Unpopular Opinions - General Thread

[TexRex]

I get your point, but I don't see GTP as being like Xitter, FaceBook, Reddit, Instagram - y'know? It's a more specialized forum that predates social media as we know it.

It doesn't have to be like any of those to be social media, none of those are really like any of the others, and all of those are specialized.

Also lots of social media predates "social media as we know it," by which I suppose you mean the most dominant, ubiquitous platforms, and indeed lots of social media predates GTPlanet. None of them are any less social media due to--or by virtue of--that fact.

So often people purport to hate social media but they are in fact utilizing social media to inform others of their hatred of social media.

It's not like everyone's posts on GTP are trying to "game the algorithm" for a fleeting morsel of attention.

Then you don't like that sort of social media behavior. That's fine. You could even be more broad and say you don't like the algorithmic amplification which enables that sort of behavior.

Never mind the fact that it's not like provocative threads get "increased engagement" or whatever.

I think some probably do, whether you realize it or not, even as that increased engagement may be short-lived. That isn't to say they all do, or even that those which are intended to farm engagement, for whatever purpose, end up being successful. I think you may not realize how much "engagement" encompasses.

 

[Clinton Ducks]

I think the entire internet was a mistake.

 

[W3H5]

Mega corp. social media is borderline evil, designed to hook people to their screens.

Online platforms are useful communication tools, but most of the big tech domains are just the matrix. Its mostly bots anyway.

It would be unpopular to say that big tech social media has improved society.

 

[Michael88]

I think the entire internet was a mistake.

Maybe. With the way evil corporations use it to control and steer the masses I'm no longer sure if the internet does more good than harm.

 

[W3H5]

Maybe. With the way evil corporations use it to control and steer the masses I'm no longer sure if the internet does more good than harm.

The balanced of harm and prosperity has slid strongly towards the former for the current generation raised in the matrix.

I imagine most of us here grew up with landlines and VHS. These poor kids nowadays have never known a world without interactive screens and assume spending all their recreational time in the matrix is a normal way of life.

So, if you had the magic button to turn off the web entirely, would you do it?

 

[Michael88]

So, if you had the magic button to turn off the web entirely, would you do it?

If this was aimed at me you are asking the wrong person, sometimes I'm so fed up with everything I think I'd push the coronal-mass-ejection-hitting-earth-button if I had one.

Semi-serious joke aside, the Internet has helped me a lot with special knowledge in my hobbies and interests, it provides me with access to products offered in other countries and even on other continents - stuff I would have never even heard of without it, and it helps me with useful knowledge about my chronic illness.
But the downfall of society is probably greatly accelerated by the internet with people having only digital pseudo friends, no longer seeking company of real people and with big corporations pushing BS agendas to mercilessly steer people into directions that benefits only them destroying many many lives in the process.

I really can't answer the question since I'm not entirely sure how exactly the internet has impacted my life negatively, and how it would look like if the internet had never existed - its a lot of speculation.

 

[MatskiMonk]

So, if you had the magic button to turn off the web entirely, would you do it?

No.

The problem with the internet is people. Bad people will use it to do bad things, and lazy people will use it to be lazy, but I think it would be wrong to rob people of all the benefits - if you're not sure what those benefits are then you're either not using in the internet, or are not accurately recalling life before it. Media lies and corporate manipulation existed long before the internet, and people were probably less aware of it.

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

Unpopular opinion on video games, I think fixed-camera Survival Horror games are fun and are not just a product of their time.