Social Media. How powerful is it? We're about to find out here in Oz

[think_too_mut]

5 hours ago, buffalo_bill said:

... "Simply I am too old to worry; til the AI takes over I hope to have signed off by watching the giant Mekong quietly passing by, preferably accompanied by my beloved cigar and maybe beer Singh. "...

Beer Singha by the Mekong river. Cheers!

[Old Hippie]

Quite well stated sir, I occasionally enjoy a decent cigar, Cohiba Rubusto or Arturo Fuente, usually 1-2 times a year, the drink will vary. I am now torn between beer Sigha and cold brewed Chang Draught in the 5 liter mini keg…still prefer Yuengling lager, America’s oldest brewery and many various Belgian or German beers. Here in NorCal, we have a decent selection and decent prices compared to other places…Yuengling is only available in the East, I bootleg a few cases Everytime I go east,  I fear may soon be ruined by poor management and getting too big…it ruined Rolling Rock. The local brewery, my beloved Anchor Steam is now gone, hoarded a few cases before they went under…but I digress…I too have no need for social media, other than here I suppose. One phrase I never uttered was “…hit me up on MySpace…” or “…what’s your twitter..?”  While we say we don’t need it, it does influence the world around us, for good or bad. Social media played a big role in politics the last few times, and we now live with the result…While I don’t “tweet” or “IG” etc…those around us do and it can have an impact whether we give a flying fuck or not…AI will also impact things, especially news/information/the truth… “…for the greatest casualty in any war is the truth..”  and we are in a war for such wether we like it or not, or participate or not…

[bust]

On 11/26/2024 at 3:49 PM, Old Hippie said:

Social media is interesting, it played a major roll in the last few elections and will continue to do so.  has made life more simple in many ways and more difficult  and more dangerous in other ways. 

It also played a major role in deceiving those who take their info from then.

Musk manipulated traffic on X throughout the election and beyond. He adjusts the site’s algorithm to throttle views he disagrees with and promotes the ones he does. He did this repeatedly during the election. In some instances Trump misinformation posts would achieve in some case 30 million views while responses correcting the OP with the actual truth or the facts would maybe get 10-15 thousand views.

[think_too_mut]

Eh, then you simply do not trust anything from X. Many former Twitter users deserted the platform, no wonder those siding with Musk have remained and have made those numbers of likes or agreements (never seen a post from Twitter or X, don't know what they look like)
That, even without any manipulation. That news, although possible, could also be fake.
I have no account with any of social networks.