPhone
> I like email: no likes unlikes, etc.
>
> No garbage, no shite. I can make it long or short.
>
> I just couldn't take FB.
>
> Someday, maybe people will get smart, but it'll probably be shit that replaces it. Stupids gotta have stupid.
>
> AND, how many people on FB do you REALLY want to interact with?
>
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Disagree) by Wootery on Tuesday January 02 2018, @02:54PM (10 children)
Not quite that dramatic, but pretty much, yes. For most people, deleting Facebook would carry a considerable cost of inconvenience, missed social opportunities, etc.
It's not good enough to pretend it's trivial to move away from Facebook.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:12PM (7 children)
Except, people who DON'T use FB get by just fine!
It's like cell phones: we didn't have them as kids, but now you GOTTA HAVE ONE!!....ummmm...no you don't. You WANT one.
If people really want to include you in something, they'll include you. If they won't do it outside FB, they really don't want you there. Just tell them you are gone, that FB is shite. If they care, they will email you, or phone you or come to your house. Truly. My family knows I don't FB, so I get emails or phone calls... because they WANT me there. They like me-- NAY, they love me, so I get included.
People I don't care about? I don't get bothered by.
It's easy. Just do it.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:27PM
Absolutely agree.
I don't use FB.
I don't understand why people think FB needs to be treated so delicately. Just nuke it from orbit!
Paid for by Americans for Renewable Complaining and Sustainable Whining.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Wootery on Wednesday January 03 2018, @10:17AM (5 children)
You're just pretending that there's no value to Facebook. Again, that just isn't good enough when we're trying to have a real discussion about this stuff.
You can't always rely on someone being willing to reroute Facebook discussions to you via another channel.
If you're a 'semi-active' member of a club or social group, you're likely to miss out on various silly-but-fun group conversations, small events, or conceivably more important discussions (the which venue for our seminar? discussion, for instance).
You can argue for or against leaving Facebook, and you can argue how we might diminish our dependence on it, but if you just insist there's no cost in deleting your account, then you aren't tracking reality.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday January 03 2018, @03:33PM (4 children)
From your post below:
" Using it also often helps Facebook conduct surveillance on people who don't even use the service, like when someone uploads a picture with them in it without their permission.
Totally agree - that's a real faux pas, but very often people don't seem to get it. I'm often disappointed by polite society's failure to 'keep up' regarding what behaviours are deserving of scorn. (Sharing vacuous brain-dead clickbait is another example.)"
So, you don't like that EVERYONE is tracked EVEN THOSE WHO DO NOT WANT TO BE TRACKED, but that's okay, because friends are okay with things like that.
You say "but if you just insist there's no cost in deleting your account, then you aren't tracking reality.": i say if you insist that there is no cost in KEEPING your account, then you aren't tracking reality.
The cost of staying on fb is FAR too great in terms of privacy; privacy for yourself but even greater, privacy for others especially those who may not want fb knowing things about them.
The cost IS negligible: you delete it and maintain contact in less intrusive ways.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Wednesday January 03 2018, @03:49PM (3 children)
Do use quote tags, they're far more readable.
I don't like it, but it's not the end of the world as you seem to want to imply. As I said, the alternative really would cost me considerably.
If only Americans would stop paying ISPs for Internet connectivity, their obscene monopolies would soon collapse. But they don't, because of the considerable cost that being the only person offline, would bring. The sad fact is that boycotts rarely work.
As it happens, I am far more qualified than you are to judge what it would cost me. And no, the cost for me would not be negligible, and I'm not the only person for whom this is true.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday January 03 2018, @04:16PM (2 children)
So, you don't mind being tracked where you go, what you do, who you contact, where you meet up with them, addresses, names, birth dates, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc?
So you don't mind your contacts being tracked either? Even those who don't want fb to know the above info?
Give me your wallet, your social insurance number and birth certificate and the info above of your contacts as well. I'm sure the consequences of that will be negligible.
You don't understand: your friends may not know the consequences of fb knowing their info but YOU DO. Privacy IS important: why are you giving it away, and why are you giving your friends privacy away? Insidious things are happening in the world that you, being on this site, are aware of: don't be a rat. Be smart.
Oh, you wanted quotes:
Are you considering the cost to your friends? What if you share a picture that has someone in it that doesn't want to have their face on fb? You tag that photo and their privacy is partially gone.
Etc. Whatever. You won't listen even though you know consequences. Consequences to you, who cares: it's consequences to others i'd be considering.
I guess sheeple can't move off fb because their world revolves around it. Sad.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Wednesday January 03 2018, @04:28PM (1 child)
Didn't I just answer this question? Again: I don't like it, but it's not the end of the world as you seem to want to imply.
The difference being, of course, that Facebook haven't committed any crimes with the data they have on me. Not sure what point you're trying to make.
My friends and I are getting a valuable service in return. The privacy cost remains real, of course, but again the reason is that Facebook is an effective and an entrenched platform.
I generally don't upload things to Facebook.
Again, yes I agree that it's not always nice to tag someone, especially someone who hasn't even opted in to Facebook.
You seem really committed to failing to comprehend nuance. No, having a Facebook account doesn't mean my world revolves around it. That's pure silliness. I waste far more time here, than I do on Facebook.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday January 03 2018, @04:53PM
Okay.
Good luck.
Yet.
I guessed as a regular Soylentil that you'd be more aware of what is going on in the world. I seem to be wrong.
Hmmmm......
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Tuesday January 02 2018, @08:19PM (1 child)
It's not just trivial to move away from sites like Facebook, but the only smart move as well. Don't let yourself be used by a deeply unethical mass surveillance engine. Using it also often helps Facebook conduct surveillance on people who don't even use the service, like when someone uploads a picture with them in it without their permission. Oh, you'll miss some social opportunities? Just how shallow can you be where that even matters? There are far more important things at stake than mere social gatherings, like principles and privacy.
Then again, the average person cares about neither of those, which is why some refer to them as "sheeple". Some people complain about that term, but it is fitting.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Wednesday January 03 2018, @10:13AM
Totally agree - that's a real faux pas, but very often people don't seem to get it. I'm often disappointed by polite society's failure to 'keep up' regarding what behaviours are deserving of scorn. (Sharing vacuous brain-dead clickbait is another example.)
Oh, I don't know. Maybe I love my friends and my hobbies? I hardly see that I'm being 'shallow'.
I'm not saying you're wrong to be deeply troubled by Facebook's position in society. I'm saying it's not good enough to pretend that Just quit whining and delete your account is a reasonable position. It's not. It's dismissive to the point of absurdity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @04:55PM (5 children)
but his opinion is of value because he "uses the internet every day"! that makes him an expert, right?
hang on my totally non technical mom is skyping; she uses it every day! maybe i can get her opinion?
so hey uh wake me up when email makes a comeback. it was so easy to just get messages in my email program and not have to visit some website that shows ads.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:32PM (3 children)
You see advertising with your email? You don't pass yourself off as a techie, do you?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday January 02 2018, @10:53PM (2 children)
You never got an email that ended with "Do you Yahoo!?"? Yes, that was advertising in emails.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 02 2018, @11:14PM (1 child)
I can't really recall seeing that. Maybe years ago. It seems I remember that phrase, or question, but I can't actually remember seeing it. Certainly not in the past few years. Do people still Yahoo?
Probably, those emails that might contain that phrase go to my spam folder. Let me take a look.
OH MY GOD!! I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED! A SEARCH FOR THAT PHRASE FOUND AN EMAIL FROM MR. JAIME COPELAND!! I've gotta get to JFK ASAP!! I don't know how that went to spam, instead of my inbox!
Alright, more seriously, I didn't find that phrase in either my inbox, or spam. There are a total of about six dozen emails with return addresses at yahoo.com, and all of them turned up in the search. But that phrase isn't there.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by dry on Wednesday January 03 2018, @02:30AM
I'm still subscribed to some egroups mailing lists. Egroups got bought out by Yahoo many years back. Looking at one from today, at the bottom where I don't usually scroll down to, I see this (First line is a link)
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday January 02 2018, @11:00PM
Not exactly an expert, be a sample end user. And, to be fair, the end users are the entire point of the internet. Experts aren't.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:31PM
I hate Facebook, but I still keep the account. My boss uses Facebook to communicate things, like snow days, and whatnot. Birthday parties. Potluck dinners. I logged in two days ago to wish the old bat a happy 99th birthday - I'll have my ears chewed off tonight when I get to work. And, my kids. They tend to post all the STUPID shit they do on facebook. Idiots. As much as I hate it, as nearly as I've come to deleting all of my info, and closing the account, I just can't quite do it. To many OTHER people who are important to me continue to use it. Of course, I don't post diddly to it. I read the info that I'm looking for, then close it again. Happy Birthday wishes are the first time I've posted in six, seven, maybe eight weeks.
Also - Facebook doesn't have my real name. They have probably deduced my surname, but I sure as hell didn't just give it to them.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 03 2018, @01:33AM (1 child)
This ridiculous exaggeration is the kind of reasoning being used to make technology in general more hostile, particularly in the realm of licenses and the law used to back those licenses. It also helps to control people, especially since people are given essentially a choice whether to live in a civilized society or submit to the will of corporations like a second government. This will eventually lead - and is already there , in some cases - for these companies to be gatekeepers of infrastructure, communications, work, and even socialization in some cases.
Don't like Windows? Is someone putting a gun to your head?
Don't want to give your personal information? Is someone putting a gun to your head?
The phone OS's people actually use don't let you root them? Is someone putting a gun to your head?
All the computers sold today require agreement to a license before using them? Is someone putting a gun to your head?
And so on.
This sort of hyperbolic "reasoning" is a gross and unwarranted oversimplification, reeks of childish allegories that are used to push ridiculous concepts by a cliche and biased framework that glosses over almost all of the problem's actual difficulties, and shows a gross lack of understanding of the situation and/or an indifference to one's own freedoms. Although I think the idea behind Godwin's law is ridiculous, as the comparison alluded to is sometimes apt, this response is cut of the same cloth.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday January 03 2018, @02:29AM
Full quote is:
Are you saying that you HAVE to use FB? You HAVE to use twits? You have NO OTHER CHOICE? You have NO OTHER FUCKING CHOICE AT ALL???
You need to get a grip: unless someone is ACTUALLY HOLDING A GUN AGAINST YOUR HEAD, you absolutely do NOT have to use fb or twits. Really.
I especially like these:
1. The phone OS's people actually use don't let you root them? Is someone putting a gun to your head? (Buy an unlocked phone: it becomes a phone OS people (you) actually use)
2. All the computers sold today require agreement to a license before using them? Is someone putting a gun to your head? (Buy a computer pre-loaded with linux)
I guess there is no hope for some
drama queenssheeple.--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Tuesday January 02 2018, @01:34PM (11 children)
X: "Phiiiilll, why don't you use facebook so we can talk about plans with you?"
Y: "Phiiilllll, why don't you use google chat so we can talk about plans with you?"
Me: "Because I do my communication on IRC"
3 years later, after simply being stubborn (and setting up a few accounts on my local machine so they can run irssi under screen/tmux), we're all using IRC.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @02:30PM (5 children)
Really? Because when I tried that I lost all my friends over time. It's been worse in some ways, but in other ways, it's been better.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:37PM (4 children)
Ummmm...were they REALLY your friends? Doesn't quite seem so.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Tuesday January 02 2018, @11:42PM (3 children)
He said "over time", so that's not unreasonable. You need to maintain friendships or they decay. I believe the study on it said you needed to have a friendly contact (not necessarily in person) once a month to prevent the decay. If they do their contacts over Facebook, and you don't use it, then the friendships are quite likely to decay over time.
Perhaps you used to meet at the same coffee shop now and then, but one of you moved, or got married (or divorced), and the schedules shifted, and now you no longer meet IRL, and you don't share the same internet communication channels. So, yes, the friendships can decay. If you get back in touch you may pick them up again. (That's happened to me on occasion.) And if you do you can quickly be just as close a friend as you were before.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday January 03 2018, @01:14AM (2 children)
My point is, will they ONLY maintain contact over FB?
They can't pick up the phone? Email? Snail mail?
How did friends stay in contact when I was a kid? There was no FB, no cell phones. Gee, you picked up the land-line, or sent a letter. Mail them a cassette of Black Sabbath.
Noooo....today's 'friends' need FB, cause they're too lazy to pull out the record, put in a cassette, do a recording, get stamps, a small box, tape...THAT was friendship, not Like! Like! Sent you cookies!
Grandma knew what was going on because you visited them or phoned them (actually, the FB generation is probably why all those old people die unnoticed in Japan): you know, real contact.
Wait! A party? Well I'll phone Archie and Betty, you phone Cheech and Chong, get them to phone someone: PARTY!
Noooo....have to arrange it on FB, cause I'm too fucking lazy to phone 'friends' cause they're like fake news: FAKE FRIENDS!!!
It's NOT hard: it's called Old School! You should try it! (Hint: REAL friends make the effort.... REAL friends don't make friends use FB cause it's easier.)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 03 2018, @09:51AM (1 child)
Exactly. And the difference is also easy to spot other way: many people have 0 or 1 real friends while many social media users have 400 "friends".
Social media is just for lonely exhibitionists and voyeurs. And ironically the more you do it, the lonelier you will become.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday January 03 2018, @04:19PM
Yup: i'd rather have that 1 true friend. Even no friends would be better.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Kilo110 on Tuesday January 02 2018, @02:32PM (3 children)
My little group just migrated over to Discord after many years on IRC. We're generally pretty happy with the move. We've an IRC gateway for a couple of stubborn people though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @04:33PM (1 child)
I wound up pulled on to Discord as well.
I still use a personal IRC server for conversations I want to remain absolutely private instead of being archived at a megacorp until the end of time.
However, only using IRC for private conversations makes the private conversations interesting to those who have the traffic data.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 03 2018, @06:05PM
I was pulled onto Discord.
Threw together an identity of convenience with a throwaway email.
Discord decided that I wasn't a person any more or some shit like that, and rendered my account inaccessible, told me to check my email.
There was no email.
Going back to IRC.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday January 03 2018, @11:18PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:57PM
Obligatory [xkcd.com]
(Score: 5, Funny) by SpockLogic on Tuesday January 02 2018, @01:40PM (4 children)
They must be talking about us, right.
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 02 2018, @01:55PM
That was my first thought, yep.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:02PM (2 children)
Yup. People get along better in small gatherings. Like when you hang around a fire with three or four good friends. In larger settings the noise level significantly increases and it all goes to shit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @07:09PM
And online you have the additional noise from professional astroturfers and shills...
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday January 02 2018, @10:58PM
Yeah, if fires get too large, they are not fun any more ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @02:31PM (11 children)
I can barely find it worth my time listening the morons here. Let alone all of them in the world.
Waste. However keep it up. Helps my data needs for AI studies.
You are my robot. And at that level it is useful.
(Score: 5, Funny) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:06PM
How's the weather in your mom's basement nowadays?
(Score: 3, Touché) by DannyB on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:31PM (4 children)
Did you post on the wrong forum? Do you have red / green color blindness?
Paid for by Americans for Renewable Complaining and Sustainable Whining.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:40PM (3 children)
Probably has an add-on that eliminates all the red green stuff. Almost all of my windows and tabs are dark background, with light coloring. Generally, black background, with white text, but it varies a little.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:52PM (2 children)
So, you really do see the world in black & white.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:59PM (1 child)
Uhhhhhhh - no - the background doesn't smother images. I look at images on my browser pages, and there's yellow, blue, various shades of red and blue that I can never identify, etc ad nauseum.
To much white space hurts my eyes, so I've eliminated most of it.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by chromas on Tuesday January 02 2018, @06:24PM
The dream of many college students.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:43PM (1 child)
I can't wait to see the AI you develop based on these training data. I'll be disappointed if it doesn't become some kind of alt-Randian objectivist communist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @09:44PM
One assumes that those folks would eat jumbo shrimp and communicate with their honest congressman about military intelligence.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:44PM
I can barely find it worth my time listening the morons here...
...but I do cause I'm a useless person with no life and soylentils are my only 'friends'. And my sentence structuring sucks.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:49PM (1 child)
You: http://www.asofterworld.com/clean/tati.jpg [asofterworld.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @06:20PM
The only winning move is not to play :-(
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:39PM (2 children)
"the internet would only ever induce the sense of powerlessness that comes when the sphere of what a person can influence remains static, while the sphere of what can influence us seems to expand without limit, allowing no respite at all."
The ability of our environment to influence us on the Internet at this time is defined by pervasive surveillance driven advertising that is both a crime against wiretapping statutes, and a crime in the form of premeditated psychological battery.
The whole country is being gaslighted and chemically passified. What isn't going on, is the scientific community isn't doing the math necessary to aggregate practical evidence into prosecutable cases. Because these issues need to be in court more than they need to be on Internet forums.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:59PM (1 child)
I give it 1-5 years before some organizations get enough tech saavy people to start getting a clue. Remember, the current generation in charge is the baby boomers with a few older holdouts holding key positions of power. Hell I'm a techie and shit still changes too fast! People have given all this shit a pass because they don't realize the full ramifications and they feel powerless in our corrupt society. Just wait, unless we start WW3 people are going to start figuring shit out as these hacked databases keep spilling their personal details to the whole world.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday January 02 2018, @08:54PM
Praying MIGHTILY you are correct, sir!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 5, Interesting) by seandiggity on Tuesday January 02 2018, @03:53PM (4 children)
https://www.engadget.com/2017/04/07/mastodons-sudden-popularity-should-serve-as-twitters-wakeup-ca/ [engadget.com]
https://mnm.social [mnm.social]
https://mastodon.social/@usercount [mastodon.social]
...and other decentralized/federated social networks are stable or growing as well:
https://podupti.me/?detailedview [podupti.me]
https://fediverse.kranglabs.com [kranglabs.com]
ActivityPub is becoming the glue that will bind all of these networks together:
https://w3c.github.io/activitypub/ [github.io]
Sure, only some of these communities are "tiny" and "weird", but there's a momentum building against Big Social Media, and most (all?) of the necessary pieces are in place. FINALLY.
More info on the current state of the Fediverse and interop between these networks:
https://macgirvin.com/channel/mike/&f=&mid=a167ea295beeca0389a34a97c94c987765375a31fc49a090d8602278dbc319fc@macgirvin.com [macgirvin.com]
https://macgirvin.com/channel/mike/?f=&mid=fbb14a6e8be5202638250ed72017ffc78ae717ba092b5b7963c91b699f09be2d@macgirvin.com [macgirvin.com]
These need to be updated somewhat, but you get the idea :)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by seandiggity on Tuesday January 02 2018, @04:02PM
I forgot this fun visualization! https://kumu.io/wakest/fediverse [kumu.io]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @08:51PM (2 children)
How does one actually go about posting video on something like Mastodon? Is there a facility to upload a video to a Mastodon server or something equivalent?
Reason: a lot of people who want to leave instagram/facebook/youtube/whatever have activities that relate to photo/video/audio content (thinking of indie filmmakers and musicians here) and it's not clear what options they have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @09:51PM
Are you trying to monetise?
If not, how about archive.org?
(Score: 2) by seandiggity on Friday January 05 2018, @01:04AM
MediaGoblin and PeerTube are growing options for video upload, but there's always archive.org
Video is a harder problem because of bandwidth and hosting requirements.
(Score: 2) by cykros on Tuesday January 02 2018, @04:00PM (4 children)
This might spell out good news for Mastodon, the decentralized microblogging platform. If people are looking for small and weird, you absolutely can get that by picking a small and weird local instance, and looking at the local timeline rather than the federated one. On the other hand, when your friends all picked another instance, it's still trivial to follow them, as well as glance over at the federated timeline when you're interested. Seems like a way people can have their cake and eat it too. We'll see I guess, but it'd be about time for people to finally jump on decentralized social systems.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:42PM (3 children)
Never heard of it, and suddenly two of you mention it. Guess I will give it a look later.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @10:01PM (2 children)
You were an early commenter in a (sub)thread that mentioned it back in April. [soylentnews.org]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday January 02 2018, @10:31PM (1 child)
Yours was a reply to a reply to me. Easy to miss, especially when I've written over 8,500 comments apparently.
Did they ever rename the "toots"?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 03 2018, @12:34AM
Yeah. That's what I figured.
At the time, there was a flurry of articles on the subject and I noticed those.
Haven't kept up on the subject since them.
...though the distributed nature of it has a certain appeal to a guy who at one time used USENET.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rich on Tuesday January 02 2018, @04:45PM
It always goes like this:
them: "rich, you're on facebook, aren't you? Can I reach you there?"
me: "No, I work in IT."
them: "Oh, of course, I understand."
People seem to have some conception that those working in IT are smart enough to not use facebook ;)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bradley13 on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:05PM (3 children)
"There is no limit to the amount of misfortune a person can take in via the internet"
So true. Just the other day I was reading an online news site, and it had two leading articles about two different bus accidents, in two different (both foreign) countries. I suppose it was a positive sign, in a weird way, since it meant that they couldn't find any bleeding bodies locally, to write about.
Seriously, what is it about the press, they they have to flood us continually with bad news? Going halfway around the world to find bleeding bodies to write about is just...sick.
Or, perhaps, what is it about human nature, that people want to continually read about the misfortunes of others? Teminds me of a couple of ex-girlfriends who had this amazing ability to find the cloud around every silver lining. No matter what it was, they could turn any nice event, any incident of good fortune, into something to complain about. Really, it was remarkable, and after realizing I couldn't "fix" them, that nothing was ever going to be "good" for them, it was a relief to leave.
What's wrong with good news? Or at least neutral? Tell us about upcoming construction projects, about recent discoveries, about...whatever. "If it bleeds, it leads" is bad enough for local news, but on a global scale it's just insane. Someone, somewhere is always bleeding...
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:55PM (2 children)
Oh my, oh me o my.
I thought that was almost uniquely a feminine trait. All my life, I've heard women/girls talking about how great a guy would be, once they "fixed" him. Never heard a similar conversation between guys. As near as guys come to that is, "She'd be BEAUTIFUL, if only she had a little more ass!" (or tits, or whatever happens to trip the guy's trigger)
Personally, if I met a chick that I didn't like, I just avoided her. Don't call her, don't answer her calls, don't even hang out in the same circles. Even if I've already invested time, building a relationship, if I discovered a fatal flaw, it was over, then and there.
(Now someone is wondering what a "fatal flaw" might be, right? How about what was, at the time, an extreme feminist, who wanted me to impregnate her, but give up any and all parental rights, because she wasn't going to have a man interfering with raising her kids as she saw fit. Fatal flaw!!)
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday January 02 2018, @08:02PM
You too, eh? One of my exes had a feminist try that scam on them too. I'm betting the scammer isn't so interested in being independent when it comes to the child support they'll soak you for.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 03 2018, @02:26AM
Cool story, Bro! (No, really, cool story. I can't stop roflmao!!)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:46PM (3 children)
TFS talks about "fake Instagrams" and how this is supposedly subverting intended use by using pseudonyms to post more interesting or weird things for a more selective audience.
As more platforms seem to be insisting on real names and verification, it's important to hold on to this sort of thing. Zuckerberg for example is on the record for repeatedly denying the possibility of multiple online identities for Facebook -- he claims to equate this with "dishonesty." Of course, in real life there are plenty of things we don't tend to share with hundreds of "friends" at the same time, many of whom we barely know. (It's not "dishonest" to say different things to one's friends in the bar after work vs. the old ladies at church vs. your kids vs. your spouse in your bedroom.) Facebook and other services just want data points of connection to target advertising better; they obviously don't care about the kinds of communities or connections people actually want or utilize in real life.
So this "trend" is just people realizing that the standard experience from these platforms isn't useful for the kind of socialization people actually want to do. I don't see a mass abandonment of Facebook etc. anytime soon, but it's nice to hear there's at least some pushback.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @06:01PM (1 child)
Zuckerberg is also on record as saying that people that use facefuck are idiots and suckers so...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @09:09PM
Dumb fucks [theregister.co.uk]. They "trust him."
(Score: 2) by chromas on Tuesday January 02 2018, @06:47PM
Bahahaha! I have a handful of Facebook accounts (Firefox containers makes it extra easy to manage them, too ;). Some family members throw away their old accounts like phone numbers. Shit, my niece made an account for her cat. I highly doubt even half of active accounts aren't alts.
You can sorta do that on FB by making groups and adjusting the settings every time you post something, but that's a lot of work and for some reason there's a lack of trust in FB's ability to honor privacy settings.
I think you only have to Verify™ if someone reports your name. In my case, it let me change my obviously fake name (instead of submitting ID) to another obviously fake name and now it's considered Verified™ (so I can't change it anymore).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02 2018, @05:57PM
I spend most of my time on hatebook, but only in my mind because the asshole that owns the domain won't do anything useful with it !
HATE THIS!
CLAIM AS ENEMY
PROVIDE EVIDENCE OF HAVING BEEN DRIVEN BEFORE YOU!