Unfortunately, we are still realizing the consequences of technology; specifically internet and being 'connected all the time' and how it relates to society, scammers, agendas and harm to our children.  Meta which is Facebook has been politically compromised for at least a decade and has participated in regime changes.  All Social media participated in silencing conversation around Covid for years and colluded with government.    As a 51year old, I've experienced life before and after the advent of the internet and as a tech-savvy individual I can interpret things with an appropriate level of skepticism when needed but I am concerned for the current generation and also the seniors today being regularly targeted.

Constant repetition is how propaganda works. Goebbels knew that quite well: pick your target audience, create a lie or a misrepresentation of the truth, repeat it over and over again to that audience. Get other people to repeat that lie, and eventually even skeptics will begin to believe it. It's critical that you inundate your victim from every corner (TV ads, radio ads, newspaper opinion pieces, guest interviews on podcasts or TV news, social media influencers, Youtubers, etc) with that same lie and eventually a few people will repeat it for you, then their friends who were dubious about the claim will believe it (because now it's coming from a trustworthy source, one of their close friends).

Also, once you can convince them to believe that lie AND make it something that they are emotionally charged about (usually something that makes them angry -- ahem, the "carbon tax causes inflation") then no amount of facts will change their mind about it. That's cognitive dissonance, our brain's refusal to believe that we were wrong about something that we chose to believe is true. The longer they have been believing that lie, the more greater the cognitive dissonance, hence why Trump still has supporters even after four disasterous years as president.

It's extremely easy to propagate a lie thanks to social media which is why fact checkers are so vital to keeping foreign powers and certain political parties, from spreading misinformation. I'm sure that Zuckerberg is trying to appease Trump in doing this, but it's also a cost-saving measure that will cut costs and offer a small boost in profits. Facebook if nothing else, has shown it's more than happy to toss out democracy and the truth, for nice big advertising revenue.

 

Last edited by TomTV (January 8, 2025 2:14 pm)

TomTV wrote:

I'm sure that Zuckerberg is trying to appease Trump in doing this, but it's also a cost-saving measure that will cut costs and offer a small boost in profits. Facebook if nothing else, has shown it's more than happy to toss out democracy and the truth, for nice big advertising revenue.

 

By all accounts these are secondary concerns for him. Zuck and his Tech contemporaries have very different views about civilisation than you or I or almost everyone else. His hand isn't being forced. Like Musk, he is realigning social media the way Union Carbide realigned its Bhopal factory in 84.
 

Last edited by Chrisphen (January 8, 2025 3:07 pm)