"In what is perhaps a scarier turn of events, dark matter -- although quite strange and in an unknown form -- is no longer thought to be the strangest source of gravity in the universe. That honor now falls to dark energy, a more uniform source of repulsive gravity that seems to now dominate the expansion of the entire universe."

Perhaps H. P. Lovecraft had it right all along... 😱

> Zuckerberg has a First Amendment right to make decisions about what to promote on his platforms.

I feel (as an european) that's such a weird take?! Why should Zuckerberg be able to decide what's being shared, on what is basically a major public townsquare, only because he owns it?

I don't get it. I started getting fed up with #Facebook when it started changing its settings and layout on a seemingly weekly basis -about 12 years ago. And the various malicious functions of its algorithm have been well-known since at least that time.

Again, I don't get it.

that's actually going to suit some people, but I suspect not most. When I look at Threads, I'm overwhelmed by the banality of it all.

What's missing is serious conversations about serious subjects, like politics.

One of the most absurd things to me is the power given to the algorithm over our language. The way it is changing, shaping and erasing words from our collective vocabulary.

I'm curious to know if there's ever been quite this level of interference in language before.

Well, as Willie Sutton famously said when asked why he robbed banks, "That's where the money is."

Twitter, Instagram, etc., have really become influencer platforms. Facebook, too, though to a slightly lesser degree. Jack Dorsey's new Blue Sky (or whatever he's calling it) could become that as well.

The face of what social media is has changed since the '00s; for the time being, I'd rather be here on Mastodon.

Its nuts. It’s not social media, it’s big media exploiting. It’s toxic.

I love Mastodon. Thank you and all those everywhere that made it happen.

Thanks to my excellent host @christianp for Mathstodon.

Thanks everyone who is here.

Everyone Is Awesome!

The Post pulls an interesting trick to distort poll results. It takes a poll which says "20 percent of U.S. adults now regularly get news on the [Instagram] social network" and recasts it as "One in five American adults regularly get their news from Instagram."

Adding the word "their" suggests IG is the primary or exclusive news source for 1 in 5. The poll only says that people "get news" from it.

Poll distortion is a favorite journalistic game.

> It's wild how social media outside of the fediverse has deteriorated ... And people put up with it

Two words; monopoly, enshittification.

meanwhile on Mastodon I hear that ...

"The moderator of @mastodon.social is hiding and limiting people's accounts for opposing the #genocide in #gaza done by #us and israel.

What kind of bad, ignorant person do you have to be to call it a holocaust inversion?"