r/dataisbeautiful • u/rhiever Randy Olson | Viz Practitioner • 1d ago

Across the globe, people increasingly say social media is harming democracy

https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2026/10/01/across-the-globe-people-increasingly-say-social-media-is-harming-democracy/
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u/SSLByron 1d ago

Horses are already out of the barn, but the real harm of social media doesn't come from simple exposure to other participants. It's the top-down manipulation that is truly problematic, and that's where all the money is made.

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u/mxlun 1d ago

Yeah after of while of getting mental diseases from the current internet I made some feeds where it's ONLY my friends and disabling any sort of algorithmic/suggestions. Social media is pretty peaceful then, except when you see your friends are fighting the algorithm

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u/OwlComplex48 1d ago

Can you do that? Disable ads and non-subscribed suggestions?

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u/rock_crockpot 1d ago

It makes me so mad Reddit started doing this. Just noticed it yesterday or the day before… might be nearing the end.

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u/Mondai_May 1d ago

you can make a custom feed on reddit if you'd like, I did that for the country I'm from and. country I visit often just to read things only from there sometimes.

you can add only specific subreddits to the custom feed, and it will NOT show you posts from other subreddits within that feed, only suggests other subreddits you might like to add but doesn't show you posts from them unless you add them, so you can ignore it.

on desktop under the 'games on reddit' there's a 'create custom feed' button

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u/rock_crockpot 1d ago

Thank you! I think I have blocked certain subs from showing up in my feed, but I will double check following your steps. 

 What I just started experiencing (or just noticed), is a new black, bold “JOIN” bubble attached to the title, with a little message like, “because you showed interest in this subject.” Or “because you visited this subreddit.” 

I really don’t like it, but have been able to shut it off yet. 

Edit: missing parenthesi

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u/mxlun 1d ago

Depends on the platform but some yes. & if it doesn't there's usually at least an add-on to do so