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Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
The media itself (Facebook and twitter) I don't feel have nefarious purposes in any of this. There's no conspiracy backed by Facebook to twist the minds of its members. However, their system works such that we are provided with content that we choose to prefer. So if I like reading things about puppies, the system will provide me with more puppy content to enjoy. If I prefer reading things that are pro-blue, I will be presented with more pro-blue things to read. And within that group of pro-blue things, will be anti-red things. Because pro-blue is not happy with red. They don't get along, the system knows this because the system exists to keep track of that kind of thing.
It's not any person in Facebook that says "hey let's make these people hate each other!" But rather, it's people hating each other, being provided with more ammunition to continue their hatred, because it's simply what floats their boat and the system has no emotional investment in either of them being right or wrong. It knows only that Joe likes Red and doesn't like Blue, and Sue likes Blue and doesn't like Red. It gives them what they want. That is its function.
If you don't want to be influenced by any one or other thing, then don't focus your interest on any one or other thing when you visit these media sites. If you want to very specifically avoid any one or other thing, it's very easy to do, on all of those media sites. You can put up an adblocker, AND on Facebook there's a thing called FBP, which stands for Facebook Purity. It's a very sophisticated totally independent filtering add-on, it's free, it's supported and updated regularly, and it does a great job.
The only political stuff I ever see on Facebook, is political stuff I WANT to see. And I can shut -that- stuff off with a click of the mouse, any time.
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You get what you put into Facebook. I get a lot of interaction with friends and family, some political stuff, lots of ads especially from law firms, some cool stuff from various Villages' area physicians, and occasional talks with celebrities who may or may not be genuine. Lots of fake stuff out there which Facebook does now seem to be removing.
This is just a business and they use various algorithms based on what you search on Facebook. So I get blonde nurse stuff (inside joke). Even though I have dated and/or befriended women of many different ethnic backgrounds-- the blonde nurse stuff comes up as I mention that a lot of Facebook. In another area, my sister-in-law re-emerged on Facebook after being gone a year or so selling cupcakes so I will probably be seeing a lot of stuff on cupcakes soon including anyone who sells cupcakes in Central Florida.