NTD crossroads_Josh program mentioned this.
(Yeah, I know people think that's right wing crazies, unless they're one of them!)

Meta intends to have AI bots on Facebook and Instagram:
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/new...tagram/736242/
(Sorry, this discussion probably belongs on Reddit!)
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/...latforms_with/

This will hasten the death of the internet:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory
Footnote #36:
https://thedebrief.org/dead-internet...with-ai-users/

[LoL]Maybe the death of the internet will save humanity!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...-30-years.html

Nope. The Internet is about business now.

It may hasten the deaths of those in Generations Z & Alpha. I will won't contest your speculation on an open forum. It won't affect those who don't become slaves to social media - like me.

I thought Ireland was one of the nuttier places to live, but we pale into insignificance beside what's going on in the Excited States and sanity now needs redefinition, imho.

Young people don't use Facebook any more. They've all migrated to TikTok. So if Meta want to keep FB alive, they have to replace the missing users with bots. Makes sense.

Only if those bots are given spending power.

"Facebook" and the like simply does not interest me at all. Never did. There is also no television in my house – haven't had one for thirty years or more. There are plenty of other things that you can find to do with your time – such as: posting a comment on LQ!

But seriously: I have been very involved in "conventional forums" like this one because it's the fastest way to "ask a [Linux] question" and quickly get a qualified answer. The forum is subdivided into a taxonomy of subject-specific sections. And, it has a very good "search" feature. Of course it has a section for "blowing off steam." But, in general, there is value in sites like this one. If "Linux is throwing you a rabbit," this will get the problem solved. Fast.

That's what my 21 year old tells me. "Facebook is for old people, Dad."
I use Facebook very sparingly to stay in contact with friends and family. I don't use other social media platforms. Social media is a waste of time.

So is this behind all the "Ban TikTok" stuff that's going on? Just asking, I'gve no skin in that game, using neither.

Here's another article about this.

It is a spectacularly stupid and dangerous move. It's not going to help Facebook as a business or as a "community," but it will do a heck of a lot of damage along the way.

Forums like this one are as close as I get to 'social media'. Never used FB, Instagram or any other site. Waste of time in my opinion.

I have to raise a small quibble.

There are persons who get their "news" from "social" media, persons who believe stuff they see on "social" media more than they believe stuff that they see via traditional news media (as shaky as that sometimes seems to be).

It may not affect you or me directly, but I think it highly likely that what happens on "social" media may affect us all indirectly.

And, he added, to the detriment of us and the polity.

I think that "you just have to use your head" about anything that you consume, from any source anytime. Because, propaganda is a fundamental part of society, and has been since society began. "Think accordingly.™" Some people want to manipulate you under the guise of informing you. Those people are always out there, always have been, and always will be. You have to decide for yourself.

Some people don't want to decide. They want to believe whatever they are told, and they will. It's easier that way . . . But, "'not to decide,' is to decide."

Propaganda, and "crowd psychology," is a truly fascinating – and, very unsettling – topic about which many good frightening books have been written. I own a few.

Watch this space. I read somewhere that Meta are removing these bots, in line with the thinking that they've lost enough folks already without annoying the remaining few. I'm frustrated I can't find the url. The 'official' line is that users can't ban the bots when they (inevitably) want to.

Another place to watch out is Reddit. I won't touch X with a pole.

Can I quote you on that? I can imagine circumstances in which I might - other threads perhaps .