If it wasn't for the poisons group and my family who are on there, I think I would have left Facebook. They've contributed to such awful things and have shirked all responsibility. The problem is that these companies are too powerful and wealthy and they are obfuscating and resisting regulation. If we could just get things back in balance.
Great article... I find myself using social media less and less and "AI" more and more. I feel it your picture of the mushroom and asked if I could eat it...
"The mushroom in the image appears to be a type of Wood Blewit (Clitocybe nuda, also known as Lepista nuda). Wood Blewits are recognizable by their lilac to purple color and their gilled underside.
Wood Blewits are generally considered edible and are known for their robust flavor. However, they must be cooked properly before consumption, as eating them raw can cause gastrointestinal distress in some people. Additionally, they can sometimes be confused with other inedible or toxic species, so it's important to have them positively identified by an expert before consuming. Always exercise caution and confirm identification when foraging mushrooms."
I'm not sure if I prefer the social media community or an algorithm that is prone to "hallucinations."
Thanks Ian. We've still got to talk tech at some stage. I'm going to get onto this soon.
I was slightly tempted to eat the mushroom, because I was confident in the identification once I'd done the verification. The most troubling lookalikes are something I'm confident identifying. But it was growing in a fairly grotty spot. Maybe I'll dig up a bit of the dirt and hopefully transfer some mycelium to another location.
That's true, and I do use iNaturalist. I've been contributing to a species list of my local park. But I put the photo on Facebook and iNaturalist at the same time and in this case Facebook answered faster with someone I was more confident in.
Yes! I sometimes wonder how the algorithmic platforms dare to keep offering people the option of ‘following’ accounts, when they don’t in fact allow followers to see all their posts. It smacks of misrepresentation, to put it mildly.
There you go again Melanie, provoking my thoughts with valuable insights. This time I am prompted thus :- Substack is the only Sociable Media that I have ever used. Facebook struck me as being dangerous since first encounter. Then I discovered it had campaigned for Trump. After that I discovered Zuck had employed Nick Clegg as his trouble shooter. Now I met Clegg when he was deputy leader of the Liberal Party, and his attitude to fairplay appalled me. When he became Leader he pushed the party into a disasterous coalition with the Right Wing Tories to rob the British People. Wealth and power cause poverty and death on a scale greater than all the poison mushrooms........
Thankful to a Kiwi to recognize and speak truth on a subject of which Americans will not.
Facebook and X (Twitter) are susceptible to and use algorithms to engage and enrage their users (of which I am and never have been, nor will be) to the profitability of their ownership and to the leanings of their highest level executives.
AI in the hands of some, with the potential of an unchecked garbage in garbage out model, can be even more dangerous.
Sadly, the majority of my fellow Americans, the sheeple, are ignorant of the danger. And those that want them to stay ignorant are doing their best on dumbing down the country and controlling, warping, and destroying the public education system.
Mind control.
Melanie, Glad to see you are wise and found a way to navigate through the muck.
Great article. Russia is notorious for spreading lies way before social media and esp about Jews and Israel. I support free speech until it promotes violence.
Thank you for an informative post, as always. I wasn't aware of the role of Facebook with the Rohingya, but it doesn't surprise me. I am glad to hear about the positive groups - thank you for highlighting them. I also didn't know (per comments above) that iNaturalist is experts -- I thought it was crowdsourced and so haven't always trusted it. Good to know.
Melanie, such a great post that reflects my daily dismay with FB which worsens with every rabbithole/ political offering antithetical to my outlook served up by the algorithm. I ditched FB for many years after the Brexit/Cambridge Analytica/Trump disinformation shambles but was drawn back in because many groups i belong to use it to share information. But even closed groups have their issues, with bad actors joining seemingly to harass. This week a cycling advocacy group I belong to was served up a post from an individual under the title Road Rage Diaries - a first world problem I know compared with the Rohingya but this sort of harassment is just so pervasive. And off-putting. Which means they're winning. Go mushroom ID groups though!
A great post, Melanie. Thanks for that on Myanmar, I have a Rohingya friend, and I had no idea of the role of Facebook. I wish we had an alternative.
If it wasn't for the poisons group and my family who are on there, I think I would have left Facebook. They've contributed to such awful things and have shirked all responsibility. The problem is that these companies are too powerful and wealthy and they are obfuscating and resisting regulation. If we could just get things back in balance.
The choice is not to use it, and to tell the world why, n'est_ce pas ? Peace, Maurice
Great article... I find myself using social media less and less and "AI" more and more. I feel it your picture of the mushroom and asked if I could eat it...
"The mushroom in the image appears to be a type of Wood Blewit (Clitocybe nuda, also known as Lepista nuda). Wood Blewits are recognizable by their lilac to purple color and their gilled underside.
Wood Blewits are generally considered edible and are known for their robust flavor. However, they must be cooked properly before consumption, as eating them raw can cause gastrointestinal distress in some people. Additionally, they can sometimes be confused with other inedible or toxic species, so it's important to have them positively identified by an expert before consuming. Always exercise caution and confirm identification when foraging mushrooms."
I'm not sure if I prefer the social media community or an algorithm that is prone to "hallucinations."
Thanks Ian. We've still got to talk tech at some stage. I'm going to get onto this soon.
I was slightly tempted to eat the mushroom, because I was confident in the identification once I'd done the verification. The most troubling lookalikes are something I'm confident identifying. But it was growing in a fairly grotty spot. Maybe I'll dig up a bit of the dirt and hopefully transfer some mycelium to another location.
Re mushroom ID ( or any other organism, don’t forget iNaturalist. Real experts and no spam.
That's true, and I do use iNaturalist. I've been contributing to a species list of my local park. But I put the photo on Facebook and iNaturalist at the same time and in this case Facebook answered faster with someone I was more confident in.
Yes! I sometimes wonder how the algorithmic platforms dare to keep offering people the option of ‘following’ accounts, when they don’t in fact allow followers to see all their posts. It smacks of misrepresentation, to put it mildly.
They're just too wealthy and powerful. Laws and governments haven't caught up with how to make them safe and fair yet.
There you go again Melanie, provoking my thoughts with valuable insights. This time I am prompted thus :- Substack is the only Sociable Media that I have ever used. Facebook struck me as being dangerous since first encounter. Then I discovered it had campaigned for Trump. After that I discovered Zuck had employed Nick Clegg as his trouble shooter. Now I met Clegg when he was deputy leader of the Liberal Party, and his attitude to fairplay appalled me. When he became Leader he pushed the party into a disasterous coalition with the Right Wing Tories to rob the British People. Wealth and power cause poverty and death on a scale greater than all the poison mushrooms........
Thankful to a Kiwi to recognize and speak truth on a subject of which Americans will not.
Facebook and X (Twitter) are susceptible to and use algorithms to engage and enrage their users (of which I am and never have been, nor will be) to the profitability of their ownership and to the leanings of their highest level executives.
AI in the hands of some, with the potential of an unchecked garbage in garbage out model, can be even more dangerous.
Sadly, the majority of my fellow Americans, the sheeple, are ignorant of the danger. And those that want them to stay ignorant are doing their best on dumbing down the country and controlling, warping, and destroying the public education system.
Mind control.
Melanie, Glad to see you are wise and found a way to navigate through the muck.
Great article. Russia is notorious for spreading lies way before social media and esp about Jews and Israel. I support free speech until it promotes violence.
Thank you for an informative post, as always. I wasn't aware of the role of Facebook with the Rohingya, but it doesn't surprise me. I am glad to hear about the positive groups - thank you for highlighting them. I also didn't know (per comments above) that iNaturalist is experts -- I thought it was crowdsourced and so haven't always trusted it. Good to know.
Melanie, such a great post that reflects my daily dismay with FB which worsens with every rabbithole/ political offering antithetical to my outlook served up by the algorithm. I ditched FB for many years after the Brexit/Cambridge Analytica/Trump disinformation shambles but was drawn back in because many groups i belong to use it to share information. But even closed groups have their issues, with bad actors joining seemingly to harass. This week a cycling advocacy group I belong to was served up a post from an individual under the title Road Rage Diaries - a first world problem I know compared with the Rohingya but this sort of harassment is just so pervasive. And off-putting. Which means they're winning. Go mushroom ID groups though!