A Guardian story about flat earthers. When I first heard about them I thought they were just bored trolls, but now we've got articles like this with researchers trying to figure out how to combat their rampant stupidity.
Sigh.
Sigh.
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Study blames YouTube for rise in number of Flat Earthers
- Thread starter cognizant
- Start date
YouTube has some degree of responsibility for what is hosted on their platform. I don't see why blatant misinformation should be allowed.
yep and how easy it is to isolate yourself from things you don't wanna hear. And if you get challenged about it in day to day life outside of the internet? You ignore the person and retreat to your hole to confirm that the earth is still indeed flat
the internet is a plague
I don't believe many are taught about checking sources. I've embarrassed my brother before because I fact checked an article he sent me but ultimately it's made him more skeptical and willing to double check so he doesn't do something like that again.
I wish checking sources was taught more.
is it really surprising though? schools teach you to memorize shit, not think and so much of the media that we consume is made to be as safe as possible.
Back in school (90s/early '00s) it was very much taught in my school. The problem isn't that they're not taught, the problem is that they can't be taught.
The world is clearly very short on the right amount of skepticism.
In other words, the world is full of some real gullible fucks.
In other words, the world is full of some real gullible fucks.
All media can influence you unfortunately. Its not a problem specifically related to youtubers. I'd take new media with the choice of common sense on what to follow and research to televised and written corp media as the only option.
New media is very important to break the echo chamber and provide good counterbalance(when it comes to progressive views, opinions and just information in general that gets glossed over otherwise), even if it comes with the risk of right wing heresey and clear conspiratorial garbage like flat earth theory. I dont want the owners of these outlets being the ones on a whim deciding what they personally can judge is conspiratorial or not. Because then we get into some real shady shit.
New media is very important to break the echo chamber and provide good counterbalance(when it comes to progressive views, opinions and just information in general that gets glossed over otherwise), even if it comes with the risk of right wing heresey and clear conspiratorial garbage like flat earth theory. I dont want the owners of these outlets being the ones on a whim deciding what they personally can judge is conspiratorial or not. Because then we get into some real shady shit.
Content created by a majority of white males is oozing with their lack of education, anti-intellectualism and downright offensive and toxic views. Who would have thought that? I'm shocked by that.
/s
/s
When that delivery mechanism sses how much video these conspiracy theorist are watching and decides to recommend the videos more broadly to boost retention, I think there's some blame to be had.
I think if we can credit Gutenberg's press for the proliferation of literacy across Europe we can assign some blame to YouTube for the proliferation of, well, idiocy.
It's a "free" tool that gives anyone with access to the internet an immediate and massive audience with little to no filters for the content as well as the new technology of "relevant content discovery" which for whatever reason skews towards more idiocy. It would be like giving everyone their own plague rats except the plague is flat earth and the rats are the youtube platform.
We have had thousands of years of organised religions before the internet was even thought of. If your view got challenged you similarly retreated into your church or closed community.
People just like to belong to "something" and I doubt youtube is making this worse. It'll just be shifting the people around to believe in whatever is currently trending.
Flat earthers? Sure. Seems a lot more harmless to me than the alternatives.
The delivery method isn't entirely to blame, but there's also a responsibility to platform holders to maintain their platforms.
However, as big a pain as Youtube is, I honestly feel that while the views are given some sort of platform on Youtube, it's news organisations trying to give "balance" where the legitimacy comes from.
You can't bring on a flat earther and someone who isn't an idiot and pretend both their view points are completely valid or worthwhile opinions. We need to stop pretending opinions are worthwhile in the face of facts.
However, as big a pain as Youtube is, I honestly feel that while the views are given some sort of platform on Youtube, it's news organisations trying to give "balance" where the legitimacy comes from.
You can't bring on a flat earther and someone who isn't an idiot and pretend both their view points are completely valid or worthwhile opinions. We need to stop pretending opinions are worthwhile in the face of facts.
Difference being social media platforms belong to private entities. They have the ability to control what is shown and what isn't shown on their platform. They already do this with the ToU they establish.
But whenever the opportunities arises where they can make just a slight exception to idiocy, they allow it because it brings in the ad revenue.
Those at fault are the corporations that allow it to happen because it benefits their pockets.
It's much easier to do now. Yeah, religion is a thing, it still is, but now it's a click away instead of an expedition.
Yes. All the "free speech" handwringing about content policing is entirely bunk.
They could do it, they choose not to, cause $$$.
Conspiracy theories and bad ideas can be fought by starving them, which is a reason social media companies have some responsibility to the common good. For example, UFO authors and UFO clubs declined as personal video recording became commonplace. With fewer people claiming to have seen UFOs without proof, less persons have been suckered in to UFO culture.
But companies are literally spreading stupidity for profit.
But companies are literally spreading stupidity for profit.
The problem of people buying into stupid conspiracy bullshit isn't new or unique to YouTube. However, I do think the way the YouTube recommendation algorithm works, and algorithmic content feeds in general work, is uniquely troubling because they are not designed to serve uniform content to broad group of viewers, but content that is microtargeted to conform to your active viewing patterns and maximize active ad viewership. The former is problematic, but at least has to conform to a common grasp of truth the viewing audience has to be sustainable; the latter will keep serving content that is completely divorced from reality because there is no opportunity cost to pushing that content out to the people who are susceptible to it. It exacerbates the fundamental problem that the system that makes mass media profitable has absolutely no interest in any principles of journalistic integrity or truth that might limit the ability for advertisers to maximize eyeballs on screens, even if it means serving dangerous rhetoric to vulnerable minds. So long as the adverts play over the video, Google doesn't give a shit.
I think the only way to push back against this is for people to come together and collectively block advertisement until Google, Facebook, and entities like them institute some common standard for content that can be served algorithmically, without input (so video recommendations and news feeds, not content searches) on their platforms.
I think the only way to push back against this is for people to come together and collectively block advertisement until Google, Facebook, and entities like them institute some common standard for content that can be served algorithmically, without input (so video recommendations and news feeds, not content searches) on their platforms.
Of all the stupid that goes on in the world, this one will always stick out as so confusing. We've photographed it. What more proof do they need?
Do they also believe the Moon and the other planets are flat? Because the Moon's up there right now and looks pretty fucking round to me.
Do they also believe the Moon and the other planets are flat? Because the Moon's up there right now and looks pretty fucking round to me.
No, they actually believe that the other planets are round because, wait for it... we've photographed them.
And no, I'm not making that up.
if you chang your viewpoint on scientific fact cause you watch a couple of videos, chances are you're a complete idiot void of any common sense or intelligence. They probably don't even think of humans as animals cause we wear clothes or some shit.
The internet would have been great if it never progressed past what it was like circa-2000.
It's a critical combination of people unable to think critically and youtube's scripting making a perfect storm of me hitting my head on the desk trying to deal with these people.
But... but we photographed this one too...
That's a level of ignorance and denial I wouldn't have thought possible but alright then. Here we are!
And by. People seem to be forgetting this over and over and over.
Twitter gives equal voice to both the greatest philosophers of our time (we don't have many), and a racist orange shitbag. Which do you think is going to spread further?
Exactly. This is rampant recklessness on the part of media sharing and social media sites. There are fundamental perverse incentives at work here that are literally destroying the political underpinning of democracy. The conflict of interest is blatant. At this point, there should be a similar peer review system on YouTube like there is on Wikipedia.
Yep.
They seem to have no problems believing that we can photograph something billions of miles away, but any thought of strapping a GoPro onto a balloon is somehow part of some big conspiracy.
The ease of access to audiences to influence has changed a lot.
There's a reason people filming themselves for internet are called 'influencers' now, and the popular pool already includes those more harmful alternatives and then some.
It's like going to the library, only whenever you return a book on geopolitics the librarian recommends Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Anyone want to explain the point of all the world's scientists conspiring to lie about the shape of the earth?