Former Facebook Exec Says Social Media is Ripping Apart Society (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report on The Verge: Another former Facebook executive has spoken out about the harm the social network is doing to civil society around the world. Chamath Palihapitiya, who joined Facebook in 2007 and became its vice president for user growth, said he feels "tremendous guilt" about the company he helped make. "I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works," he told an audience at Stanford Graduate School of Business, before recommending people take a âoehard breakâ from social media. Palihapitiya's criticisms were aimed not only at Facebook, but the wider online ecosystem. "The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we've created are destroying how society works," he said, referring to online interactions driven by "hearts, likes, thumbs-up." "No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. And it's not an American problem -- this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem." Also read: Sean Parker Unloads on Facebook 'Exploiting' Human Psychology

Comments

Re:He's right.

[bobbied]

It's not Facebook.... Facebook is but one of the current tools being used and abused for this.

Let's face it, the issue is cultural, not technological. We have long ago abandoned our founding principles of self reliance, personally looking out for your neighbors, tolerance, fairness and freedom. We now suffer from believing that equal outcome is the measure of fairness, where I count for more than everybody else and I am owed things like healthcare services or a college education without cost.

This isn't the fault of Facebook specifically or social networking platforms in general though they do enable the self importance, I'm important, look at me culture shift.

Re:He's right.

[BronsCon]

The real pieces of shit are still the minority, but he internet gives them as loud of a voice as they choose to have. Take me, for example; I could never reach this large of an audience without the internet. Now, just think, I'm not even that big of a piece of shit -- and the bigger ones are louder!

That's why it seems that the world is so shitty -- one tiny pebble of poo can stink up the whole room.

Re:Social media is only amplification

[DontBeAMoran]

Also known as the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory.

Re:Social media is only amplification

[Anonymous Coward]

Just to let you know, "bigots" never kept their mouth shut, its just that they would get cut off, crucified, or otherwise silenced before finishing the word, for example "black".

For instance, it has become a modern pass time to crucify people for something as little as presenting actual crime data that might suggest one race commits more crime than another. The "bigots" presenting this data now have an uninterrupted platform. They can no longer be "cut off" mid sentence or be subject to "totally random" technical difficulties if they somehow got "on air". These "bigots" can now form up their arguments and data and present it to the masses. And the data is compelling. Never before have the masses been subject to this, because the media and government have spend decades hiding it every minute of the day using every means necessary.

Now this very "bigoted" data and arguments are out in the wild and the reaction from the MSM has been to double down and continue to try to hide it. First it was "fake news", i.e. "unapproved news", then it was just distraction games: labeling every trump supporter a racist such that anyone already a liberal can't even start listening without being "triggered".

The fact is, people ARE listening, learning, seeing the data for the first time, and they aren't happy they have been lied to. This process, of being "red pilled", i.e. learning the truth about your true masters (the government and MSM) results in people that are ANGRY (how could you not be). These people are now ready to red pill other people because the injustice of blaming the white man needs to stop. We are being invaded by low IQ immigrants so that corporations can have more customers and we need to stop it.

Black lives matter? A black person is 75+ time more likely to be killed by another black man than by a white man. Adjusted for population, that gets even worse. Additionally, white men are more likely to be killed by a black man than by a white man despite black men making up a tiny portion of the population. These are not racist or bigoted statistics. These are FACTS. The facts mean it actually makes sense to be scared of black people in the same way that parents should be scared of their child drowning in a pool. Risks are risks and ignoring risks because someone that doesn't have to suffer the consequences of ignoring the risk is stupid.

Tell me what black lives matters really stand for? If it is about reducing the death rate of black men at the hands of white people, then a 100% win on this front equals about a 1.5% drop in black deaths. For those that are dense: If no white man killed a black man, 98.5 out of 100 murders of black people would still happen.

Re:Or Lack of Critical Thinking Skills?

[bobbied]

History Class