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The internet is neutral.
Corporate social media is definitely toxic.
Can be, but is not inherently.
The algorithms are toxic. Negativity gets more engagement so the algorithms push that content more.
This is too simple, groups of people radicalizing themselves is a very well known phenomenom, it has existed since humans started forming groups.
A good example are the terrorist groups during the cold war, Baader-Meinhof, Japanese Red Army and similar.
The groups may start as a group to work towards a new political system through peaceful means, then someone starts an informal competition about who is the “best” and more “pure” member, starting to subtly put other member’s down for not doing as much as they are.
Then it becomes a feedback loop, and soon you have a group that condems their own initial goals as counter revolutionary, and constantly moving the goalposts.
The algorithm itself doesn’t introduce this behaviour, but turbo chargers it by making people self radicalize mich faster by showing them an endless stream of people telling them how to be even “better” and even more “pure”.
I feel like that’s the same as saying people are toxic or socialisation is toxic. Yes, toxicity can exist online, it can also exist in the supermarket, at school, in a field miles away from anywhere. It’s just a facet of being with other humans.
The internet is fine, it’s social media and the people using it that are toxic (aided by algorithms pushing people to give their own worst for all sorts of reasons)
There is one feature of the internet that inherently encourages toxicity, and that’s the barrier anonymity grants between online actions and real life consequences.
In real life if you walk up to someone and start talking shit, you can experience consequences from that. Online, you can do something very similar and seldom suffer anything. This allows the internet to be used to vent bottled-up emotions that are otherwise difficult or problematic to express. It also gives young’uns a chance to fuck around without really getting in trouble for it, which can be somewhat intoxicating at that age.
These two factors contribute to an enhanced toxicity that would not be commonly seen just walking around some town somewhere. Most towns anyway. That said, it similarly depends on where you are online. Communities, both online and irl, are unique in their environments and cultures, so one should not expect standardized behavior beyond the very basics when going from place to place.
There are plenty of real life scenarios that both equate and predate your example, and which don’t rely on anonymity. Lynch mobs in the US, rape gangs in southeast Asian countries, Hitler rallies, heck even bully groups among children. The size of the group does not have to be big to allow toxic behavior, as long as you have a catalyst (such as someone getting away with something) that engenders a feeling of safety from consequences and in- and outgroups. The Internet is just another medium for this behavior, anonymous or not. What is different is that the internet is the first medium that actively records it.
Correct. I was not arguing that anonymity is required for bad things to happen. Only that it can encourage certain behaviors. Think of it in terms of percentage.
You get out of algorithms what you put into them.
My Facebook feed is full of web comics and memes. My twatter feed is full of information security because that is what I follow.
If someone is posting crap you don’t like unfollow/unfriend them. Nothing says you have to have them on your feed.
Since I switched to fediverse, I am safe from toxicity of traditional social medias.
Yep, that’s why I switched too.
Not me. I think popular implementations of social media are, but they don’t need to be.
Also the internet is definitely not toxic because it’s basically a set of protocols that can be used for innumerable things that aren’t social at all. For example: the experience of using ftp to transfer a file has never been toxic.
Properly moderated it doesn’t have to be.
If you thought it was, you need to ask yourself why you are here because Lemmy and Reddit are both forms of social media.
I’m on Lemmy because I wanted to switch from Reddit after being scorned by the people there.
Before that, I posted regularly just fine even though people were rude and disrespectful.
The internet by itself is not toxic.
The people that use the internet are toxic.
The people that use the internet have made the internet toxic.
The internet got a reputation for being toxic.
Your average person doesn’t even wanna bother anymore.
And I’m a person who always stands out from the crowd. Because I hate toxic.
Amen.
Only toxic people
It depends on the place, but sometimes a relaxing video helps.
The environment is toxic, pathogens are ubiquitous. Immune systems protect us from most pathogens, which only present a serious threat to the immunocompromised. The toxicity of the Internet and social media is indicative of compromised social immune systems.
