It's significantly better than it was a few years ago, but it's important you don't believe everything you read. It's one of if not the absolute best source for news to those who know how to use it properly. A benefit being that you can get access to all of the different opinions on just about any given subject.... you don't have to deal with anywhere near as much censorship as other platforms. The usefulness of Twitter/X, as always, depends on the user.
I don't do twitter but from all the tweets that have besieged this site the past year, I think my gut reaction to not join was spot on. As someone in another thread said, we have so much technology at our fingertips and yet we use it to spread lies and disinformation................and people tend to believe their version of the lie if it fits their narrative. I did see there is now a Community Note that can correct some lies, I guess it's like an AI fact checker...........let's do more things like that
It's not AI, it's community based, which can lead to bias... but it's better than nothing. When it comes to "misinformation" a big issue is that if you don't have an impartial person that happens to be omniscient, it's next to impossible to say for certain what actually is "misinformation". Without omniscience, how could anyone tell the difference between a whistle blower and someone spreading "misinformation"? That's why despite the more authoritarian minded bootlickers among us throwing a fit about the lack of censorship, it's best to err on the side of freedom of speech.
If you use X as a political information source and expect a civil discussion, you're going to have a bad time. If you want a civil political discussion, you should talk to your neighbor about local politics, not with a bunch of jackasses online. That said, there are endless communities that have nothing to do with politics. You don't seem to be looking for that.
Huh?? If you focus on “Follwing” and not “For You” it is great. But I don’t read comments ever just use it for links to sports and other content
Definitely. The “For You” is now 10x worse than pre-Musk. Whenever I accidentally view it, it shows toxic (sometimes graphic) trash that is totally unrelated to my viewing history on the app. Ryan George has a great take on Musk turning Twitter into a steaming pile.
As rimrocker said, Twitter used to be an excellent access point to a community of experts on certain topics. For example, in my case professionally, I followed many people involved with reading research, either doing it, or putting it into practice. It was very valuable. The level of activity and engagement in that community has dropped precipitously post-Musk. I have no idea if that is a reaction to Musk personally or changes in functionality/user experience. Or both. And I've only ever viewed it through Following. I have no idea what the For You experience is like.
It's still useful. Any large platform will have climbers motivated in honing their craft. There's a lot of garbage to block fast and often. I still don't understand the motivation of automated reply bots...like you click on a funny pet meme you want to see reactions only to see a reply wall of other dog memes from other "people". But as seen on the other hangout forum, using it for politics is the nerd equivalent of looking into the palantir from lord of the rings. You look deeper and deeper and lose control of your original thoughts.
It's neither AI or community based. It's simply algorithm based. The "community" is pre-determined for you based on the algorithm ...hence the inherent bias that feels like community. It's a curated experience with built in bias. Freedom of Speech is not equal. That's already true today. When that term was coined, it was very very expensive and very slow for the fringe lunatic to spread misinformation as it would rely on printed paper. The world has changed and the reverse is now true. Now it's excessively inexpensive and instantaneous for a fringe lunatic to spread misinformation. And it's very expensive (and ineffective) to correct misinformation. And what we are now learning about human consciousness, is it's easy for us to pay attention to the sensational but it's very hard for us to process the mundane. As the cliche goes, with great power comes great responsibility. But social media algorithms offers great power with zero responsibility. And Twitter, and such, is the platform enabler. Similar to the 2nd amendment. Back then, nobody imagined we needed to codify that normal citizens aren't allowed to have tanks, F-16s, or nuclear weapons. Now that is law and uniformly understood. It's also very expensive to own a tank so it's also self regulated ...unlike free speech these days. Nobody imagined every idiot gets to have the same megaphone. We already know that not all speech is equal. So like guns, we just haven't adapted to the latest technology ...yet. Free speech shouldn't be free. ------ Anyway, I just realized this is more a D&D response. Sorry. I won't debate my above comments here. We can start a new thread on that. Back on point, agreed, Twitter sucks. I don't use it. I don't understand the interface and find zero value. I'm not willing to spend my time trying to figure out what is relevant.
I'll skip the extremist authoritarian talking points because like you said, that's more D&D territory. What I will say is that I was talking about "community notes", and that's not algorithm based, it's community based. It's somewhat similar to Wikipedia in that community members propose community notes to be added to a post and others signed up for community notes vote on if the note is accurate, if it uses quality sources, and if it should be added to the post. Notes can even be removed once added if there is sufficient disagreement. The "for you" section on the other hand, is algorithm based....it will keep feeding you more of what you engage with....so if, for example, you are an extremist authoritarian who argues with people who respect human rights, it'll keep feeding you more people who respect human rights for you to disagree with. If you only engage with other bootlicker types who seek to restrict human rights and empower the state, it'll feed you more bootlickers to agree with. So you can either end up with a feed that is a complete echo chamber, or you can end up with a feed full of people you disagree with based on your actions on the platform. That's why I say that the value of Twitter/X depends entirely on the user.
The Marketplace of Ideas evolves over time....village gossip, town cryer, town paper, radio personality, news broadcaster, internet personalty, automated news collectors, etc... The underlying theme was that the best ideas won over time because people would rationally choose the better one and forget the worse competing idea. Sometimes we'd slip when propagandists would repeat lies over and over until it became True, but for the most part we still held faith that better ideas win over time. With the digital age, you can't forget. A falsehood 10 years ago can lie dormant and get dug up with new voices and reposts. Bots complicate things, but even if all voices were singular, you lose the 80-20 rule where the more productive voices lose out to the angrier and active voices. This really isn't something Twitter can completely solve. I'm not even sure if it is its responsibility.
I avoid social media like the plague. In the world of social media, anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of public society.
Well since I don't use Twitter, I don't know about community notes. All I know is I spend 10 minutes looking around and it's a wasteland full of chaos. Ain't nobody got time for that. If the "value" of twitter takes so much effort to curate so you don't get flooded with crap, no thanks. Now often I hear that twitter has gotten worse since the Elon takeover so I'm even less motivated now.
Which is fair, I've been using Twitter for 15 years now so I understand very well how to use it and how to extract value from it.... but I understand why some wouldn't be able to. A helicopter is worthless to you if you don't know how to fly it... even worse, you're likely to hurt or even kill yourself if you try to use it while lacking the requisite skills. That doesn't mean helicopters are worthless to everyone though.
Hell.. . you don't have to SAY anything The wrong reaction emoji . . . ooooo you LIKED THAT!!?!?!??!?! WHY YOU LAUGHING AT THIS!?!?!?! People are weird and fickle pickles Rocket River
