Social media represents how people feel insinde

AngeAware · 2026-05-30T17:15:53+00:00

Can you explain why media including movies and songs that are widely trashed on certain social media sites still manage to become popular and make a shit ton of money?

Redditors being bad at predicting box office has become a meme at this point because key target audiences are simply not represented here. For the Margot Robbie Wuthering Heights movie for example people looking for a faithful adaptation of the books were seemingly very overrepresented on Reddit, and they wanted this movie to fail. It didn't. The GA is filled with people who just want to see hot people be horny in a vaguely period piece setting for 2 hours and might not even know it's based on a book, or have heard of the book but sure as hell haven't read it.

You get a similar imbalance with movies targeted primarily at children or families. It might be crazy to think based on how wicked popular it is now, but KPop Demon Hunters had very vocal haters on this site calling any mention of it a "psy op" until the success and genuine enthusiasm for this movie became literally impossible to deny.

This sort of issue is where "social media isn't real life" stems from. Reddit in particular seems to attract people who are clearly and vocally out of touch with the mainstream.

Outside_Memory5703 · 2026-05-30T18:29:28+00:00

Social media is largely people doing things for money and/or attention/status

I consider most of it dishonest, frankly

Thick-Indication6060 · 2026-05-30T17:52:14+00:00

The feed is fake. Social media represents bots, algorithms, and manufactured consent more than anything else.

The problem is that people who aren't strong critical thinkers or natural skeptics will conform to the narrative that appeals to them and use motivated reasoning to validate it.

So you're right and wrong. Social media represents whatever the owner of the engagement algorithm and bot farms want it to. Gullible people without a strong sense of self then mirror what they believe to be a group approved narrative.

Enough-Business-8287 · 2026-05-30T19:30:26+00:00

As a socialist, I think that the main problem stems from the profit maximisation of greedy share-holders in tech companies. Their only goal in life is to make money and they don't care about the mutual hatred between men and women they're sowing, actually they like it if that makes them richer and richer. That's psychopathy on steroids.

https://viewdigital.org/how-capitalism-is-profiting-from-misogyny-a-deep-dive-into-the-exploitation-of-gender-stereotypes-in-mobile-gaming/

reignoferror00 · 2026-05-30T19:51:41+00:00

Social media is more extreme (by design, it is clickbaity for clicks).

Saying that, those "gender war" views to a lesser degree are wide spread in general and colour the mainstream.

Early-Beach164 · 2026-05-30T22:06:59+00:00

Social media and all media is built for fucking brainwashing the masses. Always has been always will be.

OffTheRedSand · 2026-05-30T17:08:53+00:00

does incels . is represents how inkies feel inside too? no wonder they're single.

you're forgetting to account for rage baits, engagment posts, people trolling and creating personas just for the thrill of it.

none of those have to be real, maybe some truth is in there but it's usually a mix of both.

Tylikcat · 2026-05-30T17:13:54+00:00

Social media is a term that can mean a lot of things. When you are talking to friends online - people you actually know, and have some history with, sure. But the other side of it is the influencer and click farming world, where a lot of their interactions are driven by being over the top.

The first is a decent reflection of how people feel, if with some caveats. (A lot of people are way bigger assholes online than in person.) But the second is often an attempt to steer what you feel - or at least get you to react and engage. If you think the influencer world represents how you feel inside... maybe get out more?

leosandlattes · 2026-05-30T17:09:33+00:00

You are arguing 2 different things here: 1) that social media represents how people feel inside (correct), and 2) that social media represents the real world (which I would argue is incorrect).

The only place where I get content like that is here, because I willingly follow this sub. The rest of my socials are filled with cats, design, wedding content, cooking, crochet, and fashion/style. You have to willingly engage with content in order for it to keep popping up for you. Like you have to watch it multiple times, share it, like it, comment on it…

It is so easy to look at hyper niche online spaces and think they represent the majority opinion, but they don’t. And I’m not even talking about gender war stuff exclusively, I mean that about everything. Everyone on Reddit glazes and jerks themselves off about how engagement rings and weddings are a waste of money, but in the real world, opinions and actions are the complete opposite.

Most people are not engaging with extreme gender stuff. Dating content, sure yeah. To the point where they hate men/women, no.

Zestyclose_Show8653 · 2026-05-30T19:59:21+00:00

Social media does not reflect real life but it really does give people ammo to say how they really feel behind anonymous screens. Also, if you aren’t a psychopath, real-life human interaction induces more empathy.

Kreeps_United · 2026-05-30T21:10:41+00:00

There may be a lot of people who believe what they say online, but most are at least smart enough to know it won't fly outside their bubble. It only has consequences depending on what spaces you frequent. If you're in any way political, then you might hear people say that Democrats want to stop women from having babies or that 62 MIL and 1k are the same. Everyday people think most of that is weird.

BanDeezNutzPlease · 2026-05-30T23:50:47+00:00

Social media doesn't represent how people really feel. Social media is too heavily censored, moderated, curated, astroturfed, botted up, trolled out, influencered, and segregated to accurately reflect what people really feel.

You can't say whatever you want online anymore cause there's so much censorship. Plus the establishment, corporations, special interests, etc. are now heavily invested in influencing people via social media. Not to mention the grifters, bots, and so on. Plus you have chronically online people who aren't the majority irl, but are disproportionately "loud" online.

So, no. It doesn't represent how people really feel.

Arch_Null · 2026-05-31T12:54:10+00:00

Hmm you're half way right. Yes social media can be like a diary with all of people's stupid thoughts.

However the majority of the time social media is just a bot circlejerk. Bots engagement farming off outrages and other bots boosting them. Twitter/X Facebook/Meta and Reddit are the biggest examples of this. The internet has been dead since 2016.

Negative_Tax_3098 · 2026-05-30T16:48:23+00:00

nah, i tell women upfront that i don't date misandrists. If they start with that radical feminist crap, I'm gone. And usually it filters the crap itself

Bikerbats · 2026-05-30T17:27:25+00:00

No disagreement on the surface level statement. Yes, I agree, almost everyone here is showing their true face. However, the devil is in the details. Long form social media attracts a very niche audience, and it is not representative of the population as whole. So, everyone gets to be right. True faces are in evidence, and it's not reflective of society at large.

thinkB4WeSpeak · 2026-05-30T16:55:48+00:00

A portion of the content shared in these gender wars are made by bots and same with the comments, when you click on the profile. Influencers join in because saying something controversial creates a comment section that gets filled up and thus makes them get more monetization. The whole point of all this is to divide because dividing is the easiest way to conquer.

The real life war isn't up in arms physically fighting. Its women not dating people and men getting frustrated, then in turn running the table electing what we have in most states/federal government now. Which in turn strips aways women's rights, jobs (loss of DEI), research, benefits, etc etc

Otjahe · 2026-05-30T18:02:39+00:00

Following this premise, my usual point stands that it’s never been easier dating as a guy.

If you take good care of yourself, you’re socially and emotionally stimulating enough, masculine without the toxic parts, egoless and just a chill person with good intentions, dating is smooth sailing.

I’ve never tried hard, have a high body count and ~85% of those have been girls making the first move. The general feedback I’ve gotten is that I’m just a chill, kind person that people enjoy hanging out with.

The bar seems to be very low for the average guy out there.

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averageTdude · 2026-05-30T17:06:29+00:00

[permanently deleted]

coochie4sale · 2026-05-31T04:13:05+00:00

Some people are really, really good at social media, and notice that some viewpoints are simply more popular than others, and these people, being shrewd capitalists, adopt these viewpoints despite the lack of veracity associated with these views.

Example: A common viewpoint on social media is that blue-collar workers have more favorable employment and salary prospects than college-educated white collar workers on average. This is not true. Despite this, influencers have picked this up as a common talking point because it gets views and likes and garners them influence.

Another issue with trusting social media is that a small % of a large number can still be another large number. Imagine a labor market of say...160 million people. At one point in time, 99% of people were employed, but there was a big depression, so now, 95% of people are employed. Majority of people are still employed, but it is also still true that 6,400,000 people no longer have jobs, so even though unemployment is not common experience, posts about how it seems like no one has jobs can still garner thousands of likes.

Public forums aren't useless, but you should trust your immediate experiences much more. It's not fake, but it's not completely real, and there are many ways to skew the numbers that don't even seem dishonest at first glance.

DMmeClownPics · 2026-06-10T03:12:06+00:00

Oh sure yeah, but you are ignoring the vast majority of people who don’t post gender war stuff on social media at all. Outside of Reddit, I only use social media media to post art I made that I’m selling, and even then I only do so on Facebook. My IG account has zero stories or photos. I don’t use X or TikTok at all. If I *did* talk about any gender wars stuff on any other platforms you would be hearing different takes. But nobody would hear them because my takes are not the sort of inflammatory shit to go viral and get attention in the first place. Rational opinions that don’t piss people off don’t get attention.

Just_Fisherman4910 · 2026-06-13T21:38:17+00:00

You watch the social media that represents how you are already feeling inside.

ThatBitchA · 2026-05-30T17:45:32+00:00

Social media doesn't represent how people feel.

People represent how they feel.

Some people use social media to express how they feel. Some people use music to express how they feel. Some people use writing to express how they feel.

Y'all are obsessed with social media and see one Tiktok and think it is an example of all women.

Y'all lack of media literacy isn't a representation of all people on social media.

The so called gender wars are limited to specific corners of the internet. I didn't spend time on this sub, I'd never see content about "gender wars".

harborthrowawayhq · 2026-05-30T22:55:02+00:00

People who claim the internet isn't real life are just ignoring the fact that our actual real-world interactions are filtered through the exact same mentalities we pick up on apps. If your personality is being shaped by an algorithm eight hours a day, that is your reality.

ImaginaryDimension74 · 2026-05-30T18:42:32+00:00

I used to work in higher education. Advocating women be advantaged over men was very open there, it wasn’t just online.

Title	Social media represents how people feel insinde
Author	averageTdude
Upvotes	59
Comments	132
Date	May 30, 2026 4:47 PM UTC (1 month ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/1ts4xqr/social_media_represents_how_people_feel_insinde/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/social-media-represents-how-people-feel-insinde.1581664 https://theredarchive.com/post/1581664

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