ficklenutsOct 29
donni saphire
Were people less insane before social media, or just quieter about it
Oct 29 at 3:29amIvory for iOS
Show threadandybrwnOct 29
@donni They just had a shorter reach
Show thread๐™ถ๐šŽ๐šŽ๐š”๐™ถ๐šข๐š›๐š•Oct 29
@donni Just quieter. Less validation.
Show threadGrant   ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆOct 29
@donni Social media did not create the evil. It was always there. But open access to multiple channels of broadcast and subsequent validation has blown this Pandoraโ€™s box wide open. And Iโ€™m afraid thereโ€™s no shuttering it again.
Show threadThanasis KiniasOct 29
@donni
it used to be that you only found out that your coworker was a chemtrails afficionado when he was six beers in at the Christmas party
Show threadAware-wolfOct 29

@tkinias @donni

Can confirm. I worked overnight at a grocery store back in the early 00's. You could tell which nights this one dude went to his car for beers on lunch break, by the string of conspiracy theories he'd talk about if you were stocking the same aisle

Show threadDan Neuman ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆOct 29
@tkinias @donni This is the social benefit of occasional excessive alcohol consumption. If you plan on tying yourself to someone, get them fall-down drunk first.
Show threadJustin MOct 29

@donni insane but overly insane people were either run out of town or were beaten.

Social Media allows all the insane people to communicate with each other

Show threadChuck BerrayOct 29
@donni Social Media was the vehicle that spread the insanity to the general population.
Show threadLAURENOct 29

@donni

The fire always burned but social media brought gasoline

Show threadSpace Catitude ๐Ÿš€Oct 29

@noondlyt @donni

Well put! ๐Ÿ˜…

Show thread@pineywoozle โ€˜s #3WordNoteOct 29
@noondlyt @donni Yep, but even before social media,, I remember reading studies, where they thought that loudly publicizing racist, activity and condemning in front page Newspaper articles. would act to quell it and what it did was actually embolden them and make them feel like โ€œhey we have buddies out there..โ€.
Show threadQuokka (on the move...)Oct 29
@noondlyt @donni we didn't start the fire, it's been always burning since the world's been turning
Show threadElena ``of Valhalla''Oct 29
@noondlyt @donni and there used to be firebreaking cuts instead of a continuous expanse of extremely flammable material
Show threadEggs now in different baskets.Oct 29
@donni I generally do not answer rhetorical questions.
Show threadDarwin WoodkaOct 29
@donni they weren't given permission to be that insane in public. Trump frees everyone to be complete asses and stupid as fuck.
Show thread๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณๅผ ๆฎฟๆŽ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆOct 29
@darwinwoodka @donni Trump is not a cause of any of these issues. Trump (and other populists around the world) is a symptom of the deep cultural rot at the heart of society.
Show threadElyse M GrassoOct 29
@donni I got involved in fandom in '74... so I think it was somewhat quieter back in the day. Things were just slower when social media involved postage stamps...
Show threadStarravenOct 29

@ElyseMGrasso @donni

Fanzines made things seem much calmer, yes.

Show threadToni AittoniemiOct 29
@donni there was this natural filter of sanity you applied to stay far from them, then somebody put an always-on phone-line between you and the orc hive
Show threadStarravenOct 29

@donni

They were no less insane. It was just that they had no way to broadcast their insanity to millions of people worldwide.

Show threadFrank HeijkampOct 29

@donni I think there are two different components here. First, those people always existed but they were not very visible, however now they are. Two, other people that might have tendencies to follow insane points of view were less exposed to these views in the past Nowadays their BS timeline starts serving them more and more outrageous posts, pictures and videos thanks to the perverse algorithms behind it.

That is at least my feeling.

Show threadTheZorseOct 29

@donni

People didn't have "followers" before, and didn't have selfies/avatars feeding them their own, curated self-images. And also consensus reality existed and was encouraged.

I guess none of that answers your question, lol. Yes, less insane.

Show threadGrumpyDad ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ธOct 29
@donni Neither. But they couldn't do much damage due to only affecting people within shouting distance
Show threadSupermoosieOct 29

@donni

Foreign states had to have boots on the ground to influence and create mayhem, for their advantage.

Now they can create division in countries with bots, memes and none has to leave home (or have the risk of becoming a double agent)

Show threadWulfyโ€”Speaker to the machinesOct 29

@donni

I've looked into this very question.

1. They were offcenter folk, but they were not in groups.
Hence the expression "Village idiot"
The internet gave the idiots a global village.

2. There were standards of propriety. Unreasonable social stigma like "Unwedded females should not spend time alone with males" and "It's frowned upon to eat the beating heart of your defeated enemy"

3.Though physical violence is bad, when reasoning failed, a good thwack to a non vital organ helped alignment.

Show threadsodiboo Oct 29
@donni Both. Social media allows people to share their ideas with less fear of getting punched in the face, AND therefore makes it easier for others to learn from those ideas and get radicalized. the insane people were quieter about it, but also there were genuinely fewer of them.
Show threadArapallaOct 29

@donni

Everybody has a drunk relative who used to spout crap at christmas gatherings.

Show threadHollieKNov 8
@Arapalla @donni They just had to do it in person, instead of on the internet.
Show threadlervenOct 29
@donni "both" is my guess, laid bare is a necessary component of toaster lover, it's cyclical in it's way
Show threadQuokka (on the move...)Oct 29
@donni i bet there's been a lot of studies done on it!
my guess would be that putting like-minded people in touch with each other can have amazing good vibes. But it can also magnify fuckwittery
Show threadRai Aren ๐Ÿ––โœจ๐Ÿ“š๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆOct 29
@donni Good question! ๐Ÿ™„
Show threadDaniel S. ReichenbachOct 29
@donni being online removed the shame component involved when physically confronting others with weird made up crap. Then add click baiting.
Show threadRoadskater, Ph.D.Oct 29
@donni They used to write long letters, on paper even, to college professors explaining why the professors were wrong about something. The professors would hang them on their office doors for the grad students to critique. So they weren't quiet, but they weren't "posting" where their fellow weirdos could amplify the noise.
Show threadMegatronicThronBanksOct 29
@donni Mass Digital Communications, with Digit fully inserted
Show threadGuy on the runOct 29

@donni

Crazy always lived down the street. You were just too far away to hear them. Just go read an old copy of your local paper.

Oh, and the mask (Internet) helps too.

Show threadcynthia rose is desirableOct 29
@donni both
Show threaddcozyOct 29
@donni The latter.
Show threadPeace is Not A Fable Oct 29

@donni
Both are true. I think lol.
Overall we were just happy to connect. Chat laugh share pics videos. Different fun at the time.
Although videos were much much shorter. And at one point they werenโ€™t used in the super early days at all cause the gear wasnโ€™t made.
I remember when the ads started coming in though โ€ฆ and boom social media is born. Almost more ads than content in some cases now.

Any body surf ๐Ÿ„ back in the early BBS days ? Lol

Mastodon ๐Ÿ˜ is a Good blend of both old and new.

Show threadDoug ๐ŸŒˆ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Oct 29
@donni I don't know but random people have always disappeared around me.
Show threadNoBorgOct 29

@donni Just quieter about it.

โ€œSocial media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiotsโ€
โ€• Umberto Eco

Show threadLuke KaniesOct 29

@donni @jalefkowit funny story: the famous โ€œFlorida manโ€ is mostly because Florida requires more reporting on crimes. So, itโ€™s not that Florida men are worse, we just know more about them.

In case, you know,you werenโ€™t sure of the your answer.

Show threadLinda Sgoluppi ArtistOct 29
@donni I'm 77 and looking back I don't think they were quieter about it, just that distance was a natural damper!
Show threadChookMother ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿฆ˜Oct 29
@donni People knew a lot less, but talked to each other a lot more. A lot of the talk was practical, everyday stuff like " I wonder if ...?" or " Do you know how to ..?" or "Where could I get ...?" whereas now you just look that up on your phone, which leaves more time for "Who is to blame for making my life shit ...?" and other big existential questions that lead down rabbit holes to never-never land.
Show threadRik D'huyvettersOct 29
@donni I'd say less visible. And the algorithm acts as a magnifying glass for insane content.
Show thread๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณๅผ ๆฎฟๆŽ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆOct 29

@donni I think the insanity was always there, but partially ameliorated by being within punching distance of an actual person, and with exposure to a lot more pushback making echo chambers harder to build.

So we were just as crazy, but the craziness was reined in at the expression level at least, and that reining in was stripped away by social media.

Show threadWandering StarOct 29
@donni Neither.
Show threadxs4me2Oct 29

@donni

The secondโ€ฆ suffered in silence, now everybody needs to knowโ€ฆ
Same goes for leadership btwโ€ฆ

Show threadestelleOct 29

@donni eh, social media was actually more normal than a lot of other forms of communication on the internet before 2022 or so (you can hazard a guess as to the factors at play there)

in person people were and remain either more normal (this means you're doing poorly) or much, much, much, _much_ weirder

but also, you can't be harmed in the same way through a display, so the accessibility has always been much higher online

the post-musk era... is truly an anomaly

Show threadCats Who Code (cursed)Oct 29
@donni definitely quieter. I've noticed this too.
Show threadBruce Heerssen Oct 29

@donni

Oh, people were every bit as insane. Social media has enabled the most problematic of them to connect with each other and compare notes.

Show threaddoboprobodyneOct 29

@bruce @donni
Higher cost of publishing probably meant more reflection before publishing. Also fewer publishing events gave people time to reflect on, for example, the morning news before they listened to the evening news.

Obviously there are other feedback loops at work, but I think these very important.

#news #media #socialMedia #cybernetics #philosophy #memes #memetics

Show threadBruce Heerssen Oct 29

@doboprobodyne @donni

AM talk radio is one of those feedback loops. It was hugely destabilizing, and still is. Those of us on the left often fail to grasp how incredibly important that medium has been for the far right. It's been a major vector for conspiracy theories, xenophobia, and racism for decades. An argument could be made that the current revanchist Republican party couldn't exist without it.

Show threadMercurius GoldsteinOct 29

@donni

The 16th century has some pamphlets it would like to share with you.

Show threadkolyaOct 29
@donni lamenting on a niche social network full of weirdoes how the village idiots were able to connect through social media. I like your humour, guys. 
Show threadDanish AkhtarOct 29
@donni social Media has revealed the True Nature of People.
Show threadOlle GladsรธOct 29
@donni Good question!
Show threadsunflowerinrainOct 29

@donni

Social wossits are like a public house: noisily full of some serious discussion and a great deal of eyewatering nonsense. Only the place has changed.

The difference is that people are experiencing the pseudo-pub with the expectation of it making sense.

Show threadPhoebe_CNov 1
@donni yes
Show threadScary AustinNov 8
@donni
Some from column A and some from column B
Show threadHollieKNov 8
@donni We only heard about the local lunatics, but generally via the local gossips.