People think online platforms are overflowing with toxic and misleading content, but the reality is far calmer. A small group of highly active users creates most of the harm, while the majority remain relatively civil. Still, many Americans assume the worst about each other because of this imbalance. Correcting that belief can noticeably improve how people feel about society.
Diplomjodler - 12hr
The problem is not assholes spouting bullshit. Those have always been around. The problem isn't even foreign influence operations. The problem lies in the social media algorithms that amplify the bullshit. People always say they do this to maximise profit but I don't buy that any more. They know exactly what they're doing and the outcomes we're seeing are the outcomes they want.
37
Boomer Humor Doomergod - 9hr
The Internet wasn’t really like this before engagement-boosting algorithms took over. The ragebait got more engagement, so it got promoted and now it’s all we see.
That being said I still don’t like people in the real world but that has nothing to do with internet trolls and everything to do with people.
8
jjjalljs @ttrpg.network - 8hr
All these big platforms with their algorithms have blood on their hands. They chose to let this happen. They valued profits over anything else.
There's no cosmic need for facebook and its algorithms. They chose that.
Remember in like the early 2000s Facebook tried to see if they could make people sad by altering the feed? They could! And somehow no one went to jail for that.
5
dontsayaword - 11hr
The internet IS that toxic, as long as our tools for communication still amplify those voices
34
hendrik - 11hr
Can relate. And this is a general problem on the internet. As long as I'm there it looks like misery and impeding doom. Once I open the front door and go outside, looks like 99% of my neighbours are super nice people and there's joy in the world. I mean same thing here. At least 80% of what we post is how everything is shit. Few people share the nice cookies they made with their loved ones for Christmas.
4
Lenny - 10hr
That seems to be pretty lucky if you can go out your front door and that's what it's like. When I go out I have to keep my senses alert. There's a lot of maniacs on the road, the internet isn't the only toxic place. I go out a lot, walk my dog four times a day, have a history of bicycling and have a lot of pavement miles/kms. And I've been doing this for years. I see things like a person pushing all their belongings in a shopping cart on a sidewalk, while a Ferrari drives by. The Ferrari parks at a local mall, I think it's the dentist's car. A little while ago the Gov here legalized open drug use, I would pass several people a day just passed out on the ground, sometimes a group, but that law was quickly rescinded. It would be nice if I could live somewhere wealthier, but what there is here is a lot of action. I go out in the dark in the evening, take a flashlight, I'm out between 5am and 8pm these days, see and hear a lot of things. People have been shot in daytime assassinations within a few blocks of where I live, one even on one of the streets I walk down. But I kinda thrive in the action, I'm an observer, the guy walking his dog, watching and listening, talking to random people. Homeless people are generally approachable, they like to come say hi and pet my dog, talk about themselves, complain about things. Wealthier ppl generally try to avoid any street interaction, they don't want their dog near you or your dog. There are friendly dog walkers too, but some, just don't want to even make eye contact. It's weird.
3
hendrik - 10hr
Sure. I mean I'm privileged. For once I live in Germany. And living in Europe is an immediate one tenth or less likelihood of becoming subject to violence compared to places like the US. Being shot at is even less likely. Our average 8yo just walk to and from school on their own. My local dentist doesn't own any Ferrari. I suppose he isn't poor but he greets me when we pass each other on the street. We recently somewhat legalized marijuana and it didn't turn out bad, at least I don't see any uptake in people passed out on the streets. And then I live in one of the nicer neighborhoods. Not super wealthy, but people here are alright. My bicycle might get stolen, but violence is rare. And I'm a white man, so also less fear just walking around in the night. I mean it's not perfect here either. But I don't think I'm allowed to complain. I just wish we'd all do better with these societal issues. And I also see the unhealthy gap between the rich and the poor, which is cause for so many issues out there. I mean I'm not saying we shouldn't strive for better.
3
Lenny - 8hr
I live in Canada, guns are illegal, but in BC here there are a lot of guns. Vancouver is a port city, there's a lot of gang warfare, comes in bursts. Same story over and over, a gangster is shot on the street and half hour later a car is found burning, destroying evidence.. But what's been dominating the headlines lately is extortion in the Indian community. They are shooting at homes and business, its based out of India, the Bishnoi gang. They have a big presence here now, along with old school Hell's Angels, ethnic gangs and interethnic gangs. There's a lot of wealth here, and a lot of poverty.
3
hendrik - 1hr
Thanks for the info. I've tried to wrap my head around Canada lately... After I met some super xenophobic Canadians online, cheering for Trump and his ICE, demanding a white ethno-state for Canada as well... They "taught" me a lot about Indians... That wasn't BC, though. I think the Greater Toronto Area... I still have some reading up to do. Canada isn't regularly on the news here, so my knowledge is limited.
I guess I can't compare "my" city to a port city, or a capital city or anything like that. I figure we'd expect organized crime to be more prevalent in such places? It's probably better for me since I do live in a densely populated urban area as well. But it's more in some unimportant place somewhere in the middle, without any direct significance to the criminals. We sure have immigrants who aren't integrated into society and that's problematic. We have some street gangs or clans about here. They're on the news every now and then and stab each other. They don't really slice up regular people, though. Just each other. So I feel kinda safe. And it's not a daily thing by any means. Sometimes mentally ill people wreck havoc and we're reminded of them by the big concrete blocks around the Christmas market. Could happen any day that someone rams a vehicle in a crowd. Fortunately it's been a while, and there's the blocks as defense now. And people refuse to surrender. They'll still go there and have fun. And I think that's the right thing to do. What I saw as well is how the proper homeless people in the shopping district got displaced by professional, organized beggars in the last few weeks. Happens always around Christmas, and that's not nice at all.
I mean other than that, there's always a difference between perceived safety. And real safety. Just by the numbers it's not too bad. My parents had way more domestic terrorists, Hells Angels etc when they were young. Kidnappings, hijackings. That's all come down significantly and we're doing better with these things and organized for quite some time now. We're headed the right direction.
As with Canada, I don't know the numbers. I've just about finished reading about the immigrants, housing in the urban areas and how it's all connected, demographics and what kind of things the government does and doesn't do... And I didn't get to crime yet. And I don't really understand the scale of the Indian people added to the cities. A organized gang, funded from abroad doesn't sound like a welcome thing to me.
The issue with neo-liberalism should be pretty universal, though. We all just can't have a society made up just of super-rich and very poor people. Of course people without money and opportunity might either get closer to drugs, or seek opportunity elsewhere. Probably crime if that's the only option. And organized crime needs to be fought, I think pretty much all people agree on that. And we need to take care of the people in need and sick people. Preferably before their mental illness makes them murder someone.
1
Samskara @sh.itjust.works - 11hr
The mentally ill unemployed lonely losers with too much time are vastly overrepresented on the internet.
People with purpose, active life, great social network, don’t waste their time on the internet.
Picking fights on the internet might be the only way anyone gives them attention.
3
morto - 9hr
“The bigots are speaking up now and all too many good people are remaining silent (...) the appalling silence of the good people is as serious as the vitriolic words of the bad people.”
3
purplerabbit (she/her 🏳️⚧️) - 10hr
Yes, they're called billionaires.
2
ChicoSuave @lemmy.world - 10hr
20% doing 80% of the work, as normal. Target the racists and bigots and that 20% goes to single digits, at least.
Sunshine in technology @piefed.social
A loud minority makes the Internet look far more toxic than it is
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/12/251216081933.htmThe problem is not assholes spouting bullshit. Those have always been around. The problem isn't even foreign influence operations. The problem lies in the social media algorithms that amplify the bullshit. People always say they do this to maximise profit but I don't buy that any more. They know exactly what they're doing and the outcomes we're seeing are the outcomes they want.
The Internet wasn’t really like this before engagement-boosting algorithms took over. The ragebait got more engagement, so it got promoted and now it’s all we see.
That being said I still don’t like people in the real world but that has nothing to do with internet trolls and everything to do with people.
All these big platforms with their algorithms have blood on their hands. They chose to let this happen. They valued profits over anything else.
There's no cosmic need for facebook and its algorithms. They chose that.
Remember in like the early 2000s Facebook tried to see if they could make people sad by altering the feed? They could! And somehow no one went to jail for that.
The internet IS that toxic, as long as our tools for communication still amplify those voices
Can relate. And this is a general problem on the internet. As long as I'm there it looks like misery and impeding doom. Once I open the front door and go outside, looks like 99% of my neighbours are super nice people and there's joy in the world. I mean same thing here. At least 80% of what we post is how everything is shit. Few people share the nice cookies they made with their loved ones for Christmas.
That seems to be pretty lucky if you can go out your front door and that's what it's like. When I go out I have to keep my senses alert. There's a lot of maniacs on the road, the internet isn't the only toxic place. I go out a lot, walk my dog four times a day, have a history of bicycling and have a lot of pavement miles/kms. And I've been doing this for years. I see things like a person pushing all their belongings in a shopping cart on a sidewalk, while a Ferrari drives by. The Ferrari parks at a local mall, I think it's the dentist's car. A little while ago the Gov here legalized open drug use, I would pass several people a day just passed out on the ground, sometimes a group, but that law was quickly rescinded. It would be nice if I could live somewhere wealthier, but what there is here is a lot of action. I go out in the dark in the evening, take a flashlight, I'm out between 5am and 8pm these days, see and hear a lot of things. People have been shot in daytime assassinations within a few blocks of where I live, one even on one of the streets I walk down. But I kinda thrive in the action, I'm an observer, the guy walking his dog, watching and listening, talking to random people. Homeless people are generally approachable, they like to come say hi and pet my dog, talk about themselves, complain about things. Wealthier ppl generally try to avoid any street interaction, they don't want their dog near you or your dog. There are friendly dog walkers too, but some, just don't want to even make eye contact. It's weird.
Sure. I mean I'm privileged. For once I live in Germany. And living in Europe is an immediate one tenth or less likelihood of becoming subject to violence compared to places like the US. Being shot at is even less likely. Our average 8yo just walk to and from school on their own. My local dentist doesn't own any Ferrari. I suppose he isn't poor but he greets me when we pass each other on the street. We recently somewhat legalized marijuana and it didn't turn out bad, at least I don't see any uptake in people passed out on the streets. And then I live in one of the nicer neighborhoods. Not super wealthy, but people here are alright. My bicycle might get stolen, but violence is rare. And I'm a white man, so also less fear just walking around in the night. I mean it's not perfect here either. But I don't think I'm allowed to complain. I just wish we'd all do better with these societal issues. And I also see the unhealthy gap between the rich and the poor, which is cause for so many issues out there. I mean I'm not saying we shouldn't strive for better.
I live in Canada, guns are illegal, but in BC here there are a lot of guns. Vancouver is a port city, there's a lot of gang warfare, comes in bursts. Same story over and over, a gangster is shot on the street and half hour later a car is found burning, destroying evidence.. But what's been dominating the headlines lately is extortion in the Indian community. They are shooting at homes and business, its based out of India, the Bishnoi gang. They have a big presence here now, along with old school Hell's Angels, ethnic gangs and interethnic gangs. There's a lot of wealth here, and a lot of poverty.
Thanks for the info. I've tried to wrap my head around Canada lately... After I met some super xenophobic Canadians online, cheering for Trump and his ICE, demanding a white ethno-state for Canada as well... They "taught" me a lot about Indians... That wasn't BC, though. I think the Greater Toronto Area... I still have some reading up to do. Canada isn't regularly on the news here, so my knowledge is limited.
I guess I can't compare "my" city to a port city, or a capital city or anything like that. I figure we'd expect organized crime to be more prevalent in such places? It's probably better for me since I do live in a densely populated urban area as well. But it's more in some unimportant place somewhere in the middle, without any direct significance to the criminals. We sure have immigrants who aren't integrated into society and that's problematic. We have some street gangs or clans about here. They're on the news every now and then and stab each other. They don't really slice up regular people, though. Just each other. So I feel kinda safe. And it's not a daily thing by any means. Sometimes mentally ill people wreck havoc and we're reminded of them by the big concrete blocks around the Christmas market. Could happen any day that someone rams a vehicle in a crowd. Fortunately it's been a while, and there's the blocks as defense now. And people refuse to surrender. They'll still go there and have fun. And I think that's the right thing to do. What I saw as well is how the proper homeless people in the shopping district got displaced by professional, organized beggars in the last few weeks. Happens always around Christmas, and that's not nice at all.
I mean other than that, there's always a difference between perceived safety. And real safety. Just by the numbers it's not too bad. My parents had way more domestic terrorists, Hells Angels etc when they were young. Kidnappings, hijackings. That's all come down significantly and we're doing better with these things and organized for quite some time now. We're headed the right direction.
As with Canada, I don't know the numbers. I've just about finished reading about the immigrants, housing in the urban areas and how it's all connected, demographics and what kind of things the government does and doesn't do... And I didn't get to crime yet. And I don't really understand the scale of the Indian people added to the cities. A organized gang, funded from abroad doesn't sound like a welcome thing to me.
The issue with neo-liberalism should be pretty universal, though. We all just can't have a society made up just of super-rich and very poor people. Of course people without money and opportunity might either get closer to drugs, or seek opportunity elsewhere. Probably crime if that's the only option. And organized crime needs to be fought, I think pretty much all people agree on that. And we need to take care of the people in need and sick people. Preferably before their mental illness makes them murder someone.
The mentally ill unemployed lonely losers with too much time are vastly overrepresented on the internet.
People with purpose, active life, great social network, don’t waste their time on the internet.
Picking fights on the internet might be the only way anyone gives them attention.
“The bigots are speaking up now and all too many good people are remaining silent (...) the appalling silence of the good people is as serious as the vitriolic words of the bad people.”
Yes, they're called billionaires.
20% doing 80% of the work, as normal. Target the racists and bigots and that 20% goes to single digits, at least.