The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media
Rewired Our Minds and Our World | Hardcover

Max Fisher

Little, Brown and Company

Social Science / Sociology - Social Theory / Business & Economics / Industries - Computers & Information Technology / Psychology / Social Psychology

Published Sep 6, 2022

"We all have a vague sense that social media is bad for our
minds, for our children, and for our democracies. But the truth
is that its reach and impact run far deeper than we have
understood.

"Building on years of international reporting, Max Fisher tells
the gripping and galling inside story of how Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, and other social network preyed on psychological
frailties to create the algorithms that drive everyday users to
extreme opinions and, increasingly, extreme actions. As Fisher
demonstrates, the companies' founding tenets, combined with a
blinkered focus on maximizing engagement, have led to a
destabilized world for everyone.

"Traversing the planet, Fisher tracks the ubiquity of hate
speech and its spillover into violence, ills that first
festered in far-off locales, to their dark culmination in
America during the pandemic, the 2020 election, and the Capitol
Insurrection.

"Through it all, the social-media giants refused to intervene
in any meaningful way, claiming to champion free speech when in
fact what they most prized were limitless profits. The result,
as Fisher shows, is a cultural shift toward a world in which
people are polarized not by beliefs based on facts, but by
misinformation, outrage, and fear.

"His narrative is about more than the villains, however. Fisher
also weaves together the stories of the heroic outsiders and
Silicon Valley defectors who raised the alarm and revealed what
was happening behind the closed doors of Big Tech. Both
panoramic and intimate, The Chaos Machine is the definitive
account of the meteoric rise and troubled legacy of the tech
titans, as well as a rousing and hopeful call to arrest the
havoc wreaked on our minds and our world before it's too late.

--- OpenXP 5.0.57
* Origin: Ogg's Dovenet Point (723:320/1.9)
þ Synchronet þ CAPCITY2 * capcity2.synchro.net * Telnet/SSH:2022/Rlogin/HTTP

Ogg wrote to All <=-

The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media
Rewired Our Minds and Our World | Hardcover

Max Fisher

Little, Brown and Company

Social Science / Sociology - Social Theory / Business & Economics / Industries - Computers & Information Technology / Psychology / Social Psychology

Published Sep 6, 2022

"We all have a vague sense that social media is bad for our
minds, for our children, and for our democracies. But the truth
is that its reach and impact run far deeper than we have
understood.

This can't be emphasized enough, but quitting social networks designed
by behaviorists to keep you hooked are addicting by design. I wonder
what it will take for the masses to move away from them?



... Meaningless in the absence of time. What never was is never again.
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
þ Synchronet þ .: realitycheckbbs.org :: scientia potentia est :.

Re: Re: book: the chaos machi
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Ogg on Mon Mar 06 2023 06:53 am

Subject: Re: book: the chaos machine
@MSGID: <64062635.5230.dove.dove-int@realitycheckbbs.org>
@REPLY: <6404F99E.5389.dove-int@capitolcityonline.net>
@TZ: 41e0

Ogg wrote to All <=-

The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media
Rewired Our Minds and Our World | Hardcover

Max Fisher

Little, Brown and Company

Social Science / Sociology - Social Theory / Business & Economics / Industries - Computers & Information Technology / Psychology / Social Psychology

Published Sep 6, 2022

"We all have a vague sense that social media is bad for our
minds, for our children, and for our democracies. But the truth
is that its reach and impact run far deeper than we have
understood.

This can't be emphasized enough, but quitting social networks designed
by behaviorists to keep you hooked are addicting by design. I wonder
what it will take for the masses to move away from them?

... Meaningless in the absence of time. What never was is never again.

I've known some social media folk who used to be heavy Facebook users ditch
it in favor of other platforms during the last election. I have no idea if they are happy with whatever platform they moved to. I haven't created accounts on other sites to track their activity.

---
þ Synchronet þ The Cave BBS - Since 1992 - cavebbs.homeip.net

Re: Re: book: the chaos machi
By: Moondog to poindexter FORTRAN on Tue Mar 07 2023 07:27 am

I've known some social media folk who used to be heavy Facebook users ditch it in favor of other platforms during the last election. I have no idea if they are happy with whatever platform they moved to. I haven't created accounts on other sites to track their activity.

It seems to me there isn't really a good popular alternative to Facebook. Instagram only allows you to post photos, and Twitter only allows you to post short text posts, etc.. There are other social media sites similar to Facebook but they aren't really popular anymore (MySpace, Orkut, etc.).

Nightfox

---
þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: Re: book: the chaos machi
By: Nightfox to Moondog on Tue Mar 07 2023 09:50 am

Re: Re: book: the chaos machi
By: Moondog to poindexter FORTRAN on Tue Mar 07 2023 07:27 am

I've known some social media folk who used to be heavy Facebook users ditch it in favor of other platforms during the last election. I have no idea if they are happy with whatever platform they moved to. I haven't created accounts on other sites to track their activity.

It seems to me there isn't really a good popular alternative to Facebook.

Reddit maybe?

Instagram only allows you to post photos,

Replies to posts can be text and discussion do sometimes happen in that form.

and Twitter only allows you to
post short text posts, etc.. There are other social media sites similar to Facebook but they aren't really popular anymore (MySpace, Orkut, etc.).

Mastadon. I intend to start using Mastadon more for my "modern" social media "needs" and look into Synchronet integration.
--
digital man (rob)

Synchronet "Real Fact" #122:
Synchronet v2.30a (DOS & OS/2) was released on 5-30-97, 20 months after v2.20b Norco, CA WX: 55.5øF, 51.0% humidity, 5 mph S wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
---
þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net

Re: Re: book: the chaos machi
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Tue Mar 07 2023 11:16 am

It seems to me there isn't really a good popular alternative to
Facebook.

Reddit maybe?

Perhaps. Often I check Reddit to see what my contacts there have posted; I haven't used Reddit as long as Facebook, but it does look like you can follow people on Reddit too.

Instagram only allows you to post photos,

Replies to posts can be text and discussion do sometimes happen in that form.

Yeah, though Instagram still seems limiting to me. I like that Facebook lets you post text, links, photos, etc. in the initial post.

post short text posts, etc.. There are other social media sites
similar to Facebook but they aren't really popular anymore (MySpace,
Orkut, etc.).

Mastadon. I intend to start using Mastadon more for my "modern" social media "needs" and look into Synchronet integration.

I'm not familiar with Mastadon. I might have to check it out.

My use of a social media site like Facebook mainly depends on how many of my friends & family use it. If I don't know anyone who uses it, I'm not likely to use it either. Sites like Reddit seem a bit different though - I use Reddit mainly for news & information & help with various things.

Nightfox

---
þ Synchronet þ Digital Distortion: digitaldistortionbbs.com

Re: Re: book: the chaos machi
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Tue Mar 07 2023 11:16 am

Reddit maybe?

Instagram only allows you to post photos,

I am not sure Reddit is an alternative to Facebook, but I read some material not long ago suggesting Reddit is eating other social media alive.

Long story short, when you look at the usage cures of most social media, you recognize the same pattern that products that go obsolete go through:


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/45/DiffusionOfInnovation .png/220px-DiffusionOfInnovation.png

I can't find the original material, but I remember Twitter broke its death descent and spiked recently. Meanwhile Reddit was still in a healthy state. Most everything else was in the begining of its dying stage.

--
gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken

---
þ Synchronet þ Palantir BBS * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL

Re: Re: book: the chaos machi
By: Digital Man to Nightfox on Tue Mar 07 2023 11:16 am

Mastadon. I intend to start using Mastadon more for my "modern" social media "needs" and look into Synchronet integration.

Mastadon appears to be more of a Twitter environment.

BBSs could replace Facebook if we had some tweaks like:

1. Virtually unlimited nodes similiar to a webserver
2. Support for true graphics/video like png, jpg, gif, etc
3. True GUI environment for Client and Server
4. Server probably operating under Linux exclusively
5. Rather than a massive data center, use distributed BBSs

There's more to it, I'm sure. But you could do this!

Cheers,
Dennis

---
þ Synchronet þ Vertrauen þ Home of Synchronet þ [vert/cvs/bbs].synchro.net

Re: Re: book: the chaos machi
By: Airmailman to Digital Man on Mon Mar 20 2023 05:43:53

BBSs could replace Facebook if we had some tweaks like:

1. Virtually unlimited nodes similiar to a webserver
2. Support for true graphics/video like png, jpg, gif, etc
3. True GUI environment for Client and Server
4. Server probably operating under Linux exclusively
5. Rather than a massive data center, use distributed BBSs

There's more to it, I'm sure. But you could do this!

Yes YOU could. So when can we expect a release from you?
Regards,
HusTler

...If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

---
þ Synchronet þ Chaotic Bliss BBS - cbliss.synchro.net

Mastadon. I intend to start using Mastadon more for my "modern" social media "needs" and look into Synchronet integration.

I think NoSkooler is doing the same kind of integration as a test right now with Enigma on his board (Xibalba).

Perhaps you guys align.

-h1

... Xerox Alto was the thing. Anything after we use is just a copy.

Reddit maybe?

Perhaps. Often I check Reddit to see what my contacts there have
posted; I haven't used Reddit as long as Facebook, but it does look like you can follow people on Reddit too.

I liked Reddit years ago (at the beginning), when it was like USENET to me, just with different UI. But when they'd changed the UX to become more "modern" and all the algorithmics to keep you engaged with the same dirty tricks as FB and Twitter did for years, I ditched Reddit and switched to HN and Lobsters just to get inspired by some links for tech topics.

For casual conversations I found BBSes my little sanctum. Clean, focused, lot of smart asses but at least we all get the rules of the game the same way and communicate toward engaging ourselves, not the ad system.

There is just few topics I don't see covered well but this electronic medium that I'd expect to have a nice online place for it. Nominally those are pen and paper rpgs and perhaps some digital art inspirations (hard to pitch that in a text terminal, so I don't blame anybody :>)

Most of the rest of my online needs are here and there but within local and FTN networks if I'm curious and willing to discuss.

Mastodon is great to expose yourself a bit to the world, with a bit of a new illusion of having it under control, and sometimes (to my surprise) also a place for meaningful discussions or comments.

The rest is already classified as crap in my online world and If I still hold FB or LinkedIN accounts.. I keep them for passive not active usage only.

-h1

... Xerox Alto was the thing. Anything after we use is just a copy.