
AOC Quit Facebook. The Media Bungled the Story - imartin2k
http://www.calnewport.com/blog/2019/04/17/aoc-quit-facebook-the-media-bungled-the-story/
======
chippy
I think the site is getting hugged to death. The quotes explaining the
"bungled" bit is:

"Here’s the thing: misuse of personal data and hateful content were not the
reasons emphasized by AOC for why she quit Facebook. She instead called social
media a “public health risk” that too often leads to “increased isolation,
depression, anxiety, addiction, escapism.”"

and

"In other words, the important story is not the fear that social media
companies will improperly use our data; it’s instead the fear that they’ll
subvert our primal drive to cultivate a meaningful life."

~~~
ernsheong
A PageDash archive:
[https://app.pagedash.com/p/3bee2da8-7238-4681-9a5b-aeb180686...](https://app.pagedash.com/p/3bee2da8-7238-4681-9a5b-aeb180686bec/oq5FR5oV4sz391tawHIP)

------
skilled
I haven't logged into Facebook in almost two years. I can't imagine much has
changed since my last visit. I do enjoy using Messenger for its convenience,
but Facebook as a social platform is long dead for me.

~~~
mroche
Never used FB with the exception of creating a dummy account in high school to
host a project page. Graduating university in a month and I may have to bite
the bullet on it as my internship uses FB to connect the interns together. So
far, I have enough distractions with Reddit, Twitter, and Hacker News (and
various other forums) that I never felt like I was missing out on the FB punch
bowl.

------
skybrian
Does she think the same considerations apply for Twitter? (Serious question.)

~~~
tenpies
Not to mention the irony of still being on Instagram. Guess being young
doesn't really make you that technologically aware.

~~~
happytoexplain
The parent was asking a serious question, as indicated - not mocking AOC's
decision as ironic. And the question is reasonable. These are all different
services. How do those differences affect how damaging they are, and in what
ways? Was AOC engaged with them differently, or less than, Facebook? Does she
plan to not leave those services, now or in the future? Etc, etc.

------
stevehawk
mirror - [https://news.yahoo.com/aoc-skullduggery-social-media-
faceboo...](https://news.yahoo.com/aoc-skullduggery-social-media-
facebook-120249217.html)

this is in regards to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, not AoC Gaming or any
other AOC acronym.

~~~
RodgerTheGreat
I'll admit, my first thought was Advent of Code, the delightful annual
programming puzzle competition that is often mentioned here closer to
December.

------
frogpelt
I don't think this is much of a story whether it's bungled or not.

Cal Newport wrote a book about quitting social media (I'm in the middle of the
audio version of Digital Minimalism).

He is leveraging AOC's popularity for his own crusade. Which is fine, but
considering AOC still uses social media extensively I don't think she's a good
example for him to hold up.

------
angrydev
This article only references one news article published by the Washington
Post[1]. It's not even completely clear to me after reading it that the writer
was trying to do what the author of this post was saying.

To say the entire media has bungled the story is disingenuous. Go look at
other articles that don't mention CA or any other political scandal[2]. This
is a real non-story.

[1] [https://outline.com/rBfeXn](https://outline.com/rBfeXn)

[2] [https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-alexandria-ocasio-
cortez...](https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-
stopped-facebook-due-public/story?id=62412463)

------
hprotagonist
Her insta (a facebook property) is delightful though.

------
thomas
Mirror? Not loading.

~~~
rgoulter
archive.is managed to get a snapshot
[http://archive.is/YHpsh](http://archive.is/YHpsh)

------
fisherwithac
I'm glad this article touched on 2 good reasons why people are quitting social
media nowadays: data privacy concerns and public health risks.

But I think there's a third, equally important reason why people should
consider quitting these platforms: public image management.

I find that a majority of people who use social media accounts simply do not
know how to properly maintain a clean public image. Whether it be because they
don't understand or refuse to tighten their privacy controls, or because other
people take everything they say out of context for the sake of tarnishing
their reputation, the things you post to social media can always be used
against you. And for all intents and purposes, you can never take it back once
you post.

For politicians, this rings especially true, and as far as I know for U.S.
politicians, their social media accounts are 100% their thoughts, unsanitized
or evaluated by a management team.

I suppose the old addage remains true: if you can't take the heat, stay out of
the kitchen.

