I've seen Facebook's algorithmic feeds radicalize an entire side of my family over the past 10 years because they've been allowed to bury themselves in a radical-right leaning feed of Fox, OANN, and online conspiracy theorists. There's nobody moderate left to help normalize their beliefs, so they keep drifting further and further right based on what Tucker Carlson tells them.
I have a very hard time socializing that that half of my family any more because they bring up politics constantly and their beliefs on race, healthcare, etc. are frankly embarrassing to be associated with. And I say this as somebody who is overall very moderate and willing to engage with both left and right-leaning beliefs.
Facebook made half of my family unbearable to deal with. I don't think that's a unique situation by any means. So I'd say that they're an awful awful cancer on society that needs to die.
Not a Facebook fan here, but this argument is like saying "Alcohol made my dad an alcoholic!" Only true in the strictest medical/chemical sense. The bottle didn't leap into dad's hand by itself. I feel bad for your family, and this happened to a few folks in mine as well, but Facebook doesn't jump into your family's brains all by itself. Users are actively installing, using it, and poisoning themselves. I think Facebook is a net negative, and should be regulated like any other harmful addictive product. But, the blame for its affects must be shared with its users.
No users under 21. ID needed for registration. Warning labels on every page. Refusing service to people clearly under the influence. Heavy fines, jail-time, and possible destruction of service if found to be in willful noncompliance.
The tobacco and social media industries actually share a lot in common in how they both studied how addictive and dangerous their products are and decided to look the other way.
This shouldn't be news to you if you frequent tech forums.
If someone would be giving my friends alcohol for free and strongly encourage them to drink as much as possible - then yes, I would blame them for alcoholism and other damage.
I agree that this is absolutely terrible and I agree that it is not unique by any means. It is likely fairly widespread. I also disagree with the other comment on the thread saying it is your family's fault – it's not.
If Facebook somehow disappeared overnight, would Fox, OANN and the like throw up their hands and stop? Or would your family just find them on YouTube or Twitter some other platform instead? Or does your family already watch those news sources on TV? Facebook's news feed is certainly a part of the problem here, but it is not the underlying cause for polarization. I haven't studied in depth where the distrust in our institutions is coming from, but as long as there are people seeking to capitalize on it, they _will_ capitalize on it.
The reason I am bringing this up and getting a bunch of downvotes is not because I like Facebook. It is because I want to make sure we focus on the right solutions to solve the actual problem at hand. So, if the problem is radicalization specifically, algorithmic news feeds (plural) are an important piece to focus on. But it's not the entire story: the rest of the news media and other platforms also have things to fix.
If the problem is a concentration of monopoly power, or blatant abuses of privacy, then those bring different problems that warrant different solutions. People like to combine all of these concerns into a single bucket and say "Facebook is bad" but when we do that we lose sight of the other trouble makers: the news networks, the other tech monopolies, and credit card companies who actually sell user data.
Despite all of this, I still think a global network of people connected with real identity has a lot of benefits for society. Maybe a better way of phrasing it: if you haven't deleted your Facebook account yet, then why not?
I have a very hard time socializing that that half of my family any more because they bring up politics constantly and their beliefs on race, healthcare, etc. are frankly embarrassing to be associated with. And I say this as somebody who is overall very moderate and willing to engage with both left and right-leaning beliefs.
Facebook made half of my family unbearable to deal with. I don't think that's a unique situation by any means. So I'd say that they're an awful awful cancer on society that needs to die.