WARNING! Possible snowflake buttercup virtue signalling…

Anyone else keep friends/follows on social media that annoy you just so you can be exposed to other points of view?

Really wary of confirmation bias on FB and Twitter particularly, so I do keep one or two contacts that ordinarily I’d nuke just because they [a] remind me there are other PoVs and so maybe the algorithms will think I’m more balanced than I actually am.

One FB ‘friend’ in particluar winds me up – a sometime riding mate, but pretty much just retweets UKIP/Britain First/etc. incendiary nonsense. Winds me up no end, but I keep reminding myself it’s for my own good…

I get quite enough of that on here. 🙂

(It’s one of the reasons I read some of the politics threads but make very few comments).

People who post funny stuff get to stay. People who post useful stuff get to stay (eg. tonight’s bike ride is at 7 o’clock at such and such). The rest get the see-no-more-posts-from-this-fool option ticked.

if they persistently post political nonsense and/or unsubstantiated statistical fake stories with no context, they get unfollowed or ignored.

if they post BritainFirst/EDL, they get unfriended. IRL too.

(unless it’s the taking the pee and mocking them stories)

you’ll never win an argument with a moron, even if that moron is close friend or family. so it’s not even worth giving them oxygen.

better still, just don’t use FB etc. (I just turned off practically all notifications, and if someone pokes or sends a message that will appear in my email).
far better for stress levels.

To be clear, I don’t respond to the crap I don’t like. It’s just there to remind me that idiots (IMO) have opinions too.

EDIT. And yes, I’m aware of the irony in that statement. Heehee.

I’ve got a group of decade-long friends of a variety of political persuasions that I keep on social media because they keep me informed, provide some fairly deep, interesting analysis (a couple have politics PhDs), are much more politically engaged than I am and we get some interesting conversations, whether we all agree with each other or not. You get the of wind-up, but generally it’s good-nature debate.

Two have been binned from FB by me and others in the past 6 months for continued breach of Rule #1, mainly being smug a-holes in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum. They’ve lost friends in real life for the same behaviour, and one of them got laid out by a less even-tempered member of the group on a night out a while back, because he wouldn’t knock the smugness off or change the subject.

It’s not about the point-of-view, it’s about adherence to Rule #1.

I have family who constantly post Britain first guff. sometimes I challenge it, sometimes I ignore it. Being family it seems to make it harder to deal with.

This place is the only social media site I haunt

I have a (un)founded fear of lack of privacy online. This forces me to limit my digital footprint

I have a relative who posts UKIP/Proud to wear poppy/farage/knights Templar/Britain first/my angel name/dog rescue stuff which I keep visible purely to keep up to date with bedwetter/racist/educationally lacking/middle England sentiment.
I make absolutely no comment on those posts as I have better things to do.

I have stopped using social media (apart from here) altogether. Feel much much better for it.

Similar to Mr Smith, but replace relatives with folk from school.

In the past I did keep a few FB friends with views that strongly differed to mine, partly to remind me that there are other points of view and partly to see if they were open to other views. After a while though, I noticed a pattern: if anyone challenged them on their strong views, they simply deleted them from their friends list. One friend did a massive slagging-off of doctors which I challenged. Disappointingly her response was to tell me to eff off and block me.

I’ve said it before but I feel as though there is a huge group of men in the late 30s and up who’ve been largely resistant to social media in the broadest sense but the proliferation of smart phones and tablets has meant they’ve finally started dipping their toe. Or rather, belly flopping in the shallow end.

Why isn’t everyone furious about the blind, one legged homeless, army veteran with ptsd when immigrants get hundreds of thousands a year? It’s outrageous! And it’s obviously official since there’s a picture with some text. It’s not as if anyone can create that.

I’ve observed people who are relatively intelligent, normal people post insane stuff online simply because they are completely oblivious to the idea that something online can be fake; that a photo or video can be mis-labled or misappropriated.

I have a friend who constantly posts utterly vile videos of people being tortured and assaulted – the premise of the video being that the people on the receiving end are animal abusers, but in reality it’s usually people being tortured because they are gay.

I know another who can’t understand why people in an mtb FB don’t want him to post porn…..must all be prudes.

Nope just here, where the heavy rock nerds I avoided at college as they sat in the corner picking their spots, with flies hovering overhead, hang out.

Is it still confirmation bias if you are right?

The only form of social media I dabble in is STW, plus a few other forums I am interested in.
While we may partake in the same hobbies/interests on these forums we still seem to have enough varied and (mostly) intelligent opinions and beliefs for me to see there is more than one side to any argument.

Anyone else keep friends/follows on social media that annoy you just so you can be exposed to other points of view?

Given the number of folk on here who announce at every opportunity who they’ve “blocked” via some browser add-on or other, I imagine not. It defeats the purpose of your echo chamber otherwise.

FWIW, I think it’s borderline dangerous to filter out voices you don’t agree with. I’ve never blocked anyone, even though there are some prize Britain First/racist/sexist/homphobic wallopers who are “friends” on facebook.

I think it’s borderline dangerous to filter out voices you don’t agree with

I think it’s borderline dangerous to let everyone have a platform to air their views.
I am sure that 13 years ago, my array of friends, and the public in general were not so rabidly stupid and extreme in their views. I believe they only are so extreme now because there’s a platform that everyone is on that let’s them do it, with instant single click to virally re-share those views without engaging a brain cell. And it’s encouraged the likes of the Daily Mail and Express to both feed that extreme view and feed upon that extreme view.

With freedom of speech comes freedom of listening.

If they won’t do the digital equivalent of shoving a sock in their gob, I’ll do the digital equivalent of sticking fingers in ears.

It’s good to have a balance of views so I visit sites or FB pages where I will find opposing views. I reckon the FB algorithm (and others) have huge potential to mislead and ultimately to isolate people from one another.
When I am on these opposing sites FB pages etc I rarely post as it just leads to a load of abuse from the intolerant folk on my own page. STW is in my opinion one of the better places for an exchange of views.

I don’t really get this, what are people doing with facebook and the like that gets them so wound up?

I’m somewhat aware that a lot of the news sources I read and things on twitter/facebook that I see somewhat agree with my own opinions, I really should read more news from sources that generally take stances i don’t agree with. With my facebook all the friends who are vocally political I tend to have the same viewpoints with anyway though. It might be my age and the sort of the people who I hang out with but I don’t think I have any friends who voted for brexit, at least not have said that they did.

Ah Social Media is only as good / bad as you make it.

A long time ago I learned that you’ll never change someone’s mind online. You might drag a few young people yet to form an opinion to your way of thinking, but mostly it’s about attention seeking.

So I don’t have online ‘friends’ who I consider Dicks, what’s the point in that – oh so we played a few games of Bulldog 30 years ago, that doesn’t mean I have to suffer your abundance of opinion, so they’re gone – in the 10 years I’ve had FB (give or take) I’ve had a single person complain to me in real life that I ‘unfriended’ them. I think I said in a jokey way I was bored of them spouting a load of “Winterland” style bullshit about Muslims or possibly Polish People “eating our Carp” or something, it was a while a go.

The ‘mute’ function is another good one, there’s a few people I sort of have to be ‘friends’ with – inlaws mostly, some a deeply concerned about the trails aircraft leave, others, worryingly ex-police would quiet like the ability to work in a more Judge Dread fashion.

It’s great now, I’ve stripped out all the to-lazy-to-write-it-yourself opinion shared from the dark edges of the web, all the people I don’t agree with and people I don’t like in the real world – my Facebook is an endless stream of adverts pretending to be media, strava posts and baby and pet pics.

Don’t use social media. Life’s too short to worry about **** on the internet.

What’s wrong with the phone or a get together in the pub to catch up?

andytherocketeer

I think it’s borderline dangerous to filter out voices you don’t agree with

I think it’s borderline dangerous to let everyone have a platform to air their views.[/quote]

Too late. Everyone does have a platform. Ignore of you want but you can’t remove their platform.

I am sure that 13 years ago, my array of friends, and the public in general were not so rabidly stupid and extreme in their views. I believe they only are so extreme now because there’s a platform that everyone is on that let’s them do it, with instant single click to virally re-share those views without engaging a brain cell.

This makes no sense.

I have friends from Uni that have polar opposite political views to my own, I sometimes read the (one-sided) discussions they have with their like-minded mates on FB but I don’t join in as I’d be completely outnumbered.

But I don’t unfriend them because they’re not 1-dimensional characters that exist exclusively in that world. They post other non-political stuff that’s interesting and/or amusing and I like reading about what they’ve been up to.

Don’t use social media. Life’s too short to worry about **** on the internet.

What’s wrong with the phone or a get together in the pub to catch up?

They’re not mutually exclusive ya know. You can even use one to organise the other :o, a lot of my friends don’t live near me so getting together does require organisation…

I like to stay friends with stupid women who post nonsense about reaching for the stars and heaven sent angels as children and other such guff as their views are opposing mine. 😐 I also find it amusing when ugly people post selfies!

No. None of my friends on FB post much in the way of politics.

zanelad – Member
Don’t use social media. Life’s too short to worry about **** on the internet.

Err, why are you reading this then?

Don’t use it (apart from here and Instagram, which is pretty much just pictures anyway)

I also find it amusing when ugly people post selfies!

You sound nice.

You sound ugly 😉

Got some people who repost stuff that I don’t agree with it but able to have a discourse with and I can see from their background etc why they might think that way but as soon as you get into racist edf nonsense then people get binned. Supporting Brexit or some stuff is a choice, supporting hatred is crossing a line.

Don’t use social media. Life’s too short to worry about **** on the internet.

What’s wrong with the phone or a get together in the pub to catch up?

100% agreed. It’s bad enough having to deal with emails without all the verbal and emotional incontinence people post on social media. You can resolve any issue and form strong bonds just by having a couple of pints together. My old drinking and climbing pals are friends for life; I can’t imagine having that depth of bond with some idiot who posts drivel on their cellphone. And what’s with all this selfie stuff? Never has conceit been more fashionable or possible. Lastly there’s the privacy aspect: I heard a Police detective say, of somebody the Police wanted to interview: “He doesn’t use social media so he’s proving quite difficult to find”!

I am sure that 13 years ago, my array of friends, and the public in general were not so rabidly stupid and extreme in their views. I believe they only are so extreme now because there’s a platform that everyone is on that let’s them do it

I’m not so sure. Rather, those views have always been held, the rise of social media has allowed it to become normalised, acceptable even. If you’re one person who doesn’t like the gayers or brown people, you’re a bigot; if you’re a hundred people, hey, maybe we should do something about that other lot.

there’s a few people I sort of have to be ‘friends’ with – inlaws mostly

I don’t really get this (but then I’m a higher functioning sociopath). I realised a few years ago, life’s too short to spend it in the company of arseholes. If someone’s a dick, bin them off, even if they are your wife’s dog’s cousin twice removed or something.

Don’t use social media. Life’s too short to worry about **** on the internet.

What’s wrong with the phone or a get together in the pub to catch up?

What’s the difference? This is something else I’ve never understood, the notion that “the Internet” is somehow not real. The medium is irrelevant, you’re dealing with real people with real feelings and emotions regardless of whether they’re “in the pub” or on the other end of a keyboard. The idea that a phone call is somehow more valid or important than an email (say) is laughable. How do you feel about posting letters, do they count?

Pulled up my own cousin on FB after she repeatedly posted the usual EDL/BF bollocks (“This illegals Moslem haz bin given a £5 million manshun for free, while our brave soljurs sleep in the street. Say no to Shania Law” etc)

Her posts got more and more repulsive. I “corrected” a few using the power of facts and told her I found them offensive. She went off on one and unfriended me. My own cousin. 😕

I’ve never understood, the notion that “the Internet” is somehow not real

+1

How is writing someone a letter, sending them a text or talking to them on the phone any more “real” than writing them an email, sending a iMessage, or talking to them on Skype?

People on here are real. Even the ones we might prefer to think are fictional. 😀

For me, i think people have always held views that other don’t agree with, but what Facebook and their ilk has given them is a platform to easily share their views very easily. Bearing in mind that many of these people are lazy as hell, before they would of had to actually physically go to a racist/xenophobic/ sexist (or whatever the topic of the day is) rally or to an actual meeting to spread there views with other like minded fools, now all they have to do is put down their pizza and raise a chubby thumb and they have an audience they can vent their fatty spleen at with out any effort on their part. They then get instant gratification of getting “likes” or comments from fellow fools.

Social media can be a great tool, i use it to keep in touch with friends all over the world, to find out about events and gain advice, but it makes you lazy in many ways.

Err, why are you reading this then?

I don’t really consider forums social media.

To me it’s the endless drivel on FB or Twitter. I’m sure a small percentage of it’s worthwhile, but most of what I’ve seem (from my sister and another relative on FB) is just shite.

Right, until social media democratised communications most of what we read was written by people with brains and education and at least some literacy. Now any old idiot can air their ill-educated fascist views and get an audience. God help us, now we have the prospect of WW 111 being started by a tweet.

To me it’s the endless drivel on FB or Twitter. I’m sure a small percentage of it’s worthwhile, but most of what I’ve seem (from my sister and another relative on FB) is just shite.

That’s at least in part down to a lack of quality control on the part of the user.