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Most Americans Don't Think Social Networks Are Good For the World, Survey Finds (axios.com)
A new survey from Axios finds that a majority of Americans don't think social networks are good for the world. An anonymous reader shares the key findings: Silicon Valley has a big and growing problem: Americans have rising concerns with its most popular products and a growing majority wants big social media companies regulated, according to new poll conducted by Survey Monkey for "Axios on HBO." In the past year, there has been a 15-point spike in the number of people who fear the federal government won't do enough to regulate big tech companies -- with 55% now sharing this concern. In that same period, there was a 14-point increase in those who feel technology has hurt democracy and free speech. The biggest spike has been among Republicans, presumably because of increased concern about perceived censorship of conservative voices on social media. About 40% of Americans still feel that social media is a net positive for society. Overall, 65% of people say smartphones have made their quality of life better. The study also found that nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents say they sleep with their phone in or next to their bed; and that jumps to 73% among millennials. Also, "More than half (51%) say smartphones are the hardest technology for most people to live without," reports Axios. "And that jumps to 67% among millennials."
Once I got to work and realized I didn't have it, I turned around and went home and retrieved it. (personal phone, not business phone) I'm not proud of it. But I would have felt naked all day long without it.
The study also found that nearly two-thirds (63%) of respondents say they sleep with their phone in or next to their bed; and that jumps to 73% among millennials.
I mean, the cell phone was invented so that users could be contacted / contact other useres more readily, almost all the time. I do not see a problem here.
This study simply confirms success at this metric, right?
I’d love to have a discussion about this but the extremists on both sides will overwhelm any reasonable disussion so I’m off to enjoy Thanksgiving. And the family members who advocated lynching a black man are out having Thanksgiving somewhere else.
[John]
Shit better not happen!
I avoid social networking like the plague and my wife is on Facebook all the time. Just the types of little humorous clips she shows me really imitates me.. like I can literally feel the seconds being drained away from my life. First of all, many of them that are intended to show some funny moment are so obviously staged; and people on average really don't have a great sense of humor.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Nuff said. Now watch as the SJW liberal marxists on slashdot will censor me because they dont beleve in first amendment and are bias against conservatives.
I bet you won't even consider you are the one who did what you're trying to make a point of.
Funny that.
Smart phones are not social media. Why does the summary conflate the two?
Findings, if TFS is to be believed, are meaningless.
To me, a "smart phone" is (1) phone (2) GPS (3) Calendar (4) email monitor (too small for real use) (5) text messaging (emergency/supplementary/alert short messages -- neither I nor anyone I know actually "texts" in the conventional sense) such as "Can't Answer Phone", "Downstairs", police-traffic alerts) and (6) Google: quick facts, restaurants and services such as flights (7) photo/video missions (scenic, birthdays, ...)
I have an "old people" Facebook account for some limited family/friend photo sharing and for advertising one of my businesses. I never access it from the phone and don't have any social medial apps installed. I guess technically that's social media -- I used Facebook for about an hour over the course of two days in the last seven months (funeral announcement).
So, yes, my S9+ is indispensable and it is next to my bed at night.
I used to have a GPS, camera, calendar, and alarm clock and I lugged
all that shit around (and some of it was implemented as a big paper book).
This damn thing fits in my pocket!
But I don't think that's what the point of the survey was.
Oh, other apps I have installed? Well, I have some music files on there,
but I don't normally play them from the phone. I also have a small
database of specialized information that I use for work - I look something
up on there about once a week. And I have some gas station and pharmacy
loyalty cards on the phone. All those replace paper I used to lug.
Those are all the apps.
Most Americans think what mass media tells them to think
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Unless "The System" is a brand-new RealDoll, I'll have to pass on your offer.
#DeleteFacebook
Economists found out long ago that the public is a bunch of liars. People say one thing, do another.
Revealed preference is a bitch. :)
Arrest the executives of social media sites for sedition and treason. Shut down those sites and fire their employees. Anyone caught posting anti American screeds sent to re-education camps for 10 years.
Then stop giving us your money. The whole world parks their money in our banks and financial markets.
Only thing worse than complaining is when you do nothing about it.
Facebook is like any institution. You get out of it what you put into it. Compare government. People want to pretend it will function properly even if they ignore it, but it won't do that any more than will a car. It might look to be working correctly for some time, until you find out that neglect has been causing damage all along. All we put into Facebook is our information, we're not supplying any of the elbow grease, so it's not surprising that the machine we didn't build is churning our personal information into something malign.
Social networking is a neutral technology, being peddled by malicious actors. Until we build our own social networks, we're going to continue to be abused by social networks.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Do this research in more countries and you'll confirm it's not only US.
Social tools never would make the world better. They transformed this generation is visual whores: you feel everybody have something better than you to show off. Or you can also be bombarded with "targeted" ads. Maybe for banging that new hot neighbor, social tools might be of use. And that's it.
I am going for my fourth anniversary of having facebook, insta and twitter (linkedin also) deleted and I don't regret a second. I also did not miss anything there. Nothing to lose.
Of course not, especially now that the companies themselves are taking sides and having company wide political and social views, which has no place in such environments
They also inject their politics and filter content on their services to favor their positions
Not good at all
Speaking of which, has Jack Dorsey banned himself from Twitter for hate speech yet? Still waiting on that one.
For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion(operation fo wandering)(planet) so that they will believe the lie.
Working of Error
These technologies - social media included - are not inherently good or bad. It's what we do with them that matters. If people think that they're bad for society than I think that says a hell of a lot more about society than anything else. And what it has to say about society is quite clear: Many of us are self-absorbed, quick to anger, and very slow to listen. Voices of reason and unity are drowned out by bad memes, clickbait articles, and insults.
It's nothing new, really. Newspapers from 200 years ago are full of sensationalism, lies, and sleezy gossip. Social media just lets everyone participate now, at any moment. Then there's the dopamine effect. Every like / rewteet / favorite / whatever makes your brain pop out a little burst of pleasure. For many, social media can be addicting. Posting the most outrageous stuff, trolling the world, will get you all of that attention.
We could use social media for discussing, connecting, and sharing - and many do - but not enough...
Are these so called "Social Media" networks really social? Why they are called social when they are clearly just marketing machines.
To me they are more Anti-Social Media networks.
People troll other peoples, people behave badly or even terrible, people distribute false/fake material about themselves and the world.
And on top of this, the people using these great "social media" networks are actually less interacting socially with other people, because they are all the time glued to their gadgets and don't see, there are real people near them.
I think it is time to start calling these "media" what they are: Anti-Social Media.
Cheers.
Usenet used to be great. I'm not sure if you would consider that "social media" but it rocked. There are still some news groups I read which are still good. Although the trolls and spam has gotten crazy.
"Social media" like facebook OTOH is a nightmare of crap. Seemingly sane, intelligent people post things that are insane and garbage. On both sides of the spectrum. The people who are middle of the road don't seem to post nearly so much.
The number of people who post political junk is amazing. The worst part is many of them are literally in a state of doublethink. On the one hand they complain about how high taxes are, and then they simultaneously complain the government isn't doing enough. If you point out that having government do more will almost certainly cost more, they get frustrated and tend to resort to magical unicorns to try and solve that.
Also, I don't care at all about the fact that the coffee shop screwed up your coffee. Big deal. To see you post some story about the plight of starving people while previously complaining about your coffee being screwed up makes you look like an incredible asshole. You should be glad you have the funds to afford your cup of hot coffee, and be glad the water to make it is is (mostly) OK.
So which one is it? The post starts off talking about a poll relating to social media, but then turns into hand-wringing over smart phones. To be sure they often go together, but this kind of fuzzy thinking is more click-bait than actual, you know, informed discussion.
If you don't think social media is good, don't use it. End of story.
Everyone continues to use social media, handing over all their private information to the profit of social media companies. It takes a special kind of retarded to keep doing this and complain about it. I'm sure you're all going to vote me down in a huff because, of course, taking responsibility for your own actions is horrible. It's the fault of the big, evil corporations!
They're coming after FB, to scare other tech companies to fall in line with censorship. It will be done in 2 years. Hillary's crew know they need to make an example of the biggest kid in the school yard.
... in many ways.
Facebook is looking to deploy AI on our photos to determine demographics like race, age, presence of boats, goats, grand kids, political affiliation, religion, sexual preferences, and they are going to make even more money then they do now.
I have a bot that deletes everything older than the current month. I'm a photographer and I don't want to feed that goddam machine, which pisses me off because Facebook was a great venue. I don't bother to post photos.
In fact, I'm down to 20 Friends. Used to be 750. They don't know it, but I'm doing THEM a favour, as well.
I still rely on Facebook to keep in touch with family, but because my footprint is shrinking, I'll eventually just bring it down.
I know of no way to circumvent. Email was compromised way before Facebook was created.
Other social media platforms are just as bad. In my professional opinion, we're screwed.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
US stocks have been in a global sell-off for over a year, but your taxes have been hard at work buying back that stock for the companies so you havent noticed. Youll start to notice when your economy is tanking in six months. BIGLY.
Think they're not good, then stop fucking using them. It's an easy god damn solution.
Social Media is mostly very Anti-social and is a cesspit of nothingness especially when Trump tweets.
PEople are boasting about Kim Kardashian re-tweeting their tweets on their resume's for heavens sakes.
If that does not tell how low it has sunk then frankly you are beyond help.
Just stop using the shit and let it die a death like MySpace.
Thanks Obama!!
we dont give you or money -you either steal it via ip theft or scream unfair practices and implement tarrifs if we don't buy from shitty american companies.
under the guise free trade.
I don't understand all the social network hate - my Facebook bubble consists of relatively 'normal' (by my standards) people, with about 10% people I don't even remember having added, but their posts liven up the echo chamber a bit, so that's cool.
I mostly use it to share articles I found interesting online, some jokes and some of the nicer life events (hey! i'm at the beach! anyone want to hand out?). I don't really see the haem in that, and it helps me stay in touch with other people that wold otherwise have dropped of my radar.
I think social media is akin to gambling - it's a horrible life consuming thing if you fall into that hole too deeply, and even though you curse at the casinos, you still go. That is a real problem.
But if you choose to participate in gambling just by participating in some raffles or bingos, I don't think it is too bad.
Isn't this just another moral panic?
For fuck sake. They ARE censoring, shadow banning, banning, suspending etc
This is not a invalid perception, its actual reality. Liberals don't like to admit that they are ruthless cunts who will break the law and kill people to achieve their goals. Banning someone on twitter pales in comparison to this.
America has no culture. That's why everything is so bland and pre-fabricated over there. It's also why shit like "Rockabilly" style exists. They are so devoid of culture that they pathetically cling to corny 1950s greaser fashion.
I don't use social media. Yes, I once made a Facebook account, had it for almost a week too, but I saw it was NOT something I wanted/needed/liked/trusted. I think the whole frickin' social media thing is hurting the human race, our social interactions, definitely politics and many other things we meat-puppets do. I was careful to use only bogus info, so none of my -real- info ever got to FB. I think people should be PAID for giving up their info. Pay me, or I'm not signing up. Fuck you and all your damned ads.
I see my friends face/face, otherwise we have email and USPS. Two people far away talk to me by phone, voice. My phone is OFF when I go to bed, and sometimes all day too. I don't jump when someone calls. I have VM & SMS, that should be sufficient. I get my news from ~20 different places on the web. REPUTABLE, TRUSTWORTHY, ETHICAL places, places that TMK have never lied to me. I'd never trust any FB/social media for news, only fools do that.
I'm no Luddite. There's three PCs in my place, plus the ol' lady and I have "smart"phones. I've been using/building/coding compooters since 300baud was screamin' fast.
Not so great for the US. We demonstrated to the rest of the world how stupid and easily manipulated we are in the last presidential election.
I'm sure they had a great laugh, but they're probably not laughing so much any more. But the Russians are still laughing...
Hiring Europe's professors through our work visa programs to work for us is not "IP theft". We beat you fair and legally.
It's not a hard decision for educated elite to accept a US paycheck that pays double and takes a fraction of the taxes. They come to us in droves for the combination of pay and the real chance of private property ownership. Our pro-rich society appeals to your top 10%, which are also the ones that generate inventions and drive industry.
When radio was new, people became addicted to it.
When TV was new, people became addicted to it.
Same for computers, modems, email, internet, Web, social media, etc.
Remember when you had to constantly tell your friends not to send you those email forwards promising free money from Bill Gates? People have moved on.
On social media, people were obsessed with photos of their restaurant meals, now it's selfies. Eventually, people will get bored with the petty stuff and start using it for what it's really good for: keeping in touch with not-so-close family and friends.
I thought social media was dumb when it first started to become popular all those years ago. I thought I was just a miserable old fogey but it turns out I was ahead of the curve.
I don't understand why people would sleep next to their phone, unless they put it on silent/dnd all night. Having the damn thing beeping at you all night would drive me insane.
Short story is... social media is exploiting a vulnerability in the human condition with a dopamine feedback loop.
Not too much new there, lots of products do it.. But they've taken it to some extreme level which is certainly harmful to society as a whole in the same way heroin and cocaine is.
You can't undo the like culture until you correctly identify it as a harmful stimulant.