Here's an interesting YouGov poll I happened to come across this morning. It asks people if, overall, social media is good or bad:
It's probably not surprising that young people are far more positive about social media than older people. But I am a little surprised about the big education gap. Is this because of education itself? Or because the kids of high school grads have more problems with social media than the kids of college grads?
Ditto for race. Why are Black people considerably more positive than either white or Hispanic folks?
For what it's worth, it all evens out. Among all adults, it's a dead tie between positive and negative. And positive feelings have been trending up for the past four years.
At best social media is full of time wasting distractions. At worst it's a reflection of the worst attributes of humanity.
At its best it provides a sense of connection to people from eras of my life I would otherwise have lost touch with completely. This happens less and less often these days, but that's more of a function of the ongoing enshittification of the various social media platforms (more ads, more content pushed onto my feed instead of pulled into it by me, etc.) than of social media itself.
Sometimes those connections only prove my point. The people you thought were caring kind people turn out to be anything but. Right after a post about a grandchild or niece or nephew is a post about things like Hatians eating pets, trans people being groomers or Democrats being demonic. Social media stopped being social and started being something antisocial. The commercialization helped that along.
That seems like something I would like to know.
The education split is probably a proxy for income levels, and people with nicer smartphones can spend more time on them.
I have a low end Android and I'm pretty sure I can play Angry Birds or Fake Scrabble or whatever on it like anyone else if I ever bothered to.
What counts as "social media" to people though? Is this it too?
Remember the majority voted for Trump. Leaving their attitude out of the analysis severely limits the conclusions. A breakdown by party leaning or yesterday's vote might be more informative. On the whole which party do social media favor? Shouldn't we know that?
As always, polls don't necessarily ask the right questions, or ask in a way which might get true answers. The worst case is asking people what issues are most important or why they vote for one side or the other without explicitly including bigotry, which is a very powerful and prevalent motivator. Just because an honest answer may not be forthcoming doesn't mean that the subject can be ignored.
Did they? My vote hasn't been counted yet.
I social media mostly positive or negative?
That's a difficult question to answer. Social media can get news and opinions that are slow to emerge from the MSM. On the other hand, social media can be used by bad actors to confuse and enrage.
It's like asking if television, telephones, and other *means of communication* are mostly negative or positive. I guess social media is mostly negative because it makes it too easy for the hoi polloi to get rambunctious. hostile, transgressive, and chaotic. Cheap metaphor: providing free booze at a normally staid gathering.
One thing social media is, is an escape from the Establishment MSM which, until social came around, guided the people on policy and personal behavior, if imperfectly and occasionally improperly. The Establishment MSM (3 networks, remaining major newspapers, weekly news magazines) is diminished because of technology, and was thoroughly discredited by supporting the Iraq War*.
* George Bush Jr's incredible stupidity destroyed faith in Pax Americana. He is an underappreciated factor in the rise of Trump.
For anyone in a minority, social media allows disparate, dispersed community to retain contact. You'e not isolated, it says. It is what has allowed the Furry community to grow, the queer community to survive in isolated places.
Unfortunately, it also does that to stochastic terrorists.
Gee, if only the bigger companies had algorithms to push the former instead of the latter...
"Social media" is too poorly defined here, it's like saying "do you like police?" Which police? Doing what? The bigger social media push the worst material for "engagement." I like a telephone but not when it wakes me up to try and sell me something.
Pretty dumb question overall to ask people about.
It's a dumb question. It's like asking "Are airplanes good or bad?" Or "Is music good or bad?"
It depends.