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Cindy Cohn (EFF) Warns Jon Stewart That Americans Have to Make X and Meta ‘Less Important’ (www.thewrap.com)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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I suggest watching the video, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QkC1aK7jfLo but the article has an OK summary.

Also a Mastodon shout-out in the video.

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[–] 10 points 5 months ago (13 children)

I never used Twitter in the first place, so I guess I'm not in the "addicted" category, but I did have an account, in November of 2024 I did actively cancel that X account. Google pushes me X links in my "news feed" I consistently tell Google "No more stories from ____ on X" (they won't let you block all of X, I wonder why....)

Seriously, folks, how hard is it to just walk away? I was on BlueSky for about 3-4 months, got a little invested/addicted to the platform and took a hard look at what value I was getting from it - on balance: negative. Cold turkey, do I miss it? No.

Facebook holds a (solitary) users group I occasionally want to talk with captive, they acknowledge it's a terrible platform but they're too lazy to leave, so I log in when I need to talk with them and that's it. Anybody "in there" I care about? Long distance phone calls are free these days, e-mail works, why should I be sharing stuff with people I don't know just to communicate with people I do know?

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  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    The average American feels an unmet need for connection. Social media immediately fills that need, exactly like a drug. For a few minutes anyway. You don't get the benefits of a real connection, just the dopamine. Pretty soon you feel worse, and the best way to stop feeling bad is to hit refresh or keep scrolling. I'm glad we're finally looking at the consequences of social media for kids, then we can look at what it does to adults.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    Social media immediately fills that need, exactly like a drug.

    In the late 1980s crack cocaine swept into Miami at bargain prices - but "real" cocaine was already all over the place... show some refinement/self-respect people, don't smoke the crack. In terms of social media, maybe actually socialize instead of "smoking the crack" of Facebook? Yeah, Facebook is cheaper than meeting people for an activity (any activity) - but get your fat ass up and do something real, it's better for you.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    Seriously, folks, how hard is it to just walk away?

    I read recently that "will power" doesn't meaningfully exist, but it's rather the result of many other factors. That said, many people seem to be bankrupt of what one would call willpower. I don't know why.

    Maybe it's the capitalist hell scape. Maybe it's the plastic in our bodies. Maybe people are just largely social followers, and with a large enough contingent of idiots many people who would behave better follow down into the slop.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    "Idle hands are the devil's workshop." - when people are busy and focused, it's a lot easier for (most of) them to avoid 'bad choices.' This ranges everywhere from harmful recreational drug use to overeating, even to highly addictive behaviors like smoking - yeah, people take "smoke breaks" at work, but if they're not at work / engaged with something most tend to smoke much more...

    Thing is, you don't have to be slaving away at a subsistence level wage job that you need for food and shelter in order to avoid bad choices, although the U.S. Puritanical culture seems to think that "those people" who are poor by circumstance must be saved from themselves by such a system.

    There are so many factors involved that generalities barely paint any kind of accurate picture of any one individual. Statistically you can say that X% have "addictive personality" and Y% are "genetically pre-disposed" and so on, but it really is different for everyone. Some people get "addicted to sex with strangers" others avoid that trap through paralyzing fear of diseases... Some kick the nicotine habit based on early presentation ill health effects of smoking, some who experience even worse health effects don't. Obesity sneaks up on you, oh - I'm just 5 points heavier than I would like to be, or 15, or 50 - don't bother me! I love food.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (8 children)

    Seriously, folks, how hard is it to just walk away?

    Respectfully, walk away from Google.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago (6 children)

    walk away from Google.

    I can quit, any time I want to.... (yeah, they've got their hooks deep). But, you've gotta carry a phone - right?

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  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago (5 children)

    Degoogled android with Lineage OS

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  • [–] -2 points 5 months ago (4 children)

    How much pain is that? You gonna make your wife use Lineage OS too? Let me know how that goes.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    My wife and I are smooth sailing on Graphene for almost 6 months now and she's not as techy

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago

    My wife has Linux on her PC, and now she bitches less than she did with Windows, but it's always a problem still.

    Phones are also always a problem, but at least with Android I can point and say: "the rest of the world puts up with this, or worse: that iOS that can't even map you to a place by its name..."

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    I helped SO move to Linux on their PCS. They dont touch windows except for work,and they're happy .our media center PC runs Linux and they're adept at navigating it, even doing some light terminal commands! And they are not super techy

    Ive been getting them into f droid and removing garbage spyware apps on their s23. For now.

    We are both getting pixels with graphene in the near future.

    If you show them how good it is, many people are receptive. Just dont get too technical with it for them.

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    Its got its quirks but over all its actually pretty great! I did my girlfriend and I's phones at the same time since we have the same Motorola model. She's been having a good time with it so far, we both like it because Lineage feels like android from like 10 years ago.

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