A friend of ours recommended a Netflix film to us so we watched it a few evenings ago. It was an eye opening experience to see and hear many of the captains of the social media industry talk about the negative effects that social media has on us.

I'm not a user of any of the social media platforms but my wife is addicted to them. The attraction of the social media programs is as addicting as many drugs.

Here's a link to a trailer to the film. The film is about an hour and a half. The trailer is about 2 minutes. I highly recommend this film, "The Social Dilemma" to all of you whether you're a social media user or not.

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaaC57tcci0[/video]

Forums such as this are also a form of social media.

forums such as this one, my woodworking/engraving forum, and my RV forum are the only 'social media' venue's I'll ever get on. Facebook, which I'm not on, has been THEE source of every godam family (or friend) squabble we've been a part of since the internet began. The reason? Nobody realizes the wife has a Facebook account, since she's never used it to make a post. But it DOES allow her to read everyone ELSE'S facebook posts. And it's disheartening to find what your own friends and family think about you and will publicly post such on SM. And the negative crap is invariably the result of misinformation or BS judgement calls. It was pretty funny- and sad- when the wife confronted a friend of ours who posted on FB that 'it's too bad Kevin never comes around, Vickie keeps him locked up and won't let him leave the house...' The wife let her know- on FB- in no uncertain terms that I've NEVER been told I can't go anywhere I want. The ridiculous back-pedaling started; 'err, uhh, I wasn't talking about YOU guys, it's, uhh, about ANOTHER Kevin and Vickie we know.." Bull@#!t, we know everyone they know, there's no other Kevin & Vickie. So in addition to SM turning our friends and family members into judgemental narcissistic [censored]h0l@s, it's turning them into liars. Or outing them as such. Sad.

And look what a positive effect SM has had on politics, what a joke. And millennials who've grown up with it, why look for work when I can be an internet sensation?

And on a side note, I'm about sick and tired of everything in the house LISTENING to us. Twice that I witnessed my self, the wife's Iphone, while NOT IN USE, caught us talking about 'something for sale'. 10 seconds later, the phone beeps, and lo and behold there's an advertisement for 'something for sale' on her dam phone! Why is it her phone can do something that invasive with no legal repercussions when the FBI can't do it without a court order?

Guess it's a little late to say 'don't get me started'. But I'd best shut up now...

Don't do facebook or any of the others.
My son swears by facebook market place
Says you can find great deals.

I’m a big fan of FB. I keep in touch with long distance cousins, friends from when I was young and current friends. Great way to get inside their lives. I don’t tweet or instagram. And yes, had great conversations with ex-female friends. All good innocent child memories.

When we were at the lake this weekend my son was working facebook market place hard to find a go kart to ride on the track he has been building all summer. Ended up with this.

He says facebook market place is what craigslist used to be. He is always shopping it for parts & projects.

I am not on any SM either besides this boating forum and a couple geared toward my old british car.

My kids are teens and are all over InstaFaceTweetGrambook as I call it.

My wife is on a few of them too.

Kids tell me FB is for older folks, and they dont use it.

I will say that they do get instant news and awareness of notable items pretty quick with it. They texted me about Kobe Bryants helo crash minutes before it hit the on the air broadcast.

And you are right. My son has repeatedly mentions Facebook Marketplace for pre-owned goods.

I do have Facebook, only on my computer at home. No mobile for me. Facebook is very invasive and I do not like them tracking me,
I agree with the FB Marketplace as we have bought fresh eggs from locals who have their own chickens. We have also bought a few other items over the last year or so.
I do not post political stuff as no one cares what I think anyhow. I don't care about old girlfriends, old school friends or anyone else in my past. If I did care about them we would still be friends.
No twitter, no idea how to use it.
Instagram once in awhile.

I have FB, use MarketPlace a lot. Also use it to set up scuba dive meets at lakes I'm not familiar with.
Also things have gotten a bit tight in retirement so I have opened up a Fans Only account....still waiting to see how that pans out.

I recently ended a 4-year (maybe 5?) hiatus from Facebook and re-volunteered for the soul-suck that is that type of social media. I have an instagram account too, but this is more a mystery to me. I didn't miss FB while I was off it and I am not the typical user besides. I rarely post anything but I need to be able to see some things only available to users of that system, so I have an account. I think the thing most people sort of miss, or at least gloss over, is that anything, literally anything, that gives you a dopamine hit, be it drugs, booze, sex, or facebook fame, is addictive. If you don't have any control over how you use those things, they're bound to use you. That's where the problems start, and it takes a lot of discipline to keep those monkeys at bay.

I haven't watched the Netflix film yet but have heard Tristan Harris on podcasts before. I think its good info to know so that people can be more aware of how these companies make huge and detailed efforts to manipulate them. At least being aware of the techniques people can then better choose when to allow the manipulation to happen and maybe check themselves once in a while.

My wife and I have never posted on Facebook or Instagram but have accounts for both. Facebook to get information related to the sports teams on which the kids participated in H.S. and Instagram to monitor what they are posting. I have to admit they have mostly moved to SnapChat and we have not followed them there...bad parenting I suppose. Two are in college now and the youngest in H.S. and I'm struggling to come up with any real problems any of them have given us though. My wife, who is a very IRL social person (see what I did there?), is extremely anti-social media so we have had countless dinner table discussions about social media so I think the kids are fairly savvy about them at this point. They certainly know that ANYTHING they say or post on the internet or send to ANYONE is PERMANENT and they cannot get it back...regardless of the temporary claims of the platforms or how much they trust the other person at the time. I have mentioned this film to all of them and my wife and I will be watching it together with my youngest.

Probably the best social media/electronic policy we had was all phones had to be downstairs on the counter by 10 pm every night (unless they were out of course). Our bedroom is downstairs, theirs are up. This was all the way up until they left for college. Its crazy the number of 1 am incoming messages that would be on their phones in the morning even early in H.S. Hopefully that taught them some boundaries.

Its a tough thing overall...I am definitely not anti-tech...and I can see the benefits as my Mom likes to scroll through pics of extended family and I personally have learned so much from forums like this and YouTube...the information and expertise available now is incredible. However, as even email has taught us, its so easy to go off the rails when a person is not physically in front of you so everyone can pick up all of the social cues...leaving aside the "internet warriors" hiding behind anonymous keboards like jerk bad drivers in cars which is a whole other issue. Anyway, as an Econ major back in the day taught to see incentives and disincentives in everything, I don't see how these platforms are going to be able to be tweaked to reduce the excesses they have wrought....when the most reliable incentive of all...$$$...seems to be driving it all to ever more excess.

Interesting and scary film. I knew some of what was presented, but had not realized just how sophisticated they have gotten. Thanks for putting it on my radar screen!

What these social media apps need are a bunch of super competitors. If people really care, they will take their business elsewhere.