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Some wingnut I've never spoken to before (or again (foreshadowing!)) accused me of living in an "echo chamber" because I block people.

Fuck the "echo chamber" discourse. I reject it entirely.I am not here to wear an ascetic's hair shirt because you think that surrounding myself with dickheads builds character.

Block early and block often. I expanded on this in some detail in my "On Blocking" post from a few years back, but it bears repeating. Especially now.

jwz.org/b/ykcn

This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
in reply to jwz

I think they're reacting to what happened on Reddit and Meta, where certain viewpoints were so widely censored that hugboxes were created.

No idea what the situation is on Twitter... I bugged out of there five years ago or so.

in reply to jwz

I have been blocking about one person a day...
They are not in my friends list, most seem to be rather new.
I don't bother arguing...
in reply to jwz

Yes they need the engagement. Best to ignore. Let them eat dead air.
in reply to jwz

I interact with and even follow some people I disagree with, and it is ok as long as they don't act like assholes and aren't insufferable, otherwise I do block. Others may have lower tolerance and that is fine too.
in reply to jwz

Goodbye Tinnitus - #1 Tinnitus-Ending Trick For The Holidays

https//shorturl.at/RYKBm

in reply to jwz

Agreed. I read a variety of news sources and listen to various podcasts to avoid the information silo. However, there are some particularly stupid POV’s that, by the time you’ve reached nearly 70 yo, it’s fair to say “enough is enough.” Block early and often on social media.
in reply to jwz

On BlueSky blocking is THE WAY.
And it's a very potent block: they completely disappear and are detached from all your posts.
Makes it so much nicer.
in reply to jwz

This. I'm not interested in having conversations with dipshits about whether slavery, pedophilia, fascism, child labor, genocide, mass deportation are ok sometimes. I don't need to argue whether the earth is round or climate change is real. I'm done with it.
This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
in reply to mempko

@mempko That's a high bar though. Most people would agree that that is an uncontroversial block. My bar is much lower.

My bar is down around: "Complete stranger on the bus with Opinions, you seem somewhat unpleasant. I can press this one weird button and never hear from you again."

To some people, I am that unpleasant stranger! They should absolutely block me. If they think we would not enjoy each other's online company, they are probably right.

in reply to jwz

True, it is a high bar. You are right though maybe I tolerate run of the mill assholeness too much. Maybe I'm a masochist.
in reply to jwz

I really pissed off some dude once by saying, "it's not an echo chamber, it's called having friends. Maybe you should try that instead of whatever it is you're doing?"

Anyhow, blocking is great.

jwz reshared this.

in reply to Océane

And by the way, no, this isn't called "having friends" because the web is meant as a circulation space, not as a conviviality space. It isn't the XMPP or the IRC protocol.
in reply to Océane

@oceane @terri Please tell me more about what "the web" is "meant as". I find your ideas fascinating and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
in reply to jwz

i mean, ive already sourced every possible bad opinion from 2000 to current, I am well and good taking redundancy from 2006 off my plate
in reply to jwz

I gotta be honest, a small part of me has a feeling that if someone says to you "You live in an echo chamber", and your immediate response is to say "Screw you!" and block them, it's quite possible that you live in an echo chamber. Are you trying to say you don't believe in the existence of Echo Chambers or that you just don't give a shit if you're in one? Those are very different things. The second one is fine, you can live your live however you want. The first one is absurd.
This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
in reply to Edward Jazzhands

@edward_jazzhands You and your crap opinions are not entitled to my attention. I do not owe it to you. This is not my job and you are not a paying customer.

As someone else in this thread said, "You call it an echo chamber, I call it having friends whose company I enjoy. Try it some time."

in reply to jwz

I hope that closing your mind off to any semblance of an opinion that's different from your own ends up working out for you.
This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
in reply to jwz

Life is short, no reason to be annoyed. Block often.
in reply to jwz

I block only when someone is persistently illogical or unnecessarily confrontational. But they can hold completely different views from my own, as long as they are willing to argue for them. In other words, the signal to noise ratio has to be good.

I don't know what your own criteria for blocking is, but if a given person decides to block simply because someone disagrees with them, then the danger of inhabiting an echo chamber is no longer a danger--it is absolutely assured.

So what's wrong with an echo chamber? Very pleasant to be surrounded by agreeable people, no? But then you will never convince anyone of anything, because they already believe exactly the same things that you do. And you will also never learn anything from those with whom you interact, nor will you have the opportunity to question or refine your own views by defending them against those who think differently.

in reply to jwz

Right wingnuts accusing leftists of uniformity of opinion: have they ever met any leftists?? Just because we all agree on one thing - NAZI PUNKS FUCK OFF - doesn't make us echoers.
in reply to Jef Poskanzer :batman:

@jef Sure but only a few goofballs will tell you "don't block the fash." I'm on team: block the "you seem slightly annoying".
in reply to jwz

it's like the whole concept of "balance" in the media where some folks seem to think that if the BBC, say, is going to give airtime to the views of a respected scientist who has studied a topic for some decades then they're also bound by a duty to "balance" to give equal air-time & merit to some swivel-eyed loon with wild conjecture and conspiracy theories.

Having to swim in a lake of bullshit is not the opposite of being in an "echo chamber".

in reply to jwz

I used to engage with trolls and idiots. But then thankfully I learnt to block, block, block. Now a fully paid up member of block early and block often. Doing the same on Bluesky.
in reply to jwz

i see mastodon as a replacement for the old style twitter where cells of like minded people could organize quickly and quietly in a relative secure environment. they want to call that an echo chamber, fine. it is a productive work space.
in reply to jwz

Golly, this post sure has upset a lot of dudes who feel they deserve to be h̶e̶a̶r̶d̶ listened to.
This entry was edited (2 weeks ago)
in reply to jwz

blocking people is like a spa treatment for my online life

jwz reshared this.

in reply to jwz

I only feel centered if I block as many people as I follow.

Or many more.

in reply to jwz

I block people I see being jerks to others, before they can even get to me. No apologies. I owe no one my time and attention 🤷
in reply to jwz

This is the end goal, a self isolating population. There is only us. Not them and us. Just us. We have to talk to each other.
in reply to jwz

One of the takes I repeated constantly when I was still on Usenet. There is no obligation to consume others’ postings any more than there is an obligation to watch specific TV shows
in reply to Matthias Warkus

@mawa
The other very important USENET rule that everyone now forgets: "If it's important, it will come back".

There is no chance that you will miss something important in The Discourse. None.

jwz reshared this.

in reply to jwz

@mawa
> "If it's important, it will come back."

Unfortunately, that can also be said of the flat-earther whose previous ${MAXINT} accounts have been perma-banned.

in reply to jwz

right on brother.

Take pleasure in blocking shit cunts!

in reply to jwz

The block button is a great thing. None of us are obligated to waste precious mental bandwidth engaging with people we don't like that don't like us all that much, either.

To me, an "echo chamber" is more a matter of only reading or considering your own thoughts and opinions. You can read and consider a broad range of content without engaging everyone that passes by.

Not everyone is compatible. Also, it's the Internet, so it can be a nasty place. The block button is a friend to your sympathetic nervous system. 👍🏼

in reply to jwz

I find the people complaining about echo chambers tend to have the most milquetoast of opinions...

I'm not losing anything by blocking them!

in reply to jwz

What I used to think on a day when I got 112 new followers: "Neat!"

What I now think on a day when I get 112 new followers: "Oh no"

El Duvelle reshared this.

in reply to jwz

Absolutely. Me blocking someone on social media is the online equivalent of telling that idiot in the pub to fuck off.
Just like I don't want their verbal diarrhoea around me in real life, I don't want it on my TL, so I'll happily block idiots.
in reply to jwz

Am I missing something or is the only Mastodon web interface for examining and manipulating the list of people you have blocked, "you can download a CSV"?
in reply to jwz

AFAIK, yes. And that's for all lists, FWIW.

For the lists used to group users you follow there's a webapp that provides a better interface (<mastodonlistmanager.org/>), but AFAICS it doesn't handle the blocklist.

in reply to jwz

on the multicolumn web interface there are three dots next to your account info above the toot box - muted and blocked accounts are hidden behind those three dots.
in reply to jwz

some third party apps might provide tools and a UI
in reply to Chancerubbage

@Chancerubbage Lots of things "might" be true. In what way do you feel your insight was even remotely helpful?
in reply to jwz

There are three laws that apply online:
Sturgeon's Law
Poe's Law
Copyright Law
in reply to jwz

I have had a lot fewer "blocking opportunities" since I started vetting followers. I love this #Mastodon feature. Stay safe, block as you need to, and be well.
in reply to jwz

I follow /a few/ people that have views quite far from my own. They tend to be people that make their point and move on though. Also, I guess they mute or block me after a while :)
in reply to jwz

Oh their greedganda is loud,prevalent and nonstop if you block it you still see it.In hell the demonganda is everywhere.
in reply to jwz

I was trying to describe to someone how we develop feeds and followers here on mastodon and their first response was, doesn't that create an echo chamber? I'm like wait, Facebook and all those other algorithm-heavy, advertising-heavy sites are forced, involuntary echo chambers, do you not realize that?
in reply to jwz

@corbden

Blocking is a withdrawal of consent to interact.

If someone has a problem with that, they need remediative instruction on how to interact with other people generally, as 'consent' is a necessary component for all interactions.

in reply to Corbin

@corbin @corbden

Are you being disingenuous or do you genuinely not comprehend the concept here?

If someone - who you have pejoratively labeled a chud - is harming me, they have already violated my consent in doing so.

If they are not harming me - and are not seeking to cause harm, and are not participating in my life at all - then why would I care about their existence?

I have agency over myself and my actions; the so-called 'chuds' do as well. So long as they are capable of not interfering in my agentic acts, there is no need for conflict -

so if they aren't showing up to scream in my mentions, I have no reason to block them.

This requires kindergarten-level proficiency in social modeling, which, granted, many conservatives are unable to demonstrate.

in reply to Fi, infosec-aspected 🏳️‍⚧️

in reply to Corbin

@corbin @corbden

Speaking as a member of a marginalized community, I am fully aware of how systemic harm works, thank you.

I would like to know what your goal is in talking down to me as tho I am not aware of this dynamic.

The response you've given appears to me to be from a perspective that you consider me to have insufficient knowledge, expertise, and sophistication to understand your concepts.

Further, you have gone well outside the scope of the conversation, which is about blocking on social media. I have not consented to a discussion of dynamics outside of that specific scope, and your expansion into random hypotheticals is unwelcome.

I would invite you to reread my prior response with the perspective that I do, in fact, have that understanding and have accounted for it in my model, and that if there is something about my model you do not understand you can ask me about it.

Alternatively, you can fuck right off.

in reply to Fi, infosec-aspected 🏳️‍⚧️

@munin @corbin @corbden
It is absolutely, utterly exhausting that every discussion of blocking on social media devolves into "BUT WHAT ABOUT RIGOROUS DEBATE IN THE MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS" when what we're actually talking about here is "SIR THIS IS A WENDY'S".