OneZero: What a Better Social Network Would Look Like . “Tuesday evening, New York Times writer Charlie Warzel casually tweeted a version of this question to his followers, not expecting much of a response. ‘Odd question but: what are your most far-fetched utopian ideas for fixing social media platforms?’ he asked. ‘The stuff that’s likely never ever gonna happen.’ More than 1,000 replies later, the thread was packed with provocative proposals, which together show that there is not only a tremendous appetite for change but a constellation of bright ideas for what that change could be.”
social networks
OneZero: Months Before Reddit Purge, The_Donald Users Created a New Home
OneZero: Months Before Reddit Purge, The_Donald Users Created a New Home. “Monday, Reddit banned thousands of subreddits including The_Donald, a conservative community of nearly 800,000 members accused of inciting violence, spreading white supremacist propaganda, and other repeat offenses since its creation in 2015. The takedown marked Reddit’s latest push to curb hate speech on the platform, and The_Donald was a ripe target for moderation. But while the community was purged from Reddit, its members have been relocating to an alternate website for months now, suggesting that users were expecting the ban — and serving as a reminder that ‘deplatforming’ is only so useful.”
EurekAlert: Meet the superusers who hold together health social media
EurekAlert: Meet the superusers who hold together health social media. “Online health communities help people to self-manage certain aspects of their long-term conditions better through harnessing support and knowledge held by other users in the network. They are mostly run on a voluntary basis by their users. Superusers (the 1 per cent highly active users) play a central role in these communities as a result of the characteristics of their online activity and their constant engagement.”
Make Tech Easier: Fed Up With Facebook? Here Are 5 Alternatives
Make Tech Easier: Fed Up With Facebook? Here Are 5 Alternatives . “Competing social networks, regardless of how good their features are, tend to be under-populated simply because they haven’t accumulated the necessary critical mass of people. If you’re looking to diversify your social media, the Facebook alternatives below, tiny as they are in comparison, are some of your best bets.”
Wired: Inside the NSA’s Secret Tool for Mapping Your Social Network
Wired: Inside the NSA’s Secret Tool for Mapping Your Social Network. “IN THE SUMMER of 2013, I spent my days sifting through the most extensive archive of top-secret files that had ever reached the hands of an American journalist. In a spectacular act of transgression against the National Security Agency, where he worked as a contractor, Edward Snowden had transmitted tens of thousands of classified documents to me, the columnist Glenn Greenwald, and the documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras. One of those documents, the first to be made public in June 2013, revealed that the NSA was tracking billions of telephone calls made by Americans inside the US. The program became notorious, but its full story has not been told.”
ZME Science: Hunter-gatherer “social media” accelerated our evolution
ZME Science: Hunter-gatherer “social media” accelerated our evolution. “As far back as the Stone Age, humans were developing complex and intricate cultural systems. These social networks played a key role in accelerating our development, a new study shows.”
TechCrunch: A multiverse, not the metaverse
TechCrunch: A multiverse, not the metaverse . “Following web forums, web platforms and mobile apps, we are entering a new stage of social media — the multiverse era — where the virtual worlds of games expand to become mainstream hubs for social interaction and entertainment. In a seven-part Extra Crunch series, we will explore why that is the case and which challenges and opportunities are making it happen.”
Newswise: Social networks enable hate movements, like boogaloo, to grow rapidly
Newswise: Social networks enable hate movements, like boogaloo, to grow rapidly. “Using popular social media networks and under-the-radar memes and phrases, hate movements are able to organize and gain appeal, a Washington University in St. Louis expert says. The most recent hate movement to emerge from social networks is an anti-government movement — referred to as ‘boogaloo’ by supporters — that is plotting violence against minorities, police and public officials.”
Voice of America: Amid Virtual News Blackout, Lebanese Protests Default to Social Media
Voice of America: Amid Virtual News Blackout, Lebanese Protests Default to Social Media. ” From Hong Kong to Iraq to Chile, massive street protests have erupted in recent months over frustration with political injustice, widespread unemployment and corruption. But in Lebanon, where most media outlets have strong political leanings, the largest anti-government protests in decades have been unfolding amid a virtual blackout of domestic news-media coverage.”
MakeUseOf: How to Customize Your LinkedIn Feed
MakeUseOf: How to Customize Your LinkedIn Feed. “A large percentage of the LinkedIn userbase use LinkedIn as an online resume. And that’s it. Despite its social media capabilities, people don’t always make full use of its tools. One of these tools is the LinkedIn Feed, which is a robust way of keeping track of posts from people in your industry. If you want to make full use of LinkedIn, here’s how to customize your LinkedIn feed to its maximum potential.”
CNN: This social network wants you to interact IRL, but may spark a new privacy concern
CNN: This social network wants you to interact IRL, but may spark a new privacy concern. “For many people, social media is synonymous with endless scrolling, constant distractions and blatant attempts to rack up comments, likes and views. But Justin Fuisz is betting on a different kind of social network — one that prioritizes real-life interactions with your good friends. On Octi, the social network that Fuisz and his team launched on Wednesday, the primary way for users to connect with each other is in person.”
JSTOR: Is Jane Austen the Antidote to Social Media Overload?
JSTOR: Is Jane Austen the Antidote to Social Media Overload?. “I soon got past the incongruity of finding Jane Austen on my phone, in my audiobook app, and in the ebook I downloaded so that I’d have access to explanatory annotations on the text. (Yes, I’m afraid I really have fallen down the Austen rabbit hole this time.) Indeed, as I plunged into Austen’s England from the very device that normally connects me to Facebook and Twitter, her world and ours looked more and more alike.”
CNET: TikTok was downloaded more than Facebook and Messenger in 2019
CNET: TikTok was downloaded more than Facebook and Messenger in 2019. “For TikTok, 2019 closed with ominous news: Both the US Army and Navy banned it on the grounds of security concerns. But that doesn’t change the fact that 2019 was a slam dunk year for the Chinese social media app. With over 700 million downloads around the world, according to data firm Sensor Tower, it was the second most downloaded app of the year. It beat both Facebook (just under 700 million downloads) and Facebook Messenger (just over 700 million downloads).”
Wired: Public Blast or Private Chat? Social Media Maps a Middle Way
Wired: Public Blast or Private Chat? Social Media Maps a Middle Way. “If the first phase of social media was about letting it all hang out for everyone to see, this chapter appears to demand a different space—not quite private, not quite public free-for-all. Those early days were a walk in the park. A park where, yes, you might get mugged, or some stranger started shouting at you to smile more (or worse, much worse). Now, social media communiqué requires a security detail.”
It’s the network, stupid: study offers fresh insight into why we’re so divided (Ars Technica)
Ars Technica: It’s the network, stupid: study offers fresh insight into why we’re so divided . “Social perception bias is best defined as the all-too-human tendency to assume that everyone else holds the same opinions and values as we do. That bias might, for instance, lead us to over- or under-estimate the size and influence of an opposing group. It tends to be especially pronounced when it comes to contentious polarizing issues like race, gun control, abortion, or national elections.”
