Why do we fear sharing personal joy on social media?
prismreports.org
Gender, race, and disability affect who gets to express joy—and who gets punished for sharing it
  •  Gil (he/they)   ( @kalanggam@beehaw.org ) English
    6•1 year ago

    Being contrarian simply for the sake of it wins, and the person behind the account receives responses (even the rightfully angered ones about their harmful post) and becomes the main character of the day, with little care about being represented negatively.

    This is one of the things I hated the most about Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, and other giants, and one of the reasons I was so eager to quit them. The social media platforms themselves reinforce it and actually encourage people to attack POC, queer people, women, disabled people, and other marginalized people with total impunity.

    But another big thing for me was that, on Big Social, I had a dearth of friends who would celebrate, affirm, or commiserate with me. It always made me feel really alone to be open and vulnerable on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram about my successes or struggles, but draw no response from friends because what I was posting just didn’t provide some form of entertainment and/or didn’t get shown to them because of timeline algorithms. It made dealing with jerks much harder.

    •  alyaza [they/she]   ( @alyaza@beehaw.org ) OPEnglish
      4•1 year ago

      This is one of the things I hated the most about Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, and other giants, and one of the reasons I was so eager to quit them. The social media platforms themselves reinforce it and actually encourage people to attack POC, queer people, women, disabled people, and other marginalized people with total impunity.

      oh yeah, it’s real bad. even pre-Elon, when i would use my Twitter account that isn’t political i’d get shit like Nick Fuentes in my “for you” feed or in my notifications, which okay cool. love that. great to see Twitter promote literal neo-Nazis! i have no Facebook but i have heard it is quite bad over there also. my experiences with Reddit have been better, but then i only use it for a few things.

      But another big thing for me was that, on Big Social, I had a dearth of friends who would celebrate, affirm, or commiserate with me.

      this is also a huge thing. good stuff takes off so much less than the neverending torrent of bad news–it’s an active cognitohazard most of the time to be a minority on Twitter.