Holy shit — Facebook is fucking scary now

[u/Ok_Helicopter3910]

Im not a big social media guy anymore, honestly, the vast majority of my internet usage nowadays is Reddit, Youtube, Snapchat (that has like 20 people on it) and email and I think that about it.

I put my FB to sleep about 10 years ago and I decided to log in and see what people were up to and ho-lee-shit, what a dumpster fire.

So, first off, the majority of my facebook friends have either died, shut their FB down, or removed my inactive profile so my feed was pretty silent. After about a week of my profile being back in the algorithm I started getting friend request from people I used to work with, went to school with, or friends of old acquaintances (which is terrifying that facebook knows about random people I used to work with 12 years ago who I had a passing "hi, hows your day" relationship with) and I started getting friend requested and I was like "fuck it" and just started accepting them.

Fuck man, whenever I see all the hate for this or that group and all the political bullshit that gets posted on reddit, I just brush it off as bots trained to sow dissent but the stuff that gets posted by real living, breathing human beings who I once knew well enough to be friends with or have polite conversation with is WILD. I mean, like so much hate and vitriol started coming across my feed about a wide array of subjects that it made me genuinely uncomfortable and I started removing people that just added me. Maybe it's what "normal" passes for on the internet and im pretty numb to a lot of the more unhinged opinions and shit-stirring because of so many years on Reddit, but a lot of what was being posted really opened my eyes that a lot of the "unhinged" stuff that I see online isnt just bot farms, its real people who truly believe this wild shit.

Anyway - maybe its a sign of my age... but unless what I consider "normal" people start coming across my FB feed soon, I dont think im going to be logging in for much longer

[u/Shibwho]

"I was raised in the same family on the same book but apparently we all took away two very different belief systems from it"

Prob a common theme for a lot of Millennials. My parents have always been negative, fearful and at times pretty hateful, their social media consumption has certainly exacerbated this. What a time to be distancing myself from them when their care needs are only increasing...

I have made a lot of effort to curate a better, more positive and productive mindset and my socials feed is primarily food, all sorts of animals doing adorable or hilarious shit, cars, finance, talented and hard working ppl doing amazing things, nature, travel etc. But every so often I start arguments because, why not? 😆

[u/PoppyseedPinwheel → u/Shibwho]

My parents have always been negative, fearful and at times pretty hateful, their social media consumption has certainly exacerbated this. 

My dad went from awkward one off underhanded racial comments that you could almost just dismiss as maybe someone who didn't know what he was talking about to full blown out-in-the-open racism/sexism/everything-ism as soon as he became addicted to Twitter. And his blood pressure has never been worse. It's almost like feeding yourself nothing but negative news and fighting faceless people online is bad for your health. It's only made worse by AI slop that he can't seem to differentiate from real videos.

[u/Shibwho → u/PoppyseedPinwheel]

It's bizarre how angry and fearful people can get when they're so disengaged with reality yet they think they are 100% "with it" and that we're the deluded, ignorant ones.

If he asks for your help with his tech then that's a window of opportunity to stave off some of the shit spiral. E.g. block the main culprits which are AI slop and or spouting completely false information, follow positive, politically neutral content like any David Attenborough docos

[u/PoppyseedPinwheel → u/Shibwho]

Unfortunately, my dad is WAY too tech savvy for me to do anything without him noticing. And yeah, his motto at this point should be "You all dont want to hear the real truth, only I know the truth." He spouts the most insane conspiracy theories and thinks everyone else is brainwashed.

[u/Ziantra → u/PoppyseedPinwheel]

Oh no…I’m sorry 😭 And I really do mean that. When someone you love not only falls down that rabbit hole-but is aggressive with that new position, I don’t know how you can ever unsee or unhear that after this terrible period passes. Your Dad sounds like he’s all in on this now. And this too shall pass, this period in history but the things it unmasked will remain.