Cam Barrett knows the precise date of her first menstrual period. Her mother posted the news on Facebook. Barrett, who lives in Illinois, is part of a growing movement of young people who are urging lawmakers to protect children whose parents monetize their private lives on social media.
Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, all the major ones. I’d like to think that Reddit is less affected by it than the rest of them, but I’m not certain that is accurate anymore.
The only time I even sort of liked social media was when it was only college students. I bet that’s what the old internet people thought when I first got online in the eternal September…
It’s when they tried to monetise it and then figured out that “to make the most money, we need people to stay on our site the longest” that things went to shit.
The algorithms soon learned that echo chambers of outrage worked great to maximize viewership.
Facebook used to just be your class schedule, and you could see the names and school emails of others in your class.
No profile pictures, no likes, not even friends.
It was just a way to email someone from class you thought was cute over the pretext of meeting up to exchange notes. That was all anyone used it for, for like the first year.
But Myspace and others already existed at that point, and it was always open to anyone. Only Facebook restricted it to people with .edu emails.
I was at one of the first three schools that had it when it rolled out.
So maybe by the time it was open to any .edu address there was pictures?
But when it first launched to those three schools, no one had pictures, you had to at least remember your crush’s name, not just pick them out of a lineup.
It was literally 20 years ago… And I’m going off memory…
I know it would have been less than a year before pictures and friends, because it was always a huge joke about how many friends someone had, especially with one of my roommates at the time.
Perfect. Zero notes.
Social media should not be for kids.
Or, apparently, most adults.
The algorithms designed to keep you there and sell you more are the real poison there, but I can’t say you’re wrong.
This would make sense when said on Reddit or whatever, but nobody’s keeping anyone on Lemmy
Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, all the major ones. I’d like to think that Reddit is less affected by it than the rest of them, but I’m not certain that is accurate anymore.
…… I call this “exhibit A” for why I’m on lemmy.
The only time I even sort of liked social media was when it was only college students. I bet that’s what the old internet people thought when I first got online in the eternal September…
It’s when they tried to monetise it and then figured out that “to make the most money, we need people to stay on our site the longest” that things went to shit.
The algorithms soon learned that echo chambers of outrage worked great to maximize viewership.
And we all suffer more for it.
Facebook used to just be your class schedule, and you could see the names and school emails of others in your class.
No profile pictures, no likes, not even friends.
It was just a way to email someone from class you thought was cute over the pretext of meeting up to exchange notes. That was all anyone used it for, for like the first year.
But Myspace and others already existed at that point, and it was always open to anyone. Only Facebook restricted it to people with .edu emails.
Facebook absolutely had profile pictures when it was school only. Everyone rated who they would fuck with it.
I was at one of the first three schools that had it when it rolled out.
So maybe by the time it was open to any .edu address there was pictures?
But when it first launched to those three schools, no one had pictures, you had to at least remember your crush’s name, not just pick them out of a lineup.
How long was it like that?
It was literally 20 years ago… And I’m going off memory…
I know it would have been less than a year before pictures and friends, because it was always a huge joke about how many friends someone had, especially with one of my roommates at the time.
I think it went:
Single profile pic
Friends
Wall
Photo galleries
Tagging people