Technology

a media platform run by a megalomaniac moron

It's a great timeline .... 99% of the planet relies on megalomaniac morons, mega corporations, billionaires and for profit media corporations for all their information.

And we wonder why there is so much misinformation, disinformation, non information and covered up information everywhere.

It's definitely the information age .... expect no one said it would actually keep us informed or have any benefit to humanity.

Fair, but this article is talking about primary information from people who are actually there and small local news outlets being drowned out by misinformation. A lot of primary information in 2023 comes from social media which is then investigated and fact checked by larger and more reputable news outlets before being reported.

So yes, the average person who just wants to know what's happening should not be getting that info from social media but reporters often have to. Changes to Twitter since musk took over (specifically paid blue check marks and the removal of titles from links) have made the process of sifting through the misinformation and disinformation exponentially harder, even for people who do it for a living like the researcher in the article.

It's not just TwitX, there's a bunch on Lemmy and Reddit feeds too

And if a significant enough portion of the people are getting their information from those sources, we're all in for a bad time.

More like: we're all in for a bad time.

Unfortunately, their inability to discern fantasy from reality does not only affect them.

I think another big issue is that there are a lot of news outlets that get their info from those three sources.

Assume companies that advertise on Xitter to be NAZI sympathizers.

There are some good sources on YouTube like Crash Course. The problem is when people get their information from posts or channels that are not peer reviewed.

One of the few benefits that Twitter used to have was how useful it was for breaking news and events.

Stay away from that echo chamber

I mean, that's just the other side of the same coin. They need good info to dig through, and they need to actually dig. Both are required for actual journalism, and both don't work under capitalism. There's too much money in lies, and it's expensive to fight them in the first place.

It was the social media of choice for journalists. It was an excellent place to get your news as long as you followed the right people (reputable, credible professionals).

Now many of those right people have left and they're far more difficult to distinguish from the wrong people.

Imagine not being at all media-savvy and buying into it. MAGA types are idiot shitheads who are completely driven by their emotions. There’s no higher function.

Millions and millions of people who are still using it as their primary info source.

Good that you apparently don't know any of them, but the number of people who actually stopped using TwitX or use it less appears to be shockingly small.