Off Topic Social Media and the death of Twitter

Just on this, I think it's clearly the case that that is the reason it's blown up in the last week or so, and it would be mad to deny that.

BlueSky and a couple of other Twitter alternatives have existed for a while, and people fed up with Twitter have been moving there for ages. But of course, they were limited in numbers. Like someone was saying on this thread, people don't want to leave an established space for a new one until there's a critical mass doing so which makes it worthwhile. This backlash following the US election has caused that critical mass, which makes it more feasible to move elsewhere without cutting yourself off from a community. Some of the local journalists are now on BlueSky and most of the geeky football accounts I follow have too. I've been irritated by Musk and Twitter for quite a while, but never seriously thought about not using it because everyone else still was. Now it's looking like a much easier transition.

 

As I understand it Tesla still loses money selling cars. The profits they've posted in recent years allegedly come from selling regulatory credits to other car makers who don't make enough zero emission cars.

 

Like when musk bought twitter and was trying to sound tech savvy talking about servers etc
When anyone with any programming knowledge could see musk knows absolutely **** all

Guys a very very successful charlatan

 

There's a great book called 'Breaking Twitter' which while being reasonably pro-Musk highlights a lot of the issues he had in buying Twitter. It's a decent read no matter which side of the aisle you fall on.

 

The fact that there is a right and a left is quite frankly absurd. Surely any free thinking individual will agree with things pretty broadly across the spectrum all the way from hard left to hard right, and only a brainwashed sheep could actually subscribe pretty much exclusively to views either side?

 

Thats true
But you wont win being moderate
You have to be more one way leaning

Most people are sheep
Always have been
People need to feel like they fit in

Why is why social algorithims work so well

 

That's not quite how it works. If anything to your point, any free thinking individual should subscribe to views purely from the middle of any political spectrum as that by definition is the most compromised view from both sides. Only extremists subscribe to, well, extreme views.

 

Thats completely the opposite of what I wrote…

 

Sorry,which planet are you currently posting from?

 

Which is why I started by saying "That's not quite how it works". I was disagreeing with you. The idea that any rational, normal person would have extreme left AND extreme right views is quite daft.

 

I read t'other day Musk has upset the Italians by cosying up to Meloni and making pronouncements on migration matters. So he's got in bed with Trump, had a go at Starmer, then the Italian judiciary, who next? Whatever else he is he's certainly a gobby little ****.

 

Yes it's not directly about social media but it opens your eyes to a lot of distractions in our lives. Coupled with some podcasts I've listened to and speaking to friends who have also seen the same changes in their kids as I have (and themselves and their wives) I decided to stop using it, as has my wife and we now give my daughter 1 hour a night to use social media. Her screen time was around 6 hours a day. Bus to school, lunch time, at home before and after school. Madness, and I feel deeply ashamed of that so we have changed it. She was a nightmare for two days like a druggie doing cold turkey and now she is a million times better as a person and back to being a lovely polite teenage girl. Even she has realised what a load of rubbish it is and has started doing a lot of art stuff instead of being glued to her phone. I'm very proud of her.

 

There's a lot of work being done in Australia about restrictions on Social Media use in kids under 16 which I absolutely agree with. The addictive qualities and the impacts on the adolescent mind is frightening, and there's now a generation of research to show just how big the impact is on people. The Anxious Generation is a fantastic read too.

 

Again, missing the point. Boxing people into these categories which shouldn’t exist. There is no reason people couldn’t subscribe to views from either end. Even extreme ones, which doesn’t work with your central box. Public ownership of services and utilities etc is considered a pretty hard left policy these days but I bet most people would say things like water, gas, electricity, trains, the NHS should be publicly owned, whilst being pretty strongly anti immigration at the same time.

And what is the correlation between people’s views on wealth and taxes vs immigration vs human rights vs everything else. Why would someone need to sit firmly on one side for everything?

 

I actually said that a rational person shouldn't sit at either end of the spectrum on anything. Anyone who is able to think for themselves and weigh up issues should, more often than not, come to a conclusion that the majority of people would consider moderate. That's kind of the definition of moderate.

 

Yeah but she’s glued herself to her phone , that’s not good use of materials .

 

Don't give her ideas!!

 

Currently in my bag while I’m on my travels. Not stared it yet but had it recommended by many.