from Hacker News

Twitter Runs on Hate – But Its Users Don't Reflect Real Life

by ca98am79 on 9/8/24, 1:23 PM with 10 comments

  • by api on 9/8/24, 1:53 PM

    All social media runs on cheap dopamine hits. Hate is one way to get those. Twitter has always been the Monty Python "I want an argument" skit, but it's worse post-Musk.

    Algorithmic social media works like this. Two people walk past you. One says "hi." The other smears themselves with peanut butter and feathers and starts clucking like a chicken and saluting Hitler. Which one maximizes engagement? Social media is a space where interactions are prioritized by an algorithm that will only show you that and will source a steady stream of chicken clucking Nazis from the entire world to make sure your feed is full of it.

    The very earliest social media showed you chronological feeds of your friends. That was actual social media. It all went to hell when algorithmically sorted timelines were introduced and it's been downhill since.

  • by aSithLord on 9/8/24, 2:41 PM

    the whining about twitter is an endless fountain of tiresome. everyone should know by now they can join mastodon if twitter is too strong for their tummies. I get it, people miss old twitter. I miss Toys R Us. Live with it and move on.