The Social Dilemma (Netflix Documentary)

[Mark_UK]

Interesting documentary, but don’t feel it told me anything I didn’t already know or suspect.

 

[Molten]

Interesting documentary, but don’t feel it told me anything I didn’t already know or suspect.

Absolutely. but I'm super conscious every time I pick up my phone and I'm honestly happy about that because I wasted mindless hours that could have been used making myself a better putter

 

[Boone]

I love this place. It's the way the internet should be. Show me everything and let me decide. Don't decide what I like beforehand then show me that stuff. Also I appreciate you all guarding our personal info.

THP is great. But the vast majority of Internet forums where there can be free-wheeling discussion and the development of actual relationships are either gone or heading that way. Golf is enormously popular and that fact, plus the obviously great community JB and Morgan have built and all the support from sponsors has made this place successful. But this is the exception. Message boards, forums, special topic web communities have been made obselete by mega sites like FB, Twitter, Instagram, etc... it’s not just algorithms that are problematic, but the nature of conversation on those platforms which encourages drive by posting, anonymous harassment and rudeness, staking out of extreme positions, and aggressiveness.

Ive run an NFL forum for more than a decade. We are still at it, but every year it is harder to sustain traffic and attract new members. It’s a commitment and they’d rather post drivel they don’t have to be accountable for on one of the mega-alternatives. Forums are dying and I don’t see that trend changing. Makes me sad.

 

[DataDude]

THP is great. But the vast majority of Internet forums where there can be free-wheeling discussion and the development of actual relationships are either gone or heading that way. Golf is enormously popular and that fact, plus the obviously great community JB and Morgan have built and all the support from sponsors has made this place successful. But this is the exception. Message boards, forums, special topic web communities have been made obselete by mega sites like FB, Twitter, Instagram, etc... it’s not just algorithms that are problematic, but the nature of conversation on those platforms which encourages drive by posting, anonymous harassment and rudeness, staking out of extreme positions, and aggressiveness.

Ive run an NFL forum for more than a decade. We are still at it, but every year it is harder to sustain traffic and attract new members. It’s a commitment and they’d rather post drivel they don’t have to be accountable for on one of the mega-alternatives. Forums are dying and I don’t see that trend changing. Makes me sad.

I am an actuary by trade and DW Simpson (actuarial recruitment firm) ran a forum called Actuarial Outpost for years. I joined while taking exams and enjoyed posting there for years. 3 or 4 weeks ago the site is down for a week. I finally fins a backend link via direct IP address on a Reddit forum and find out basically DW Simpson shut the site down and it's running on a server till it shuts down die when the contract runs out. It's weird posting on a forum that about 20% of the users have found and no one knows when it will die for good.

 

[jdtox]

I just watched this and it was a bit disturbing. I have since stopped wearing my apple watch because I felt like it was making me feel like since I got the message or notification more quickly. I'm tied to my phone but I don't need to be on it constantly

 

[tahoebum]

Absolutely. but I'm super conscious every time I pick up my phone and I'm honestly happy about that because I wasted mindless hours that could have been used making myself a better putter

Since I retired 2.5 years ago I've really enjoyed getting into the habit of leaving my phone behind and/or turning it off when I'm skiing, boating, golfing, cycling, walking, etc. I got into the habit long ago of at least shutting my location services off if I had to have my phone turned on to be reached by work or family. When we were on vacation over Thanksgiving in Florida there were days where I only had my phone turned on for 20 minutes a day and I will do the same over Christmas break.

 

[Duffer Seamus]

I don't think being on it is the problem that they are talking about. That may be annoying, but that's the same problem that TV had and TV never caused the divisiveness we see now. The problem now is the algorithms that determine what we see when we browse the internet.

Understood, but I think the amount of time spent on social media, rather than real life, face-to-face interaction with real, living, breathing human beings is perhaps equally as unhealthy.

My golf buddies to either side of us are on zero social media networks. And one of them, like me, has friends and family all over the world. He keeps in touch with them via email, texts, phone, and snail mail.

What do you think Google's product is? What is Facebook selling?

Google, Facebook, Twitter, all of them: You, the user, are the commodity. Any time it's "free," you are what they're selling. This is one reason my wife and I switched from Android to Apple products long ago. Yeah: Their stuff is pricey, but their privacy policies are iron-clad. They don't sell or share your information. Period. It's also why I don't use free email accounts anywhere. (I still have a gmail account, but that's a vestigial account I simply haven't gotten around to deleting.)

I deleted Facebook and Twitter in August. My 30 days just ended so they are both gone forever.

Twitter I dumped long ago. My 30-day mark just passed yesterday with Facebook, so that's now gone forever. My short-lived Instagram presence was tied to my Facebook account, so that's now gone for good, as well.

Here's a scary thing: So late-ish last night I receive an email: "Subject: Your Billing Agreement with Facebook Payments Inc has been cancelled" Say what?!?! Near as I can tell, what happened was that at one point I sought to contribute to a cat rescue. Somewhere in the process of that I figured out Facebook wanted access to my PayPal account. NFW! So I bailed out. Apparently not fast enough, it turned out.

I have since stopped wearing my apple watch because I felt like it was making me feel like since I got the message or notification more quickly. I'm tied to my phone but I don't need to be on it constantly

Scrapping the watch isn't necessary. Just go into Watch -> Notifications and turn off notifications for anything about which you don't care to be incessantly notified. E.g.: I turned off email notifications on my watch on Day 1. Given the volume of email I get, that would've driven me crazier than I am already. If necessary: Delete or disable any annoyance apps installed on the watch.

Personally, even when I was on social media sites, I rarely installed their apps on my mobile devices. I simply did not care to be tracked that way. Facebook, in particular, was caught violating Apple's privacy policies, IIRC. Possibly more than once?

 

[maxw72]

I haven't gone through this thread so sorry if someone mentioned this already but Joe Rogan interviewed Tristan Harris, who speaks a lot about the Social Dilemma as well as more about this subject. Really good.

 

[Canadan]

A lot of this is what I expected, and a lot of it is horrifying.

I've always limited my activity on facebook, and have seen some really concerning trends on twitter this year that make me less inclined to use it.
Instagram was big for me for quite a while but it got to be too long from a 'time spent' perspective so I dialed back.

I am mostly concerned about the social aspect, as if I am on YouTube I don't mind content tailored for me.

 

[mreiter]

Anyone else watch this? As a programmer I have been trying to tell people what is wrong with the way we consume social media and news these days but it's really hard for people to understand. People look at their internet like it's a book that everyone reads the same, but 70% of the internet is not like that at all, it's a personally curated space created just for you based on the things you have enjoyed and consumed in the past. The internet you see, no one else is seeing, just you. This has obvious troubling realities and can disconnect people from what is really true. I would encourage everyone to watch, but will warn some of the realities are uncomfortable to see.

I did watch it and really was an eye opener. I would highly recommend this.

 

[Duffer Seamus]

Well, I guess I'm going to have to watch thing thing to find out what all the buzz is about

 

[maxw72]

A lot of this is what I expected, and a lot of it is horrifying.

I've always limited my activity on facebook, and have seen some really concerning trends on twitter this year that make me less inclined to use it.
Instagram was big for me for quite a while but it got to be too long from a 'time spent' perspective so I dialed back.

I am mostly concerned about the social aspect, as if I am on YouTube I don't mind content tailored for me.

I agree, I don't mind what Youtube does, they know I love golf and Woodworking, so they suggest golf and woodworking. I do hate though that the fact I looked up an Oculus 2 because my CFO was telling me about it and I had no idea what it was, every Youtube ad is now for an Oculus 2. I'm past my gaming prime and I'm not about to strap that thing to my 2 year olds head, I don't want it quit trying to sell it to me!

That all being said I don't remember the exact phrasing in the Social Dilemma but they talk specifically about what you had mentioned with too much time being spent on Instagram/social media. The AI is suggesting things that keep you on it for five minutes longer.....and then five more minutes....and just five more minutes more after that.