By Stephen Fontenot | While social media algorithms have become excellent at matching a user’s viewing habits with targeted, personalized content, psychologists at The University of Texas at Dallas have determined that these algorithms may have a negative influence on a user’s mental health. Dr. Alva Tang, assistant professor of psychology in the School of Behavioral […]
This comment is not the slam dunk you think it is… Lemmy isn’t owned by corp interests, it’s not algorithm driven and it isn’t 92% bots from fascists, oligarchs and foreign influence agencies. You can as much control as you want here. You can talk to actual people here.
Everyone has an agenda. Lemmy wasn’t created for shits and giggles. You don’t really know what’s under the hood, what posts and comments are encouraged, which ones have votes that are inflated. It’s an illusion to think otherwise.
I’m sorry to see comments like this mindlessly downvoted. While I don’t agree that Lemmy was built with any ill intentions, this thread results in good discourse.
For example, the platform itself lends itself to be used or abused to promote commercial interests or push one side of a story. The manner in which pro-Russian content has flooded Lemmy shows how the platform itself can be used to manipulate narratives, and there are no doubt many more subtle ways in which the community sentiment is being skewed in ways we might not realize.
You can join the Lemmy / ActivityPub developers’ meetings via video chat anytime you like. I’m not “into” that level of things but I dropped in a few times just to see what’s up - there’s a definite axe or two they’re grinding, not that they’re bad people or out to hurt others at all, but if you don’t detect some agenda basis from that crew, you need to think a layer deeper about what those people have been through and why they’re doing something to make the world a better place in the future.
I feel like I’m missing something here, but isn’t knowing what’s under the hood exactly the point of projects like Lemmy? The source is available on github, and they explain the algorithms or talk about their political bias pretty openly in most communities.
Were you thinking more from the angle of the way our social biases work as a group, or like the risk of maintainers tampering with the sauce pre-release?
I hope this didn’t come across shitty - genuinely curious.
If open forums on the internet don’t have some filtering / steering they all too easily degenerate into YouTube comment sections, or worse. Lemmy seems to mostly be administered with a light touch, but I believe it - even more than Reddit - is sub-moderator driven in terms of what gets removed, what gets allowed.
Of course it has an algorithm, but I think you’re referring to an algorithm that includes personalized or demographic parameters.
Regardless of whether the algorithm includes that (or rather, to which degree), let’s not forget that bad actors can use the knowledge of the open source algorithm to identify the optimal way to manipulate the platform to bring their content on top.
You are not wrong. It is a social media and TBF the term has been poisoned by many platforms. I think just like drinks there are healthier options. Healthier online community spaces and I’d like to think this place is one of them.
It is an addiction that takes steps of lesser. The place you visit. How long you stay there are steps of management.
Yes, and… it’s a skill that needs to be practiced. We don’t call it out as a skill, we don’t recognize it as a skill, and we don’t tell others that they need to practice it. So we get stupid shit like people saying they don’t do social media, on social media.
The world would be a much better place if we prioritized self-awareness as a universal skill.
You’re on a sm rn….
Is this social?
This comment is not the slam dunk you think it is… Lemmy isn’t owned by corp interests, it’s not algorithm driven and it isn’t 92% bots from fascists, oligarchs and foreign influence agencies. You can as much control as you want here. You can talk to actual people here.
Everyone has an agenda. Lemmy wasn’t created for shits and giggles. You don’t really know what’s under the hood, what posts and comments are encouraged, which ones have votes that are inflated. It’s an illusion to think otherwise.
I’m sorry to see comments like this mindlessly downvoted. While I don’t agree that Lemmy was built with any ill intentions, this thread results in good discourse.
For example, the platform itself lends itself to be used or abused to promote commercial interests or push one side of a story. The manner in which pro-Russian content has flooded Lemmy shows how the platform itself can be used to manipulate narratives, and there are no doubt many more subtle ways in which the community sentiment is being skewed in ways we might not realize.
You can join the Lemmy / ActivityPub developers’ meetings via video chat anytime you like. I’m not “into” that level of things but I dropped in a few times just to see what’s up - there’s a definite axe or two they’re grinding, not that they’re bad people or out to hurt others at all, but if you don’t detect some agenda basis from that crew, you need to think a layer deeper about what those people have been through and why they’re doing something to make the world a better place in the future.
I feel like I’m missing something here, but isn’t knowing what’s under the hood exactly the point of projects like Lemmy? The source is available on github, and they explain the algorithms or talk about their political bias pretty openly in most communities.
Were you thinking more from the angle of the way our social biases work as a group, or like the risk of maintainers tampering with the sauce pre-release?
I hope this didn’t come across shitty - genuinely curious.
If open forums on the internet don’t have some filtering / steering they all too easily degenerate into YouTube comment sections, or worse. Lemmy seems to mostly be administered with a light touch, but I believe it - even more than Reddit - is sub-moderator driven in terms of what gets removed, what gets allowed.
Does lemmy do the whole algorithm thing? I don’t think so, but I could be wrong.
Algorithmic social media is pretty much what we’re talking about, I’m sure.
Of course it has an algorithm, but I think you’re referring to an algorithm that includes personalized or demographic parameters.
Regardless of whether the algorithm includes that (or rather, to which degree), let’s not forget that bad actors can use the knowledge of the open source algorithm to identify the optimal way to manipulate the platform to bring their content on top.
You are not wrong. It is a social media and TBF the term has been poisoned by many platforms. I think just like drinks there are healthier options. Healthier online community spaces and I’d like to think this place is one of them.
It is an addiction that takes steps of lesser. The place you visit. How long you stay there are steps of management.
What is that?
sm = social media
Lacks self-awareness, along with everyone upvoting them lol.
Self awareness is very challenging, you will always have blind spots.
Yes, and… it’s a skill that needs to be practiced. We don’t call it out as a skill, we don’t recognize it as a skill, and we don’t tell others that they need to practice it. So we get stupid shit like people saying they don’t do social media, on social media.
The world would be a much better place if we prioritized self-awareness as a universal skill.