iyo did facebook ruin the internet?

unfollow is so crucial

people show up more in your feed if they've been clicking on you / scoping you out - y/n? paranoid?

i still don't really get pages or events, seems like there are pros out there, i just want to make a thing for my thing and not think about anything, y can't i do that.

p. interesting to me how earnest this thread is -- like, there's a joke or two but this feels like a q that is important to people. I think about it too - feel like fb didn't ruin shit until the upworthy style of presentation got perfected but once that happened, fuckin A. if you don't curate the shit out of your fb feed it's just garbage clickbait forever and it feels like it's getting worse daily, but at some point even your ex-coworkers will get sick of that too and stuff will change a little...maybe? if upworthy headlines are the terminal point of social media that's kind of hilarious and horrible

One Shocking Truth About Social Media

think-pieces ruined the internet

wow i never get upworthy shit just constant deejay / electronic music / albums by bands news and social justice axes / snarky stuff from brit ilx zing crew ("look at that over dere!") but then i'm pretty strict about unfollow, if you post one annoying thing u r gone from the safe space of my feed immediately.

mordy otm about killfiling on facebook, pruning your feed for annoying people is so necessary. but i keep some in there just to keep me in check even though they are basically spamming my life.

i moved away from the city i had lived in my entire life this year and fb is an okay way to feel connected to my friends back home, so i appreciate it for that. i'll occasionally argue with someone in the comments but i don't find it's a great platform for that, better to have some distance than like arguing with a random dude u went to hs with over whether bill maher is islamophobic

i know this is a set up for a knee-slappingly self-deprecating comeback but communities like ilx or sa at their best is the best form of the internet imo. unless you're a celeb or "work" for it (lol) twitter is just too much shouting into the void (the only non-spam followers i have on twitter are irls and ilxors) and fb is too personal so u can't go full sociopath. like u get good writing, you can outsource a lot of 'content' mining to ppl you "trust", get enough feedback to not make u feel like a shrimpy voyeur, perfect anonymity

mords is always a welcome sighting, i don't get why everyone's always so seemingly annoyed @ u tbr. xps

Facebook fixed the internet for a lot of people who never would have used RSS, Twitter or message boards. Their options before Facebook were the "funny" email forwards from their uncle or going to the Yahoo front page.

I don't really post to FB any more, because I don't know who I'm talking to and it feels weird. But it's good that people have a way to share stuff with friends and family. I mean if all Facebook did was provide the world's best platform for baby picture sharing that's a legit thing for a few hundred people to spend time building imo.

great post flopson

i moved away from the city i had lived in my entire life this year and fb is an okay way to feel connected to my friends back home, so i appreciate it for that.

yeah this is largely its function for me, and those are the same people sharing clickbait - former coworkers who I love and care about but who are really very normal people, y'know. so like 3/4 of their posts are "are you fucking kidding me" stuff but fb is otherwise the best & probably only medium for staying connected to them.

otm about how ilx (or sa no doubt, haven't posted there so I'd only know passively) are, when they're working and people are hearing each other and responding, some of the best of the internet.

pruning your feed for annoying people is so necessary. but i keep some in there just to keep me in check even though they are basically spamming my life.

haha if i was into "truth bombing" things, this would totally be one for me

not to come off all "my friends are cool" but "very normal" != sharing upworthy trash, ime

I used to prune the feed but I opened the floodgates a while back to get the full experience

feel like fb didn't ruin shit until the upworthy style of presentation got perfected but once that happened, fuckin A. if you don't curate the shit out of your fb feed it's just garbage clickbait forever and it feels like it's getting worse daily, but at some point even your ex-coworkers will get sick of that too and stuff will change a little...maybe?

That's not Facebook ruining the internet. That's people ruining Facebook.

As a non-Facebooker (I DON'T EVEN HAVE A TV (j/k I do have a TV and I watch it ALL THE FUCKING TIME)) with a carefully curated Twitter feed and a nice selection of RSS feeds, I hardly ever see that kind of clickbait-y garbage.

on the aggregation level i find that ilx + well chosen fb friends + rss feeds + [a little bit twitter] + some online newspapers/magazines = pretty good combo for keeping abreast of all interesting developments. i'm not sure that any of them tho are /really/ very good at facilitating conversation which is probably best kept to rl f2f convos and IM chats (which fb is also pretty good for tbh - over the last decade or whatever almost all my IM conversations have migrated from AIM to gmail to FB)

might do that i need a shakeup xxp

i am due for another round of pruning. a while back, i loosened my standards for friend request acceptance as well as the prime facebook error of commenting on and liking posts by generally dull people, so I am seeing a lot of "hilarious animal videos from fake radio stations" right now

there are many different flavors of upworthy trash and all kinds of people in my fb newsfeed post it. there is a totally rad couple i'm friends with who are both social workers and they are both really into activism and he's into all kinds of cool weird music but all they post is the social justice equivalent of upworthy trash. "WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN THIS COP AND THIS BLACK YOUTH WILL BLOW YOUR MIND"

i'm not sure that any of them tho are /really/ very good at facilitating conversation which is probably best kept to rl f2f convos and IM chats (which fb is also pretty good for tbh - over the last decade or whatever almost all my IM conversations have migrated from AIM to gmail to FB)

the reason i started reading ilx was because i was 16 years old and had no one to talk about pitchfork with f2f lmao

fb messenger is really sweet because you can communicate entirely w/ stickers. i probably fb message more than i even text and if it didnt kill my phones battery i would basically only use fb message for chatting

interesting to read this thread because most of it doesnt really get at what i hate about the 'facebooking' of the internet but i am also getting old i guess

i'll cop to sharing and liking difft versions of upworthy trash. the empty whole foods candy bar calories of fb.

Stickers are cool but they stole that pretty much wholesale from azn messaging programs :\

well azn people stole the internet from whites so it's fair now

cultural appropriation sadface

interesting to read this thread because most of it doesnt really get at what i hate about the 'facebooking' of the internet but i am also getting old i guess

it seems like the content used to be 'rich', even just like random weirdo posts from some anon on a message board, but now that the mechanisms of networking, always-on-ness etc dominate every single 'publication' event, content in a global sense is being depleted, dropping to zero value

like, reading 'intellectual' thort-mag content is just the same old feeling as reading a buzzfeed listicle, only with more brow, and they all still flog it on the same more-more-more new-new-new cycle

feeling that post. liking it if u will

As much as I love ILX, this place can be so high-pressure sometimes, because the average level of intelligence and discernment is so high and people are so quick to shoot down bullshit and banality. Sometimes it's freeing to just be like "here's a picture of us having fun at a basketball game" and not have to think of something original to say.

so happy we don't have 'likes' on ilx since the way i see ppl on fb use it, esp during 'political discussions,' is just to 'like' every single comment that agrees w/ them which would obv be out of control here

the stickers and emoji things are really ugly

kind of a slave to the like tbr it's how they get you

I have only ever seen the stickers used ironically.

i exclusively use bee + puppycat stickers on fb

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/08/4b/ac/084bacd68e3fe154557366b3c84fe7ea.jpg

ilx has fun picture threads it's pro fun around here afaict

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well azn people stole the internet from whites so it's fair now

― iatee, Monday, February 23, 2015 2:52 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

Whites stole emoji too. Whites are out of control

bee + puppycat is great. also a big fan of powerrangers and internet slang.

i saw some insane screed this dude posted about the illumanti to the noize bord in like 2005 get revived the other day. feel like thats the internet i want. i mean those dudes are still posting shit but its like youtube vidz which is lame.

those stickers are cute.

luriqua? luriqua was definitely a high pt of internet weird

i think there's something about the shape and color and size related to text ... like my visceral reaction of "ugh gross" to those things feels comparable to the way some ppl responded to that trypophobia thread

like, reading 'intellectual' thort-mag content is just the same old feeling as reading a buzzfeed listicle, only with more brow, and they all still flog it on the same more-more-more new-new-new cycle

^^ yeah I mean this is what I mean by upworthy. it's all fucking upworthy. lots of right-on I'd-agree-with-this-if-I-was-going-to-follow-that-link stuff is the same shit just higher-falutin', adding nothing to anything, just back-patting "I also want to weigh in stuff"

much like this post, my bad

the cactus and monkey stickers are the best

what's a thort-mag

thort - thong/short

sometimes i get a calm peaceful feeling from liking a bunch of stuff i'm not going to click on or comments i don't really care about. steady accumulation of plus ones in the relevant slots.

tbh I read a lot of erowid for old style Internet fun

random acts of kindness xp

lol totally

Maybe it's because I'm getting old, but Facebook (and Instagram and Twitter) seem to be quite dreadful.

So, the trolls can troll me by say, "yes ure getting old", but let me elaborate for those who wish to read my opinion on this.

Facebook didn't ruin anything, yes, but it amplified people's negative side; likewise with Instagram and Twitter. I've noticed many people post the most inane things on social media; partly out of boredom, partly because they have no real interests at that point in their lives, and partly because it's impulsive. I'm sure everything on display on social media was already happening in people's minds, but now we get confirmation of these bad parts of ourselves and social media seems to fuel all of it.

To be honest, I think forums are kind of similar, but at least there are ways users moderate that; be it through shaming, criticising or even trolling. In the end, I think there is a time and place for interesting conversation on the Internet, but most people do not use it for this purpose. I don't mean to say the Internet should always be some encyclopaedia because, of course, even I like to have mindless conversation on it, but I try to limit that.

For me, the wonderful thing about the Internet as a whole is finding new things about your favourite things or hobbies. In my case, music. ILX is a cool source for music. Every time it goes beyond that, even music discussion, it falls into a trap. It's like real life in that respect, except everything is on display, because people feel more comfortable sharing their feelings or getting into virtual fights. Okay, we know people have differences of opinion, we know there are bigots among us, we know there are sociopaths, we know some agree, some don't, some have bad tempers, some don't care, etc. I don't need to see that online to confirm it.

That's probably why my Web use has gone down dramatically, I suppose. I use the Internet/Web for work stuff, read a few articles that might interest me, take them in, think about them, and either write my thoughts down in my diary or among my really close friends (who are only a few). Even when acquaintances share their strong opinions and I happen to differ from them, I just nod. Not that I don't think these people can teach me anything new, but it's just the manner in which it is done is really quite tiresome. I restrict these types of interactions with only my close friends and family.

The irony is when I do post or do something on the Web that is exactly what I say I avoid. I pin it down to exceptions/isolated cases. I guess I'm mostly a lurker, but still.

It's true also that social media is not interested in deeper analyses. For example, I once wanted to have a discussion on Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations on Twitter. I posted a lot about it, got a few favorites, a retweet, but that's about it. Many will say that is not the right medium, and that is also a valid point. Twitter and Instagram are not meant for any meaningful interactions, it seems. They're like the TV of our time.

Similarly, Facebook seems to be like that, as well. I know some will say it depends on your circle of friends, but even my friends with PhDs or 'intellectual' friends shy away from Facebook because of the nature of this medium: it's public, anyone's friends can basically comment, people don't always understand a person's way of socialising/communicating/etc., and sometimes it's too much work to keep up with a Facebook conversation. Needless to say, the more educated bunch don't like the privacy issues. Plus, most of my really close friends hardly use it. Facebook comments, I find, are meant to be more spontaneous or instant, anyway.

Email seems to be a better medium but it's like writing a letter these days. It seems the best way is over a pint at the pub, to be honest.

Okay, remind me not to post semi-deep/pseudo-intellectual BS this year again.

i think that before fb boring ppl were boring in their own ways but now there are readymade templates of boredom that everyone can subscribe to so now everyone is boring in the same way which is like boring to the second power

in spite of facebook's best efforts to shit up my feed with unbelievably stupid and/or vile posts from entities i'm not connected to in any way, it actually manages to be pretty good about 60-70 percent of the time for me because i've joined like a hundred groups called "Through the Lens - Nevada" and "Utah Herpers" and "vintage backpacking photos" and "Utah ghost towns / cemeteries" and "Utah hikers" etc. etc. So about 60-70 percent of my feed is someone's hiking photos or bucket list snake finds or other landscape photos, all things i find enjoyable to look at. Fairly reliably though facebook will try to ragebait me with some noxious bullshit meme or reel or ai garbage which will sometimes repel me for a day. My Instagram feed is a lot more annoying because of who I follow - mainly fags and fitness accounts. Youtube is my go-to for relaxing train ride content. Other than those three i don't fuck with social media anymore, especially news-adjacent like X or Bluesky, very glad to have quit those.

been thinking about kicking it entirely too. lately I'm getting ads for their "generate AI video" thing and some of the example videos are just horrifying shit and I wonder why am I still on a platform that's going all-in on this. the main reason I think is it's good for events. that's how I know what's going on around towm and how I promote my own stuff. oh and I talk to a lot of people through Messenger but I hate it as a chat app. but that's what people use.

but there *is* plenty of good stuff on there, I mean of course there is, a big chunk of the internet is there now. thing is you can curate your feed all you want but you still rely on the algorithm to serve it to you, if you see something you like it's always so ridiculously difficult to find it again, unless it's an ad in which case you'll be seeing it for two months straight. so to answer the question in the title yeah by creating an internet where everyone puts there content on one of 4 platforms who then control who sees it did ruin the internet. at the very least it kinda killed all the fun viral stuff the it used to be good at regularly producing, I mean what have we got since Rebecca Black

I haven't been on fb for years, but I'm trying to sell a cymbal through my wife's account. It says it's posted but the listing isn't visible to anyone -- the cymbal brand is "Wuhan", so my theory is that it's getting filtered because the system thinks it's a COVID conspiracy theory, lol.

I really hate Facebook but also I have multiple pages I administrate on it (3 for work purposes, 2 for fun), and at this point it really is the easiest way to stay in at least vague touch with a lot of people I like who I don't see all that much. I am thinking of finally moving a lot of my personal posting to some kind of blog, because I hate the idea of feeding the Zuckerbeast. Not a Substack, since that has all of its own issues, anyone have recommendations for other platforms?

beehiv

My therapist asked me last week why I don't write. It's a difficult question because it doesn't have one answer. One of the answers, I think, is that for the past decade I've been trying to figure out how to go on strike against the Internet.

Because the whole thing is bullshit, really. On ILX it's fine because the only people getting paid are the bandwidth providers, there aren't any advertisers or anything like that. Once an Internet site starts becoming a for-profit business and/or taking advertisers, though, I cease becoming a member of that site and start becoming an unpaid employee. Oh I'm getting paid in "exposure", awesome, thanks very much. Assholes.

I guess some people would say that I'm fighting a battle that was lost decades ago, but I don't see it that way. Nobody actually fights for lost causes, is how I see it. It's a difficult thing to do, is all. Outside the Overton Window, I guess you might say. I just feel like, I mean, the workers have a right to control the means of content production.

I guess it's OK for me to go on social media itself and promote the idea that people should strike against social media. If the owners started feeling actually threatened by my advocacy, though, they'd do what owners do - they'd "fire" me. IDK. I never said I was a good organizer. It's been a decade and it's just now occurred to me that what I've been doing for the last decade might actually be some form of strike. I do feel a kinship with someone like William T. Vollmann, however he conceives of himself. Limiting my participation in the corporate Internet - by which I mean _any site that operates with a goal of profit_ - is certainly of significant detriment to me personally. I just think it's worth it in the longer term, not just individually, but as part of a collective struggle, a class struggle.

Probably most people don't think of "communism" as "I don't post to Facebook". I kind of do, though?

Though my FB feed gets more ads than a decade ago, it's also free of angst: no rightist agitprop, just suggested Miami Herald or gay synth pop content. I've never had a problem with FB generally.

I logged in for the first time in ages and my feed had morphed into like 80% ads. It's like when you stop to tend to your garden, just gets overgrown with weeds. But honestly I prefer my garden.