13% of population, dominates social media, hates Britain
Discussion
Timberwolf said:
The big difference with Pistonheads is it's a special interest forum and by and large if I stay out of NP&E and don't spend too long in any threads with the word "cyclist" in the title I can end up none the wiser what anyone believes politically. Whereas modern social media bases everything on the person rather than the topic, so you can't follow someone's interesting bearding about E39 tyre pressure monitoring systems without also being along for the ride around their views on local councils, incandescent lightbulbs and cafés putting the beans in a separate porcelain pot so you don't get bean juice all over your breakfast.
A subtle distinction I think people are missing from this is it's not that social media is dominated by progressive activists, it's that the political content is. It's not that (say) your civic pragmatists aren't participating at all, it's that they'll check up on family and post a few photos of the driveway cake sale without half a dozen angry political memes. It's made worse by the algorithms, which show you this stuff disproportionately because people can't help wading in to defend their point of view and constantly revisiting the same post/thread/etc. for lots of lovely engagement.
(Again, PH doesn't suffer so from this due to the special interest nature: it doesn't want to advertise me political parties and opinionated newspapers while I'm all riled up and angry at people, it wants to sell me an old Mercedes and the number of several specialist motor factors while I'm browsing the bargain barge thread.)
One thing I have found to make a massive improvement to Twitter in particular is the moment someone starts doing that irritating thing of reposting things to go "look what they're saying now!" then just unfollow them. I don't mind too much reading people's views (left or right) when they're reasonably put and logically follow from knowledge and experience, but that habit of endlessly quoting things which have been created purely to be controversial winds me up no end - more in fact than the controversial statements themselves.
This is a very reasonable post I feel. Particularly like the comment about avoiding any thread with cyclist in the subject, plus there are others one could mention. As for NP&E numerous threads that just are not worth the engagement in the first place, and the ones that are you quickly learn the contributors to be avoided.A subtle distinction I think people are missing from this is it's not that social media is dominated by progressive activists, it's that the political content is. It's not that (say) your civic pragmatists aren't participating at all, it's that they'll check up on family and post a few photos of the driveway cake sale without half a dozen angry political memes. It's made worse by the algorithms, which show you this stuff disproportionately because people can't help wading in to defend their point of view and constantly revisiting the same post/thread/etc. for lots of lovely engagement.
(Again, PH doesn't suffer so from this due to the special interest nature: it doesn't want to advertise me political parties and opinionated newspapers while I'm all riled up and angry at people, it wants to sell me an old Mercedes and the number of several specialist motor factors while I'm browsing the bargain barge thread.)
One thing I have found to make a massive improvement to Twitter in particular is the moment someone starts doing that irritating thing of reposting things to go "look what they're saying now!" then just unfollow them. I don't mind too much reading people's views (left or right) when they're reasonably put and logically follow from knowledge and experience, but that habit of endlessly quoting things which have been created purely to be controversial winds me up no end - more in fact than the controversial statements themselves.
As for Twitter, best tactic is not to Tweet, yes it's keeping head below parapet, but it avoids the pile on from a certain element. Agree on the tactic of unfollowing people, though with the way SM works you sometimes see stuff from folks not followed and the only way then is to block or mute the asshats. It usually helps if they have a lot of stuff after their Twitter handle, #FBPE is usually a starting indicator, but I accept that's just my bias.
What's interesting is that SM output can flag up certain people that previously thought to gave their head screwed on the right way, suddenly you find they can be a moron in some areas, viz James Delingpole, unfollowed and muted. Accepted that goes against the premise that you should read stuff, eg papers and books, that are contrary to personal views in the interest of balance and avoiding echo chambers, but some stuff is just beyond the pale.
Lord.Vader said:
Just delete it all, I did many years ago, never missed it.
The only thing I use on a regular basis is Facebook, and I rarely use it for interaction with friends and family, or for following anything political.Deleting it entirely though, would present numerous problems in my opinion (for me at least).
The reason it is difficult to delete Facebook these days is because so many clubs, events, and businesses use it as their sole form of communication with the outside world.
Stuff like:
When the local classic car club is meeting this month and where at.
When a car club drive out is happening.
If the times and details of an event have been changed or new information is available.
New events being advertised.
Checking if your local pubs/restaurants are open this week, and if so, what times.
Finding the new opening times or new address for local businesses.
Seeing any special offers or changes to service by any business.
I use Facebook every week for checking stuff like the above.
All of these things are posted on Facebook and usually nowhere else. Updating websites these days is seen as expensive and too slow unless you have a large enough business to have a team on standby to do it.
But any business, restaurant, bar, club, or event can inform all their followers of something in seconds, for free, on Facebook.
Bertrum said:
Lots of my friends are in the 13%,
I don't generally bother engaging for obvious reasons.
But I am continually entertained when every election/vote/decision going forwards doesn't go the way they expected they will be absolutely losing their sh#t.
They will never understand why.
Same for me - and outside of elections and referendums my feed is full of car related stuff I don't generally bother engaging for obvious reasons.
But I am continually entertained when every election/vote/decision going forwards doesn't go the way they expected they will be absolutely losing their sh#t.
They will never understand why.
When it is elections it's full of left wing commentary and tories are evil s
t and after the result it gets quite toxicBut then it goes back to cool car stuff - I'm OK with that
voyds9 said:
Gadgetmac said:
The problem isn’t that 13% are dominating its that 87% can’t be arsed.
That 87% do IRL, in the pub, garden, work etc.Virtual world seems to be full of shouty nutters and it's a waste of time trying to change them.
markcoznottz said:
voyds9 said:
Gadgetmac said:
The problem isn’t that 13% are dominating its that 87% can’t be arsed.
That 87% do IRL, in the pub, garden, work etc.Virtual world seems to be full of shouty nutters and it's a waste of time trying to change them.
Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff