What are your thoughts on how social media impacts our society and interpersonal connections?

We need scientific, critical thinking.

We always did.

But now it is a matter of survival.

It doesn't matter how much you feel it in your bones or how much faith you have. Those things don't mean shit and should impress nobody.

What matters is the evidence

It impacts them extremely negatively.

I'm convinced social media is population thought control.

I think it varies per platform. LinkedIn fosters a disgusting ass-kissing "work comes first" culture. Facebook turned people into one-upping d-bags with highly curated feeds to showcase their constant "winning at life" bullshit. X/Twitter was a left bubble then a right bubble. Reddit is enshittified beyond recognition. It all sucks, just in different ways.

But perhaps the common factors are a sense of isolation and a disconnection from reality.

... and a tendency, even on Fedi, of surrounding oneself in an information bubble
- I still the info bubble thing to be bullshit. People hung out in places they liked in meatspace and lived in information bubbles before the internet. Its called a group of friends. If somone was well read they would have a nuanced view and most people depended on having a few noteworthy people to ask about complicated things. Open to everything on the internet means rooting around in a pile of shit at this point and the more you cut the shit away the easier it will be to find the rare gem.
I don't get why anyone is even posting on linkedin. its purpose is to have a circle of people I have actually worked with or done business with and I like getting and giving recommendations especially when I or someone leaves the company.
- Same. I never post anything on there. I have replied a few times to a few former coworkers who have messaged me on there, that's it. If the convo goes anywhere we move it elsewhere.

It has ruined communication.
I like this and want to add something I think will be significant as generations pass. The fact that it encourages or at least seems to normalize incorrect spelling and grammar. I see 'break/brake" being used incorrectly so many times I have started to question it when I am using it now. When things are published normally, there is someone checking for grammatical errors and such. With social media so much text is being "published" with no checking whatsoever and I have a feeling that it is going to start affecting people in ways we haven't thought of. It also is a little telling in my opinion of how abhorrent our current education system is.

I wouldn't say social media is inherently bad. Engagement driven social media is bad. Unfortunately, that's pretty much all mainstream social media anymore.

Facebook wasn't terrible before they shifted their algorithm to drive engagement; and by extension, conflict. It turned to shit really quick after that.

It was good when the “social” component was actually its purpose, and you used it to connect with your family and friends and see what they’ve been up to. Then it went to shit when algorithms took over, every other post on your feed isn’t from people/pages you followed, and keeping your eyes and attenion on the app as long as possible to maximize ad exposure became the goal.

it made people quite anti-social, plus it draws them into things like political echo chambers. and incelism,,,etc. coupled with AI, it affects students math and reading/writing skills.

It's the social equivalent of high fructose corn syrup. It's clearly not as good as real socialization, and when the companies start adding things that benefit their goals, it's clearly making it worse for you. But for most people, it's a cheap way to scratch the itch for social interaction, and it's right there, no need to go all the way to a place or make plans, so people take it and get by but at the sacrifice of their mental health just as eating a pile of HFCS based foods will fill you up for now but sacrifice your physical health.

Its mostly negative. And in a heavy negative way

I feel like all social networks no longer represent or are recognizable from the original point of social networks which was communication. Now they're algorithm based engagement avenues for ads and market research and data gathering.

I'm 95% sure it's why the US political system is so bias and the vibe on my latest post was lit, and I couldn’t help but flex about my rizz honestly, no cap.

I don't really think social media actually makes people more social in real life and federated platforms are pretty much the same. I also remember reading once that many tech execs don't let their kids use social media or phones.

Also here's a few interesting related things I've seen:

To the social part, it's a corporate stand-in for actually interacting and being in your community. While it can still very much be used for that, instead of living our lives mostly within our communities, we talk to the entire world. Without boundaries, I don't inherently think that's a good thing.
To the execs part: Social media is currently made to be as addictive as possible. It's heroine for average ppl killing time, and dangerously pulls you out of reality/blurs the bounds. The Internet is in many ways an amazing place, but there's a reason tech execs keep their youths away from it: it's bad for living life.
Sorry to be all doom and gloom, I think about this a lot lol

On a personal impact, I do believe I am much more anti-social as I would have otherwise been. I get paranoid that people around me hate or judge me since that's what I had read people online doing. In a societal level, there is commentary on the increased fear of judgement in my generation

Like this or facebook and whatnot. If your talking facebook and the consumer stuff I never got it. I use it minimally since they all went way away from their purpose. Just connecting with folks youve known in meatspace.

It's quite huge in many ways and smaller in others. Not enough studies have been done overall to determine the range of it's affect, especially given the growing access to the wider internet and social media across a major portion of the human population, though significantly still segregated in the ways in which it's accessible.

I can personally say for a fact that there is already growing social mobility relating to how it's being used, as well as where policy is moving. This is where we will end up seeing the longer term trends given more are sociologically changing habits as well as better legal requirements, shifting policy reccomendations, and overall scientific recognition of affects.

I hope better in the long run, but definitely close to a net neutral given the way it's moved overall, and a net negative in recent years.

Post algorithm has been a shit fest where engagement and the promotion of certain political views is very dangerous.

Pre algorithm, it created an interesting place between friend and stranger where you could maintain contact with people whom you never would before.

I don't think its just "social media" by itself, but more like the overall advancement in technology.

I mean, its boredom that drives people to go outside. Now we have the internet and can just watch anything at anytime. Don't even need to wait for a specific time for it to air.

Going outside drains energy, its so easy to just stay indoors and binge watch any tv show you like, browse forums, play video games.

If you tried this before the internet, you'd be bored so quickly and be forced to go outside, but noe there's infinite entertainment.

Also, smartphones made the "self-isolation bubble" also became a thing in public. Why talk to random strangers? Just stare at your phone like everyone does.

Kids in school doesn't even talk to each other anymore. You get made fun of if you don't have a smartphone (you still get made fun of if its Android, but its not as bad as not having a phone at all)

I'm not anti-tech or anything, I like technology, but I just think its people misusing it. Like maybe stop staring in your phone during school lunch and talk to people. But you're a weirdo now if you dare to initiate converasation with others.

So it's a feedbackloop, because nobody talks anymore, I also feel more inclined to just browse the internet instead of making my self stand out.