Social Media for those of a certain age?

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Age has never been a factor for me. The most important part is "feeling" an attraction, and some sort of "chemistry".

Some guys will fixate over something physical - like eyes. I have a friend who is attracted to green eyes. As he says, "dragon green eyes, like creamy pools of jade".

Sure. I like eyes. I like it when a girl has two eyes. As in both intact. I don't go for that glass eye. It makes me feel like I'm dating Sammy Davis, Jr. And I do discriminate. I will not date a girl with an eye patch. I won't be seen in public with a pirate. I don't want people asking me if she has a wooden leg.

Sounds like this post belongs in the "missing members" forum.

 

[Ivalodgem]

I wouldn't say Facebook is outdated or something like that. Yeah, it's not that popular nowadays. However, it's still the network with the most active users. Besides that, Facebook is a much more informative network. That's why I don't consider it so outdated or useless as many people think about it. As an influencer, I also have a Facebook account, but it's not as popular as the Instagram and Tik Tok accounts. I want to boost it, so I have already ordered some animations from create.vista I hope they will help me reach better numbers.

 

[Hercule]

... As an influencer, ...

Forgive me, but, what is that supposed to mean?

 

[Doctor Strange]

"Influencers" are young people who (often for reasons that are utterly incomprehensible to us geezers) have an alleged position as arbiters of fashion, opinion, etc. on today's hip Internet sites. It can actually be monetized and become a "career"... though let's see how these people fare in a few years. Being so of-the-moment sounds like a great setup for an express ride to has-been city to me.

As a 67-year-old who has never joined Facebook, never visited Instagram or TikTok, never listened to a podcast, never made a financial transaction over my phone, and thinks that smartphones (despite being incredible technology) and what they've wrought are destroying civilization at lightspeed... it's just another brick in the wall.

 

[Edward]

A lot of this could be filed under "You know you're old when...." I keep a vague idea of what's out there in terms of social media for work purposes, but I'm not one to run them all, just would never have the time. I've long been hoping a less-invasive alternative to FB will appear, though in the Spotify age, I can't see it. Bottom line, people want stuff for free (the furore when it was rumoured some years back that FB was going to start charging membership was so intense they had to issue a disclaimer), and Facebook isn't a charity: ads, and targeted ads, and data harvesting, is its business model. I'd probably mind that less myself if they were more honest about it. Still, it is what it is - a tool. For good or ill, much of that is in the usage.

 

[Hercule]

[edit: best not to comment beyond acknowledgement]

Ok. I wouldn't have guessed.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I had to open an FB account last year for work, to promote our radio show and to try and pick up a few writing clients. It was an educational experience. My first week I was on there, I was swamped with friend requests from random men in India. This was unsettling to say the least, and I didn't accept any of those requests. I ended up adopting a policy of accepting no requests from people I didn't already know -- either in person or thru other vetted sites like the Lounge or the old 78-L record collectors' group. And I spent an entire night going deep into the back-end controls to disarm and disable everything I could. I am careful never to click on any FB ad. I gave no identifiable personal demographic information other than my name. I cleared all cookies and all browsing history from the computer that I use to access FB, and made a habit of logging out of all other sites before logging onto FB.

Within another week I was being swamped with fringe political and religious cult posts. I had given no indication of my personal politics anywhere on FB. I had liked no political posts and followed no political pages. And yet, FB's algorithms were convinced that these topics, from these slants, were material I needed to see. And as the month went on, the posts got weirder and more fringe, until, suddenly -- they disappeared. I haven't seen one in weeks. I wonder what happens when you click on those posts, what psychotic hole you're sucked into, but I'm not about to experiment to find out.

I don't claim to understand all of the technology involved, but I know enough to understand that FB is a malign product with a malicious purpose, and that if one must approach it, for work purposes, or any other purpose, one must do so with the same degree of caution one would adopt when approaching a loose rattlesnake in a dark room.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Hmmm. My wife has something like 300 friends on Facebook. Me: “I’m sure I don’t even know 300 actual people.”
oh well. Originally I did not do FB because my job would not allow it. Now I simply have no interest. Sounds like a bit of a vipers nest.

 

[Zombie_61]

...I don't claim to understand all of the technology involved, but I know enough to understand that FB is a malign product with a malicious purpose, and that if one must approach it, for work purposes, or any other purpose, one must do so with the same degree of caution one would adopt when approaching a loose rattlesnake in a dark room.

You've made a rather astute summarization. I try not to put any more information about myself on the 'Net than is absolutely necessary, but sometimes Farcebook is stalker level creepy with the targeted advertising they throw at me. And there are the "come on" contacts through their messaging service that...well, I don't know the exact purposes. Some seem to be women trying to generate some form of relationship, presumably so the perpetrators can empty my bank accounts or, at the very least, convince me to end up paying for whoever is at the other end to become a U.S. citizen. Otherwise, for me Farcebook is nothing more than a way to keep in touch with family and friends "on the cheap" (as a brother-in-law used to say) and I spend as little time there as possible.

 

[Edward]

You've made a rather astute summarization. I try not to put any more information about myself on the 'Net than is absolutely necessary, but sometimes Farcebook is stalker level creepy with the targeted advertising they throw at me. And there are the "come on" contacts through their messaging service that...well, I don't know the exact purposes. Some seem to be women trying to generate some form of relationship, presumably so the perpetrators can empty my bank accounts or, at the very least, convince me to end up paying for whoever is at the other end to become a U.S. citizen. Otherwise, for me Farcebook is nothing more than a way to keep in touch with family and friends "on the cheap" (as a brother-in-law used to say) and I spend as little time there as possible.

It does seem to be prone to being used as a platform for scams. I would almost say we've come a long way since the days of such unsophisticated frauds as those "I am a foreign prince and need your help...." phishing emails, but for the fact that such emails are still around. They seem so obvious to me, but I guess somebody somewhere must get taken in, or they wouldn't bother still trying. Social media has certainly made all sorts of negatives easier, though I'm not sure it's truly introduced anything much wholly new.

A few years ago, I thought I'd spruce up my undergraduate class' lecture on advertising regulation by adding in something on the history of advertising. What I learned myself was fascinating, especially about J S Barratt (1841-1914). This guy is known in the ad world as "The Father of Modern Advertising". He worked for Pears Soap (often claimed to be the oldest, consistently in use TM in the world; the company was founded in the 1790s). He is credited as the first to see the power of a slogan - "Good morning, have you used Pears Soap?". He was behind a marketing campaign at one time which went through the list of births in the Times and sent (I believe the addresses were gleaned from the public electoral register) a free bar of soap and a note of congratulations to each family. Data profiling and targeted marketing, generations before those terms were heard. At a time when they were still legally useable in the UK, he imported a quarter of a million French coins, and stamped the 'Pears' logo on every one, before releasing them into the wild. Viral marketing didn't begin with funny videos on Youtube... Hero or villain as this may make him is up for debate, but it's interesting to see how these techniques were around long before Facebook and such.

It's interesting as a media phenomenon to see how these things have evolved, however. There is undoubtedly a proportion of the population who don't place any value on their data streams and are happy for it to be out there. For anyone who doesn't care for that, it's striking how challenging it is to avoid it. It does seem, if my undergraduates are anything to go by, that social media services like Facebook are shrinking in popularity in favour of some that still offer easy communication but give the user more (or at least more apparent) control over what they see and what is collected about them. FB itself seems to now have largely slipped into being something that is used by, in the majority, over-30s, more for communicating with people we already know in some contexts than random strangers. It's certainly going to be interesting to see how it evolves further, not least in the context of the sort of legal complications that the online environment affords.

 

[GHT]

Social media has certainly made all sorts of negatives easier, though I'm not sure it's truly introduced anything much wholly new.

Something that social media has created a ready made platform for, is cyber bullying.
Cyber bullying is the sort that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. Cyber bullying can occur through SMS, Text, and apps, or online in social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content. Cyber bullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation. Some cyber bullying crosses the line into unlawful or criminal behaviour. The most common places where cyber bullying occurs are: Social Media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Tik Tok.
Text messaging and messaging apps on mobile or tablet devices.
Instant messaging, direct messaging, and online chatting over the internet.
Online forums, chat rooms, and message boards.

Cyber bullying has unique concerns in that it can be: Persistent. Digital devices offer an ability to immediately and continuously communicate 24 hours a day, so it can be difficult for children experiencing cyber bullying to find relief.

Permanent. Most information communicated electronically is permanent and public, if not reported and removed. A negative online reputation, including for those who bully, can impact college admissions, employment, and other areas of life.

Hard to Notice. Because teachers and parents may not overhear or see cyber bullying taking place, it is harder to recognise.

My generation only had the school bully to deal with, youngsters today seem to be bombarded, and not just by the school bully. There are those with an altogether sinister agenda.

By the way, one bully at the school I went to, got his comeuppance when he snatched another kid's chocolate bar. Had he noticed the word: "Ex-Lax." on every single square, he wouldn't have scoffed down the whole lot, only to spend the afternoon sitting on the lavatory.

 

[Edward]

Something that social media has created a ready made platform for, is cyber bullying.

A perfect example of the complexity of how the web can indeed exacerbate these things: bullying is as old as humanity, but for the reasons you state it can be harder in some ways to spot and deal with online. The other problem is enforcement, of course, given the global nature of the medium. It's notable as a matter of psychology that on the one hand a huge proportion of people feel much more able to dish it out without perception of consequences, yet those on the receiving end are no less affected by it.

 

[Bushman]

I wouldn't say Facebook is outdated or something like that. Yeah, it's not that popular nowadays. However, it's still the network with the most active users. Besides that, Facebook is a much more informative network. That's why I don't consider it so outdated or useless as many people think about it. As an influencer, I also have a Facebook account, but it's not as popular as the Instagram and Tik Tok accounts. I want to boost it, so I have already ordered some animations from create.vista I hope they will help me reach better numbers.

Facebook is no longer the powerhouse it once was, now mostly being home to older generations who are trying to keep track of their grandkids. No matter the platform, it seems, kids will always view something as "uncool" as soon as the older generation gets a grasp of it. The main hold that Facebook still has on myself, and my friends, the few Millennial holdouts, is that Facebook is still a convenient place where ALL of us can meet and greet. It became especially useful during the pandemic when the bars were all closed as we were forced into online interactions. The beauty of the internet is that somebody from Alberta, somebody from LA, somebody from Chicago, and somebody from Pennsylvania can all be chatting with each other in real time. The downside is almost none of these people will ever meet regularly. I met my best friend over the internet, but he lives in Canton, Ohio and I live in the Chicago suburbs. We only ever meet up when one of us is in the other's area. Fortunately, my aunt just moved to Cincinnati, so now I have an excuse to drop in more often.

"Influencers" are young people who (often for reasons that are utterly incomprehensible to us geezers) have an alleged position as arbiters of fashion, opinion, etc. on today's hip Internet sites. It can actually be monetized and become a "career"... though let's see how these people fare in a few years. Being so of-the-moment sounds like a great setup for an express ride to has-been city to me.

A major problem with influencers, at least to me, is how much they blur the line between content consumer and content creator. Often times, influencers will be used by companies to promote certain products, launching said influencer into a position of authority in an online group, where gullible suckers are taken in and hang on their every word as if it were gospel. And Heaven forbid if you don't recognize their authority.

I had to open an FB account last year for work, to promote our radio show and to try and pick up a few writing clients. It was an educational experience. My first week I was on there, I was swamped with friend requests from random men in India. This was unsettling to say the least, and I didn't accept any of those requests. I ended up adopting a policy of accepting no requests from people I didn't already know -- either in person or thru other vetted sites like the Lounge or the old 78-L record collectors' group. And I spent an entire night going deep into the back-end controls to disarm and disable everything I could. I am careful never to click on any FB ad. I gave no identifiable personal demographic information other than my name. I cleared all cookies and all browsing history from the computer that I use to access FB, and made a habit of logging out of all other sites before logging onto FB.

I adopt the same policy. If you can't tell me how you know me from somewhere other than Facebook, you don't go on my friends list. The worst part is exactly as you said: Facebook does NOT make it easy to allow users to enact this policy for themselves. Their user control panel is convoluted, messy, and difficult to find.

Within another week I was being swamped with fringe political and religious cult posts. I had given no indication of my personal politics anywhere on FB. I had liked no political posts and followed no political pages. And yet, FB's algorithms were convinced that these topics, from these slants, were material I needed to see. And as the month went on, the posts got weirder and more fringe, until, suddenly -- they disappeared. I haven't seen one in weeks. I wonder what happens when you click on those posts, what psychotic hole you're sucked into, but I'm not about to experiment to find out.

And that's partly why Facebook has been given their share of the blame for the current political zeitgeist America is facing. Zuckerberg has admitted on the record that their algorithm is fed by anger and fear, and will feed fringe conspiracies to users in hopes that they get addicted to them, and fall down the rabbit hole.

I don't claim to understand all of the technology involved, but I know enough to understand that FB is a malign product with a malicious purpose, and that if one must approach it, for work purposes, or any other purpose, one must do so with the same degree of caution one would adopt when approaching a loose rattlesnake in a dark room.

The greatest malignance about Facebook isn't that they sell you a product, it's that you ARE the product. Your clicks, your information, your likes, dislikes, reactions, posts, everything is sold to third party data analyzers who in turn use it to feed you a feedback loop. Facebook isn't so much an echo chamber as it is a department store mirror that makes you look good in those pants.

He was behind a marketing campaign at one time which went through the list of births in the Times and sent (I believe the addresses were gleaned from the public electoral register) a free bar of soap and a note of congratulations to each family. Data profiling and targeted marketing, generations before those terms were heard.

As creepy as it sound, I suppose it's not much different from getting random birthday coupon emails from websites I don't recall ever visiting.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Why anyone would submit THEIR ACTUAL BIRTHDAY to any social media site is totally beyond my comprehension. As far as social media is concerned, I was born on January 1, 1913.

 

[Zombie_61]

Why anyone would submit THEIR ACTUAL BIRTHDAY to any social media site is totally beyond my comprehension. As far as social media is concerned, I was born on January 1, 1913.

Wow, I never would have guessed you were two months older than my Dad.

 

[Edward]

Why anyone would submit THEIR ACTUAL BIRTHDAY to any social media site is totally beyond my comprehension. As far as social media is concerned, I was born on January 1, 1913.

Indeed, one of the drawbacks with giving too much "real" information to a social media site is how vulnerable it leaves the individual to any hack - particularly one that can play as fast and loose with user data and privacy settings as FB. I've had a long-running intrigue with FB trying to squeeze more information out of me than it really needs. The last ploy was, after fifteen odd years of me not filling in what school I went to, they filled it in for me. Clearly wrongly (a Catholic Girls school in the North of Ireland), but I'm pretty sure it was a deliberate attempt to encourage me to correct it.

I do find the psychology of such data collection interesting, though. It genuinely fascinates me how much people will give away about themselves to find out what Game of Thrones character they are in an online quiz.... and yet if you approached them in the street with a clipboard and asked for a much lower level of personal information.... Another way in which, I suppose, the internet is both representative of no and every change.

@Bushman I once got a phonecall from somebody claiming I'd won an iPad. I gave them an earful about trying to scam me and hung up. A small part of me has wondered ever since if it was legit, ha.... (Not that I want an ipad, but I could sold it for a fair chunk of change on eBay and bought a nice android tablet with the proceeds!)

 

[LizzieMaine]

I told Facebook that I attended Abysmal Point Consolidated High School, and that I hold a degree in Medieval Theology from Culvertville Correspondence School. So far they haven't caught on.

 

[Tiki Tom]

This is creepy.
For the record, I do not give my consent.

‘Deadbots’ can speak for you after your death. Is that ethical?

The recent case of a man making a simulation of his deceased fiancée raises important questions: while AI makes it possible to create “deadbots”, is it ethically desirable or reprehensible to do so?

theconversation.com

 

[Zombie_61]

This is creepy.
For the record, I do not give my consent.

‘Deadbots’ can speak for you after your death. Is that ethical?

The recent case of a man making a simulation of his deceased fiancée raises important questions: while AI makes it possible to create “deadbots”, is it ethically desirable or reprehensible to do so?

theconversation.com

Ethical? Probably not. But we've already seen examples of this, specifically in the entertainment industry. An actor is killed, or at least disabled and unable to communicate, while filming a movie or television show, and the project is completed without his/her further participation by use of various means that "imitate" that person. Now, I know there are clauses in contracts that alleviate the studio(s) of certain responsibilities should one of their "performers" become incapacitated, but I really wonder how much thought is put into words on a document before any such catastrophe occurs and that actor's family protests that he/she "would never have agreed to 'fill-in-the-blank' if he/she were still alive".

Also, I agree with Tom--no consent is, or will ever be, given. When I'm dead, your chances of using my hideous mug for your own personal gain are ZERO. I stop when my life does. The End.

 

[Turnip]

ABBA recently did. that while still alive.

So did Kraftwerk over a decade ogo.