Curious Quokka @Obscurequokka@social.privacytools.io

@ThreeBadgersInATrenchcoat As for anonymity.
I agree, you are not truly anonymous to the companiess/government.
However, in terms of how you appear to other users, i.e. aliases, you can be, which is what I was implying in the context of social interactions.

I got a notification that #Whatsapp updated their #privacy policy.
Anyone got a TL;DR?

@ThreeBadgersInATrenchcoat by default no, but they can be made algorithm free (sort by time)
Hence the "varying degrees" qualifier.

@Wetrix You're probably right.
It still saddens me.
Plus makes me question whether we are making a scapegoat out of social media instead of addressing the deeper issues, which are harder to solve.
Not that social media doesn't have real problems- corporate overreach, free speech, privacy, etc.

This kinda blows a hole in the argument that- "Humans are good, it's just that the algorithms are forcing us into bubbles."
OR
"People like to hide behind screens to be keyboard warriors."
Reddit/Mastodon/Twitter are anonymous and algorithm free to various degrees.
FB is algo driven but not anonymous and has the same issues.
Maybe the problem isn't tech but humans.

Please do not mistake this for a political statement.
I am on a tech-oriented instance, and am still seeing such kinds of conversations.

Disappointing to see the obsession with ideological purity and #polarization everywhere I go on the #internet, even here on #mastodon.
I know FB is not #anonymous and yet suffers with the same problems.
I wonder why that happens and how can it be addressed? We need to build bridges and educate, not berate.
#socialmedia #conversations #inclusivity

@resist1984 @jubes Both valid points.
I might not agree but thanks for responding 😊

@resist1984 Thanks for bringing this up.
It also hijacks # news.

@resist1984 @jubes Curious to know. Why boycott netflix?

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year 2021 😊 🥳🎉

I can't seem to logout on mobile.
How do I report a #bug?

@gritnot That's a good point.
I went to mastodon.social and there were way too many people posting all sorts of random things.
Nothing wrong with that, it's just I have specific interests and don't want to have to wade through tons of other stuff to get to it. Lists on Twitter does this well, also Circles on Google + (RIP)

@ThreeBadgersInATrenchcoat @Wetrix I'm not completely sure where I am going with this.
But I guess if you can't trust the individual actors for they are hiding their identity due to privacy, can you still trust the platform/larger concept?
E.g- journalistic sources often need to be anonymous for the fear of retribution but it reduces trust in the media if all anonymous sources are treated as equally valid and newsworthy.

@ThreeBadgersInATrenchcoat Good points made by you and @Wetrix
I was envisioning a scenario as to when someone comes across a new lesser-known thing (object, idea, person) they rely on heuristics for a judgement, especially around trust.
There is a lot of psych research around it, and it often boils down to familiarity.
And isn't always rational.
For eg- I'd trust my mom over a rando even tho she might me lying coz I know her.

Been on #mastodon for less than a week and I've already had better conversations with strangers than on #Twitter.
Could it scale well while maintaining low levels of toxcity?

@Wetrix That makes sense.
As I said to another person here:
it's probably just me being lazy + wary from early 00s windows years.

@serf Thanks for the response.
I admit it's probably a vestige from using internet on Windows in early 2000s.
But the larger point I was trying to make is that- it's also a reflection on how we (or at least I) use social media for brief interactions due to <-> caused by, a limited attention span. In such cases, clicking a link seems too much work.

#question
How do people feel about clicking on links in #toots or #tweets, even when you know they are not malicious?
I rarely click on them but I understand the need arising due to limitations of the platform-imposed brevity while expressing a complex idea.

Are #trust and #privacy fundamentally incompatible?
Trust requires a large number of people to believe whereas privacy is, ex vi termini, personal.
How do you reduce the prevalence of nutjob #conspiracy theories while preventing mass manipulation by Big Brother- be it the government or private corporations?
#society #tech #ethics