On Social Media and Positive Feedback Loops

Yesterday, yet again, I deactivated my Facebook account. I kept seeing negative posts about Oxford Street being pedestrianised, and especially radicalising people into hating cyclists. I felt that I was absorbing and radiating that negativity as well. I didn’t like that I was being so negative about something that changes nothing in my life.

I don’t live in London anymore. I don’t walk on Oxoford Street anymore. That the street was pedestrianised and that bikes are not meant to use it changes nothing in my life.

Facebook, in its infinite toxicity showed me thirty to fourty posts with hostility and hatred towards bicycles, from the Evening Standard and other tabloid newspapers. I saw the same toxicity on Threads and to some lesser degree on other platforms.

It wasn’t just the Oxford Street post that got to me. It’s the news story that someone that smashed a cyclist’s head into the ground got away with nothing other than supervision. The footage clearly shows the bully throwing the head towards the ground. Years ago that would have been on Ogrish, but nowhere else.

We already know that Facebook and US based social media have encouraged hatred through books like Mindf*ck and various articles about how FB experimented with making people miserable and more.

I can see that toxicity bleeding into my own posts, and my own conversations in person. That’s why I barely use Threads, rarely use Twitter, and have decided to deactivate Facebook. I also feel that I need to avoid Bluesky because it is also toxic.

The problem with algorithms is that they see what you write or react to, but they don’t check whether it is positive or negative. If you react to something negative, then it will keep showing you that content. The first time is okay, but thirty to fourty times later you’re polarised into having a strong emotion. That’s toxic. That’s dangerous, for adults, as well as children.

Yesterday I learned via Gemini that Facebook has up to three billion daily active users. This figure is frightening, because it means that plenty of people, like me, who were neutral about something are being polarised towards a strong stance.

If you were polarised to love running, that’s fine. If you’re polarised to love hiking and cycling, that’s fine too. If you’re polarised towards having a negative sentiment against a portion of society, as people on Facebook are, against cyclists, then we’re in a dangerous situation.

What I want from social media is a pub like environment. I want to turn up, and listen to and participate in pleasant conversations that leave me feeling fulfilled when I leave. At the moment what I see is everyone complaining, across platforms, without an inkling of conversations being sought. We’re ranting about inconsequential things, rather than establishing friendships and relationships.

That’s why it made sense to deactivate my FB account. I don’t want to be polarised. I don’t want to be tarnished by the negativity that is spread online. I miss when we have social networks, establishing close ties that led to meeting in person.