Social media ain’t for me anymore....

Interesting comments on what is a prickly subject. Both my wife and I came off Facebook about six years ago. It's become far too intrusive and, in my opinion, lost its purpose.

I'm on Twitter but rarely use it nowadays.

This site is generally good but there can be instances of an aggressive pack mentality when individuals proffer a different point of view. That is, quite clearly, bullying and unwelcome.

As I keep saying, it's a forum for debate and different perspectives should be encouraged. Equally saying one thing does not necessarily mean something else as some people would have you believe to support their own agenda.

It's a tragedy that a young woman in the prime of her life should take her life because her private life is being played out in the public domain.

In this particular instance there are many individuals, companies and authorities that need to take a long hard look at themselves.

Equally, we as individuals need to consider the potential repercussions of playing out our lives in the full glare of the public domain. If you invite the public in it's hard to criticise them for rummaging around every aspect of your life.

Megan Markle is a classic example of that, when you want the fame and glamour it's all okay but when it takes a turn......

comment by Mirrorman (U21921)
posted 45 minutes ago
Oh, and talking about anonymity, it's time now to stop anonymous rating of threads on here. For the record, I've just given this thread 5 stars.
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I rarely rate and rarer still do I give anything low. However, what's the reason for making rating public? Does that in itself open up another can of worms?

I rarely rate and rarer still do I give anything low. However, what's the reason for making rating public? Does that in itself open up another can of worms?

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Yes, I also recognise that as a potential problem. However, I think on balance, being open is probably best but is not a panacea to all online abuse.

I don’t do facebook or twitter or snapchat etc. I can’t understand telling everyone exactly what you are doing every day!

I do enjoy this forum, and other Leeds United ones, as I enjoy discussing football and venting my feelings (especially when I am feeling low) with other fans who I know almost all of them will be feeling the same!

comment by MaidinLeeds (U2464)
posted 1 hour, 1 minute ago
I don’t do facebook or twitter or snapchat etc. I can’t understand telling everyone exactly what you are doing every day!

I do enjoy this forum, and other Leeds United ones, as I enjoy discussing football and venting my feelings (especially when I am feeling low) with other fans who I know almost all of them will be feeling the same!
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yep, thats me in a nutshell maid.

Please if you still buy it, boycott The Sun, utter filth https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/feb/15/the-sun-takes-down-article-about-caroline-flack-from-website?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVS19XZWVrZW5kLTIwMDIxNg%3D%3D&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUK_email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK

A number of points here:

1) I'm a big advocate of social media. As with everything it has evolved maybe into something that wasn't first envisaged. Facebook was for sharing photos with friends and families, now we see football matches streamed, products advertised and gossip spread.

I use Facebook for friends/family contact and business, twitter for keeping up to date with stuff but less and less now as its become a forum for offering and being offending.

Ja606 is social media too.

2) Ratings and actually anonymity. One of teh big problems with abuse on social media is people thinking that they can be anonymous and therefore thinking that they won't be caught and therefore being more abusive than they might otherwise be if they thought that someone might identify them.

The same principle applies to ja606 and 1star ratings. many are done just from spite as people know they can hide behind anonymity.

A share website I used to be on had a flag system and introduced a negative flag system as well. It became a free for all for posters who hated each other to red flag each others posts....sound familiar?

They dropped it within a week due to the hugely negative impact it has had on the forums.

I believe if someone is going to give a rating, negative or positive, their handle should be associated with it for all to see, or just have a positive rating or none facility.

3) Abuse disguised as banter. I can handle banter, but I hate abuse that is later laughed off as : it was just a joke, you need thicker skin etc etc.

Let's call is for what it is, bullying, abuse, harassment and some folk need to take a long hard look at themselves for this behaviour cannot not have an impact on the target. It's why I choose to filter certain people, so that I do not have to see the constant snide comments and abuse.

Its that type of behaviour, that ultimately puts pressure on people in public eye who feel that there is no way out and then the worst happens.

Love or hate Caroline Flack, the abuse she received was incredible. Valentines cards mocking her etc etc. Then when she does the maker of such cards removes them. Why? Because they realise that their behaviour was out of order, but I'd wager that if their work was anonymous they'd not be so quick to remove their creations which were designed to mock and offend.

Some years ago Tuscany in particular, encouraged by another who still posts here but I shall not name at present engaged in a number of anti semitic posts. When I pulled them up on this it was just banter etc. Thankfully the Ja606 admins recognised the anti-semtisim, removed the posts and I believe Tuscany was eventually banned.

I like this forum, the variety of views and the right level of moderation from the admins, but I've heard the "it was just a joke" excuse plenty of times on here and people need to think maybe its not that right thing to make 'just a joke' in the first place before they then hypocritically go on to comment how sad it was about someone who felt they couldn't take it any more, mainly due to those same sorts of jokes that were made in the first place.

Well I tried to delete my Twitter and it wouldn’t let me. Still on there. Maybe time for a cull.

I use facebook a fair bit. It was a source of both fun and pain in the early days. But now I know what i'm doing with it, it's invariably more useful than a hinderance now.

I've chopped down my "friends" massively. I think early doors there was a bit of a mindset to have as many "friends" as possible, but these days I've a much smaller corp of mates and family that I chat too regularly.

On here i'm not bothered about knowing the personal details of posters. Invariably this site self polices itself and for the most part, posters show a lot of respect - even between clubs.

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