Social media reality

I will say this one more time. When you use a free service, you must assume that you are paying for the cost of operating that service and some profit for those responsible by offering information about yourself that has value to others. This was acceptable to me when it resulted in ads for things my data suggested might inform me. Of course, this personal information had other uses. Personal information offers a mechanism by which personal biases can be used to manipulate.

Tech folks seldom started by finding a way to manipulate, but others with such inclinations quickly understood what was possible. I am uncertain if this situation can be salvaged. Solutions require either payment or a willingness to accept responsibility for what we ignore and what we promote. Sharing and favoriting are especially important as these are actions under our control. These actions signal your priorities which I do not necessarily see as bad AND offer the opportunity to promote information from trusted sources.

Read what you promote? If I could, I would also require social media users to add personal comments when favoriting and sharing. This would slow down sharing and would hopefully result in more reasoned positions. Use of the favorite and share buttons is not engaging enough.

I am also a fan of federated social media services that do not collect user data. I have offered some recommendations in previous posts.

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