"Social Media" is societal cancer

[4x4Tyke]

Some social media can be very informed, for example Quora is very good at tearing down many of the mass hysterical tendencies of the likes of FB. Their audience is however pretty small.

https://www.quora.com/topic/Alfie-Evans-10

[andy_s]

4x4Tyke said:

Some social media can be very informed, for example Quora is very good at tearing down many of the mass hysterical tendencies of the likes of FB. Their audience is however pretty small.

https://www.quora.com/topic/Alfie-Evans-10

I subscribe to Quora due to my young son using it. It does give some good measured and informative answers, my main observation is that contributors must have the patience of saints as a lot of the questions (as here, or try 'speed of light') are repeated ad nauseum, and it shows that some people don't even do first level research before asking something. Having said that, there are some eminently qualified respondents and little trolling; so with those caveats yes, it's very good I think. Unfortunately although the truth is out there, as they say, it's generally not the first port of call for anyone who gets their usual info from The Sun.

[chunder27]

I do not think anyone is really capable of saying that advertising does not affect them.

That is why I find it so cancerous in the media. It is unbeatable, it is everywhere, and it affects all sorts of things.

I detest that it does affect my life, I really do. But I think all you can do is research, use yours head and knowledge to avoid the gimmicks.

Car adverts i find almost all embarrassing, perfect people, perfect roads, perfect everything. WTF are these idiots on.

I guess some people must be switched on to it and buy it all up.

As for social media, it is the linked in stuff that bothers me, you search for car insurance or holidays and your social media is spammed with adverts for those things for weeks.

Are you asked about this? No. That is fairly sordid stuff if you ask me

[turbobloke]

chunder27 said:

I do not think anyone is really capable of saying that advertising does not affect them.

As we're back on advertising...yes some advertising affects me, it makes me laugh.

Sometimes that may be the intention. It doesn't lead to me buying the goods and services in the ads, but a laugh a day is meant to be good for you.

[Derek Smith]

turbobloke said:

As we're back on advertising...yes some advertising affects me, it makes me laugh.

Sometimes that may be the intention. It doesn't lead to me buying the goods and services in the ads, but a laugh a day is meant to be good for you.

Yes, of course.

Those who reckon that they are above being influenced by advertising, be it on TV or social media, should look at the research.

Facebook is so successful because of its metrics. It knows things about all of us who've been on it. It is targeted to an extent that the Syrian missile attack couldn't match. Not only that, others can extrapolate from the info supplied. They can make accurate assumptions because they've bog big data. In other words, they know things about those of us who aren't on Facebook.

I worked in advertising for 10 years, knowing many of the tricks of the trade. Yet it affected me and that was in the old days of scattergun advertising.

Back in the 70s I was told that no one buys stuff on logic. We, the youngsters coming into advertising, knew better of course, we were too knowledgeable, too clever. The lecturer then asked us a few questions and all of a sudden we were exposed as fantasists. FF to the 2000s and research shows that no one buys stuff on logic, not once they've been exposed.

Oddly enough, those who somehow feel themselves above that sort of thing are amongst the most vulnerable.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

turbobloke said:

chunder27 said:

I do not think anyone is really capable of saying that advertising does not affect them.

As we're back on advertising...yes some advertising affects me, it makes me laugh.

Sometimes that may be the intention. It doesn't lead to me buying the goods and services in the ads, but a laugh a day is meant to be good for you.

Do you dress in a codpiece with a ruff, white wig and beauty spot. If you wear trousers or jeans, a shirt or t shirt, jacket, maybe a suit, and generally fit in with everyone else, ask yourself why. What influences have you been under in order that the way you dress is probably very similar to everyone else?

[AreOut]

Timmy40 said:

Alot of fat/skinny bald blokes pretending to be powerfully built, 6ft 2in Company Directors who know Martial arts?

Hey, I'm not bald!

[captain_cynic]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

That's really my point. My impression of Zuckerburg is that he is kind of left leaning liberal, which is fine. His background is Jewish intellectual so perhaps typical of that East / West coast attitude. Good for him., it's a free world. So what if the owners of Youtube and Twitter were of a similar mindset, they got together and decided to ban conservative/right wing content?

I'm probably more in Zuckerburgs political camp than Trump / Farage, but that power still doesn't sit comfortably with me.

Lets be honest, facebook is just a platform for advertising (and looks quite a mess when you accidentally visit it without adblock on.

Zuck's problem is that Facebook needs to be an echo chamber or it'll lose readership, lost readership is lost ad revenue. So banning content from particular political leanings is going to do that. Although some would say they're already bleeding readers... but banning far right/left blowhards is still just going to accelerate the process.

[captain_cynic]

redrabbit said:

Lanker22 said:

Rovinghawk said:

6', chunky but solid with it, co. director with extensive marital arts experience. I use FB to keep in touch with far-flung friends.

So basically you’re fat...

Fat or not, tell us more about these 'marital arts'.....

Technically, its not a martial art but a "self defence system". Basically it doesn't have rules like a marital art but it designed to be the fastest way to put someone on their arse with the least effort on your part.

[chunder27]

As I said, advertising affects us all, I simply try and let it not affect my decisions about most things. Most tihngs I buy like food, petrol, clothes are bought for a reason, not simple because I can. If I make a big purchase I research, that is simply using portals to buy, advertising does not affect that.

Some advertising is informative, or factual, and that is fine.

It is the lifestyle stuff I hate.

How is it that Oakfurnitureland or DFS are having sales ALL the time? That doesn't make me want to go in there, it makes me aware of them. And aware how desperate they are! Meaning I would likely be pestered by salespeople if I went in there, so that means I would not go there on principle!

[Rude-boy]

Cold said:

Reading through a brief selection of his other Tweets it seems clear that this bloke is nothing more than shouty racist himself. He's also a bit of a nob.

Didn't need to go that far.

"eating ass" as his tag line or whatever it is tells me all i need to know. i.e. meant to type "I am an Ass."

[andy_s]

captain_cynic said:

Technically, its not a martial art but a "self defence system". Basically it doesn't have rules like a marital art but it designed to be the fastest way to put someone on their arse with the least effort on your part.

*cough*

[StevieBee]

chunder27 said:

As for social media, it is the linked in stuff that bothers me, you search for car insurance or holidays and your social media is spammed with adverts for those things for weeks.

Are you asked about this? No. That is fairly sordid stuff if you ask me

On the basis that nobody expects to pay for their online services, the only way they can be funded is through advertising - in the same way that newspapers, magazines, radio and TV were / are (although in those cases, advertising revenue lessens the cost to the reader/viewer).

The advantage now is that the advertising can be more precisely targeted so the ads you see do at least have a modicum of relevance to what you might be interested in rather than the scatter-gun approach of the past.

To suggest it is sordid or evil or subversive is to suggest that all advertising falls into these categories which plainly it doesn't.

[amusingduck]

andy_s said:

captain_cynic said:

Technically, its not a martial art but a "self defence system". Basically it doesn't have rules like a marital art but it designed to be the fastest way to put someone on their arse with the least effort on your part.

*cough*

woosh

[Shakermaker]

chunder27 said:

A
How is it that Oakfurnitureland or DFS are having sales ALL the time? That doesn't make me want to go in there, it makes me aware of them. And aware how desperate they are! Meaning I would likely be pestered by salespeople if I went in there, so that means I would not go there on principle!

So where do you go to buy a sofa then?

You and I may well not go into OFL or DFS, me much for the same reason as you I guess, but they seem to be successfully selling sofas for many years so far and will likely continue for a while, so their advert works for their target market. Their name is in your head whether you want it or not and they are sat there on the retail park next to a big Halfords and an out-of-town Next Superstore.. might as well pop in...

I wonder if SafeStyle have seen an increase in the amount of sales since they dropped "YOU BUY ONE YOU GET ONE FREE I SAID YOU BUY ONE YOU GET ONE FREE CALL 0800 106 107 NOW THAT'S 0800 106 107!" which I typed from memory. Never used them. Still know the number and the advert. But they've got rid of that advert since the bloke in them was done for some fraud or similar. Have their new adverts worked in their favour I want to know?

[SeeFive]

amusingduck said:

andy_s said:

captain_cynic said:

Technically, its not a martial art but a "self defence system". Basically it doesn't have rules like a marital art but it designed to be the fastest way to put someone on their arse with the least effort on your part.

*cough*

woosh

I think I am aware of it.

NSFW - language https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qFV1iFVJUoA

[StevieBee]

Shakermaker said:

chunder27 said:

A
How is it that Oakfurnitureland or DFS are having sales ALL the time? That doesn't make me want to go in there, it makes me aware of them. And aware how desperate they are! Meaning I would likely be pestered by salespeople if I went in there, so that means I would not go there on principle!

So where do you go to buy a sofa then?

You and I may well not go into OFL or DFS, me much for the same reason as you I guess, but they seem to be successfully selling sofas for many years so far and will likely continue for a while, so their advert works for their target market. Their name is in your head whether you want it or not and they are sat there on the retail park next to a big Halfords and an out-of-town Next Superstore.. might as well pop in...

This is exactly it. Also, these ads are far more difficult to target accurately so you tend to see them more frequently.

If you've searched online for sofas as well as a new Rolex and high-end holiday, then the chances are DFS will not be filling your SM platforms with their ads. If you've been looking for Casio and a week at Butlins, then maybe they will.

The other reason they advertise as much as they do is to keep the competition out of the marketplace. OFL have pretty much grabbed the market for oak furniture all to themselves. The alternatives are premium products (different target market), shopping mall trade booth type retailers and the sort of shops that take over the space occupied by long gone department stores. The latter of these being themselves long-gone when you need to call in the warranty.

Anybody looking to come into that market would therefore need to out-advertise OFL which may put them off.

Only two companies make all the washing powders and detergents you find in any supermarket yet the brands available are hugely numerous. Despite the suggested claims, they all do the same job in the same way to the same quality - multi-branding is to stop a third company from finding a gap and exploiting it.

[rxe]

Shakermaker said:

So where do you go to buy a sofa then?

You and I may well not go into OFL or DFS, me much for the same reason as you I guess, but they seem to be successfully selling sofas for many years so far and will likely continue for a while, so their advert works for their target market. Their name is in your head whether you want it or not and they are sat there on the retail park next to a big Halfords and an out-of-town Next Superstore.. might as well pop in...

I wonder if SafeStyle have seen an increase in the amount of sales since they dropped "YOU BUY ONE YOU GET ONE FREE I SAID YOU BUY ONE YOU GET ONE FREE CALL 0800 106 107 NOW THAT'S 0800 106 107!" which I typed from memory. Never used them. Still know the number and the advert. But they've got rid of that advert since the bloke in them was done for some fraud or similar. Have their new adverts worked in their favour I want to know?

You lost me with the "retail park next to a big Halfords".... why on earth would I be there?

IMO a fairly big chunk of people are dropping off the radar quite quickly - I see hardly any ads online, and 99.9% of my goods by value are delivered. I'd no more go to Oak Furniture Land than go to the moon. About the only thing I physically buy these days is lunch.

If you want ad-free online either:

- Use Chrome and the Ublock Origin + Privacy Badger plugins
- Use Brave. Brave for IOS is a bit flaky, but on the PC it is the mutt's proverbials.

[Shakermaker]

rxe said:

You lost me with the "retail park next to a big Halfords".... why on earth would I be there?

IMO a fairly big chunk of people are dropping off the radar quite quickly - I see hardly any ads online, and 99.9% of my goods by value are delivered. I'd no more go to Oak Furniture Land than go to the moon. About the only thing I physically buy these days is lunch.

If you want ad-free online either:

- Use Chrome and the Ublock Origin + Privacy Badger plugins
- Use Brave. Brave for IOS is a bit flaky, but on the PC it is the mutt's proverbials.

"The target market" would be there

Now then - you order loads online. What makes you decide what you want to order? We haven't yet got into the "premium product placement" bit either, or "Special Offers" etc - which can be adverts as well even when you are on the site you are purchasing from.

[amusingduck]

Shakermaker said:

Now then - you order loads online. What makes you decide what you want to order? We haven't yet got into the "premium product placement" bit either, or "Special Offers" etc - which can be adverts as well even when you are on the site you are purchasing from.

That's easy!

You have a look at the offerings, and pick one that's near the top of the totally merit based system, based on reviews written by definitely real, objective people