How a small but vocal minority of social media users distort reality and sow division

Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨gedaliyah@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨videos@lemmy.world⁩

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-a-small-but-vocal-minority-of-social-media-users-distort-reality-and-sow-division

Researchers at New York University have concluded that social media is not an accurate reflection of society, but more like a funhouse mirror distorted by a small but vocal minority of extreme outliers. It’s a finding that has special resonance this election season. John Yang speaks with psychology professor Jay Van Bavel, one of the authors of the paper that reported the research, to learn more.

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kitnaht@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’ve been experiencing this on lemmy 100% They follow a playbook of sorts too. A couple of things I notice they all do:

Ignore any comparison to Republicans/Trump. Because doing so would point out how absolutely lop-sided the choice is.

Claim Genocide is the reason. Ignore all other reasons.

Call you Racist, Conservative, etc.

Claim that you insulted them in an attempt to become the victim.

Claim that during every presidential vote “America has been at stake if you don’t vote for [X] candidate” - ignoring the very real attempts at overthrowing our government.
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- Randomgal@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Are you me? Literally the same experience. I think it’s bots programmed in a way that follows what you described.
  
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  - sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I just went for the heavy use of blocking those types, and my experience on here has gotten way better. Otherwise, my user experience was just a fire hose of outrage and performative pearl clutching.
    
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  - Alteon@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I just blocked the whole of lemmyml and lemmy.blahaj or whatever it is, and my experience has been 100% better.
    
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- Fizz@lemmy.nz ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Also claim that any history that doesn’t fit their narrative is biased western history.
  
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Habahnow@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
It’s starting to feel more like we shouldn’t allow political ads or discussions online without restrictions. Foreign actors and idiots are too quick to spread misinformation. If people want to get an idea of what others believe in, then go talk with other real people. This feels more like kids learning how to socialize from online games. People are dicks online, and you can interact with people that way in real life

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- Randomgal@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Honestly I’ve started to start any political conversations with someone who’s misinformed like: “Oh you’re think they’re eating dogs? I saw that too, but it isn’t news. It’s political ads. You know? Propaganda? But they are selling you fear instead. Turns out it’s just fiction, lol. They tricked me too.”
  
  It generally opens up a legit conversation, and the person is less defensive since it’s us talking about something else. Instead of me vs them.
  
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- freeman@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Who are this “we” that should not allow political discussions online ? How would that be enforced?
  
  Would Lemmy.world (the “foreign” social media) have to apply these US restrictions (via political pressure on it’s host countries) or will the US block access to it?
  
  Or your home instance sh.it just.works?
  
  Do you even remotely realize how authoritarian your position is?
  
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  - Habahnow@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    What I mean by that is no anonymous posting. A big issue is that you have thousands of bots pushing fake messages. It’s worse with algorithms where the company can control how many people certain messages reach. But places like Lemmy and reddit aren’t immune either. I still remember seeing how crazy reddit went during 2016 elections. All of a sudden a ton of pro Trump people were there. I couldn’t trust a lot of news, pro or against Trump, because there would be false information posted (false anti information I bet also posted by Russian bots for this reason as well.)
    
    As of now, we’re basically allowing Russia, China and Iran to influence our citizens. That’s partially why MAGA has such a an alternate view Trump. They don’t ever hear the bad news about him, or just don’t believe it.
    
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jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
It’s up to everybody to keep their heads on straight, even in the social pressure (“social pressure”) of a dumb comment section.

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- JayDee@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  If we’re relying on the individual to keep themselves correctly informed, we might be thoroughly fucked lol.
  
  Maybe we should start pinning classes on media literacy, critical thinking/analyses to help the situation. Not even sarcasm, it genuinely might be needed as a built-in feature included in every web browser at this point.
  
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waka@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Pardon me, but I’ve honestly not yet stumbled upon anything you guys describe here. Am I just not subscribed to communities doing this or something? Where do you read this kind of trash?

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- rbesfe@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  You find this trash on platforms that are actually popular with the general public, not Lemmy
  
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  - waka@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Ahh! Okay, that explains it. Thank you!
    
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- Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Same here, almost everything I read on Lemmy is very left-leaning.
  
  Honestly no idea where people are seeing these comments.
  
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