Social Media
I use a variety of social media platforms, but I think the growth of Discord has influenced my social media habits the most. Discord is a free VoIP group chat platform often compared to Skype. Initially, it was developed as a chat platform for gaming communities, much like Ventrilo, Teamspeak, or Mumble, though Discord does not require or support user-hosted servers. The majority of Discord servers are used for gaming, but there's a small percentage of servers built around the discussion of "everything from crypto-currency to stock trading, music appreciation to language lessons and fantasy football" (Crecente).
Discord has become a social platform for myself and my friends- many of my friends from UT and earlier have congregated on Discord. For myself, Discord is a platform for discussion of music, video games, politics, internships and careers, and social functions. We moved from Skype several years ago because we found that Discord offers a much more reliable platform, as well as features like bots and custom emoji. Because Discord hosts all their servers, they collect all the data uploaded to every server, and they display what games you're playing to your friends (Honorof). However, Discord does not sell data to third parties, and in general it strongly values privacy (Honorof).
Because Discord values privacy, it has in the past been used by alt-right and white supremacist organizations (Menegus). In particular, while Facebook and Twitter were used by prominent figures, Discord was used for organizing protests and violence (Menegus). Discord has also been used to distribute revenge porn (Menegus). In response, administrators at Discord removed many of the relevant groups, and as these groups crop up and grow in size, they are shut down (Roose). Part of creating easy-to-install networking software is enabling any party to congregate, which in this case includes white supremacists and the alt-right. I'm a strong believer in privacy, so I have some misgivings about corporate surveillance, but I think in this case it is justified. Discord is not a secure platform for private activities, it's a chat client designed for gamers. My data is not shared with third parties, so my chats are not scraped for advertising data, which is my primary concern with public chats. Other platforms, like Tox, are designed to be immune to surveillance entirely, so I think it's acceptable to monitor more open systems like Discord.
One could make the argument that Discord promotes closed social circles, while platforms like Facebook might occasionally introduce pages, groups, or friends of friends that have differing viewpoints. However, I think that this is an issue with all social media. Part of social media is the network of friends, so as long as there's social media you're going to have echo chambers. I think the larger issue is receiving 100% of news and information through social media, instead of professional third parties. Good reputable news outlets curate a uniform expression of events, so you're more likely to hear outside of your social echo chamber.
Personally, I'd like to reduce the amount of news I get from sensationalized sources like Reddit and instead read well cited news sources like The New York Times, BBC, The New Yorker, or Reuters. I think that doing so would make me better prepared participate in the upcoming election. This way, I could discuss politics with friends and acquaintances with a more well rounded perspective. Promoting quality news also helps combat foreign social media influences, and encourages others to be well-informed.
Discord has become a social platform for myself and my friends- many of my friends from UT and earlier have congregated on Discord. For myself, Discord is a platform for discussion of music, video games, politics, internships and careers, and social functions. We moved from Skype several years ago because we found that Discord offers a much more reliable platform, as well as features like bots and custom emoji. Because Discord hosts all their servers, they collect all the data uploaded to every server, and they display what games you're playing to your friends (Honorof). However, Discord does not sell data to third parties, and in general it strongly values privacy (Honorof).
Because Discord values privacy, it has in the past been used by alt-right and white supremacist organizations (Menegus). In particular, while Facebook and Twitter were used by prominent figures, Discord was used for organizing protests and violence (Menegus). Discord has also been used to distribute revenge porn (Menegus). In response, administrators at Discord removed many of the relevant groups, and as these groups crop up and grow in size, they are shut down (Roose). Part of creating easy-to-install networking software is enabling any party to congregate, which in this case includes white supremacists and the alt-right. I'm a strong believer in privacy, so I have some misgivings about corporate surveillance, but I think in this case it is justified. Discord is not a secure platform for private activities, it's a chat client designed for gamers. My data is not shared with third parties, so my chats are not scraped for advertising data, which is my primary concern with public chats. Other platforms, like Tox, are designed to be immune to surveillance entirely, so I think it's acceptable to monitor more open systems like Discord.
One could make the argument that Discord promotes closed social circles, while platforms like Facebook might occasionally introduce pages, groups, or friends of friends that have differing viewpoints. However, I think that this is an issue with all social media. Part of social media is the network of friends, so as long as there's social media you're going to have echo chambers. I think the larger issue is receiving 100% of news and information through social media, instead of professional third parties. Good reputable news outlets curate a uniform expression of events, so you're more likely to hear outside of your social echo chamber.
Personally, I'd like to reduce the amount of news I get from sensationalized sources like Reddit and instead read well cited news sources like The New York Times, BBC, The New Yorker, or Reuters. I think that doing so would make me better prepared participate in the upcoming election. This way, I could discuss politics with friends and acquaintances with a more well rounded perspective. Promoting quality news also helps combat foreign social media influences, and encourages others to be well-informed.
Crecente, Brian. "Discord: 87M Users, Nintendo Switch Wishes and Dealing With Alt-Right" Rolling Stone,
Rolling Stone, 08 Dec. 2017,
https://web.archive.org/web/20171208110627/https://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/news/discord-87m-users-switch-dreams-dealing-with-alt-right-w513598
Honorof, Marshall. “Help Me, Tom's Guide: Is Discord Tracking Me?” Tom's Guide, Tom's Guide, 4 Feb. 2018, www.tomsguide.com/us/help-me-toms-guide-discord-permissions,review-5104.html.
Menegus, Bryan. "How A Video Game Chat Client Became The Web's New Cesspool Of Abuse" Kotaku, Kotaku, 9 Feb. 2017, https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/02/how-a-video-game-chat-client-became-the-webs-new-cesspool-of-abuse/
Roose, Kevin. "This Was the Alt-Right’s Favorite Chat App. Then Came Charlottesville," The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Aug. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/technology/discord-chat-app-alt-right.html
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