As we roll on in 2026, social media is being highlighted around the world, and it could be good at times, but it could also be very very ugly as well. In this episode, we discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly of social media, and how it affects us all.
00:00:00.000as we roll on in 2026 the good the bad and the ugly social media is being highlighted around
00:00:11.040the world and it could be good at times but it could be very very ugly as well to talk more
00:00:15.820about it thrilled to be joined by one of our newest members here at tpl media shalisa backer
00:00:20.520shalisa how are you hey good how are you jim good good let's let's get before we get into some of
00:00:25.860stuff that's going on when exactly did social media take a hold on society the way it is right
00:00:32.020now when did that start that's a really good question you know what i think i think covid
00:00:37.300had a lot to do with it people were bored obviously that's when tick tock really blew up as well
00:00:42.740and it has just had a hold on everybody and it doesn't matter how old you are ever since in some
00:00:48.660way shape or form social media has some sort of hold on you you know i thought tick tock was
00:00:53.140strictly uh you know pre-teens teens college kids but i i have a one of my wife's cousins a dairy0.66
00:01:00.740farmer in his 50s who watched tick tock videos of other dairy farmers milking and i like you do
00:01:07.540and what is it about the tick tock algorithm that made it what it is i i don't know what it is i
00:01:14.580don't know how they know what's going on inside my head but somehow somehow it just always knows
00:01:19.380knows what you're going through and somehow it ends up on your algorithm like that needs to be
00:01:23.180studied how they know exactly what's going on in everybody's life if they know exactly what content
00:01:27.720to feed you and also i get nervous to like look things up on tiktok sometimes because i'm like
00:01:32.880well now my whole feed is going to be this so when did it go from uh sharing information about where
00:01:39.340you're going to eat from dinner and birthday messages and letting people know i saw a good
00:01:44.380movie to turning to toxic where you say something a and it goes down whether it's people who are
00:01:52.400just trolls or bot farms and it spirals out of control yeah and i think that also makes us think
00:01:58.700like are people really that bored that they have like nothing to do then just troll online and leave0.99
00:02:05.140stupid comments for lack of a better term stupid comments and it's like aren't we tired of it and i0.99
00:02:11.860i really wish i could tell you when that shift happened but i think it happened so gradually1.00
00:02:17.380and now looking back on it we're like what happened how did we get here so a little social
00:02:22.900experiment i posted something on my facebook that went on my threads i didn't mention trump
00:02:28.420i didn't mention america i didn't mention player names i didn't mention canada or the us i just
00:02:33.860said to paraphrase i could look it up but when i watch hockey i don't think politics i just watched
00:02:39.780the hockey game i just want to watch it i did see that and i liked it so that's fun to thousands of
00:02:45.940comments from people who thought i was commenting on trump and america and one individual said well
00:02:53.380i guess i know who you voted for so i put a response saying well i voted ndp i'm canadian
00:02:59.620and they said why are you commenting on american subject matter and i didn't and this is what like
00:03:05.220i was like i was no names no country it was as generic as possible and it went crazy and i was
00:03:14.260fascinated to see how one comment fed off the other and they started to fight with each other
00:03:19.940it really it really is fascinating and sometimes you're just wondering like how how that it just
00:03:26.740it doesn't make sense to me sometimes and this is like somebody who's chronically online i'm
00:03:30.340on social media all the time more than i'd like to admit but it it just it gets really really scary
00:03:36.980and it's it's crazy how some content that you think is harmless like just like that one post
00:03:42.100on threads or whatever the case is how it just completely blows up and something that's actually
00:03:46.580important like important subject matter to what's going on in the world it gets like no hits and no
00:03:52.660views right so what how do you know if you're on social media that it's a bot commenting on what
00:03:58.980you did and if it's just some rando who just feels like spewing hate well i think usually if you look
00:04:04.980at their profiles usually their their username is also a good tell you know you'll see like a random
00:04:10.340numbers or it'll say like user 59977 something like that no profile picture yes uh and if you
00:04:16.740look at their actual feed they probably have no posts or just like generic posts that are maybe
00:04:22.340ai created and things like that and then you'll see you know real people most likely will have
00:04:26.900a photo of themselves as their as their profile picture you look at their feed and see what
00:04:30.420they're posting or what they're reposting and it's sometimes hard to tell because these bots
00:04:34.740and ai are getting very convincing these days so i i'm a believer in using different social
00:04:40.660media platforms for different topics you know facebook is more personal family um you know
00:04:47.060instagram i find my buddies and we're talking hockey and golf and dogs and like silly stuff
00:04:51.860like that am i right is it should you use different platforms for different things in your life i mean
00:04:57.460i do it too i do too i mean i barely use facebook anymore to tell you the truth if i didn't if i
00:05:03.060didn't need it for work i wouldn't use it i'll be honest and i feel like instagram is kind of
00:05:07.300becoming that too and i don't know if this is a generational thing but i used to i love instagram
00:05:11.620i used to love instagram that was my number one platform but now i'm finding oh is that right yeah
00:05:15.940Yeah. And, you know, back in the day when Instagram started, what, 10, 10, 15 years ago, it was like posting food photos.
00:05:23.600Right. You know, that was a big thing. Right. That was what Instagram was used for. And then it just it progressed into, I don't know.
00:05:31.060Now it just feels like it is flooded with things that are just untrue. A lot of fake news on the platform, a lot of AI generated content that is becoming so convincing, like people are believing it.
00:05:43.140And I also think this has to do a lot with Bill C-19 here in Canada because they have blocked all news sources on meta platforms.
00:05:53.380So Facebook, Instagram threads, you can't see any news.
00:05:57.080So any local news, any national news, even some radio stations have been blocked.
00:06:02.780So don't you think that's feeding into the fake news phenomenon that's going on?
00:06:07.320And people don't have any trusted content and trusted sources.
00:06:11.540Well, there was a big incident this week where Ben Mulroney on Global News posted what he thought was a video from the war in Iran.
00:06:20.480And it was a video from a like an actual video game.
00:06:23.600Yeah, it was a visual from a video game.
00:06:25.900And they have to obviously have a student apology.
00:06:27.660Yeah. And all of these deep fakes and AI photos of like celebrities in the hospital.
00:06:33.840And it's looking more and more convincing.
00:06:36.220and even like with the things that are going on in iran and all around the world really everything
00:06:41.100in the middle east it is so hard to find verified content you're scrolling seeing all of these
00:06:46.220videos and my first thought like as somebody who's on social media all the time it's like
00:06:50.460okay is this real or not if you were 12 shaliza could you have handled social media i i don't
00:06:57.260think so not with the way it is now and i always say this i'm so grateful for the generation that
00:07:02.140i grew up in we were kind of like the crash test dummies right for social media you know we started
00:07:07.180with the dial-up internet then we got into msn messenger and then we slowly progressed to
00:07:12.460facebook and beyond as you got older as we got older yeah as a as a teen as a preteen now there
00:07:19.020is so much content being thrown at them i don't know how to handle it i couldn't handle it i can't
00:07:25.340handle it as an adult and with a with an undeveloped nervous system with an undeveloped brain you're
00:07:30.620looking at all of these things and i was actually having a really interesting conversation with
00:07:34.060someone the other day they were talking about how her 12 year old daughter her algorithm is all like
00:07:41.500dieting and and um beauty things and at 12 and it's like how do they know this and for for boys
00:07:50.060for 12 year old boys it's a lot of violence it's a lot of video game violence and and shooting
00:07:55.980things and that kind of also makes me think of the tumblr ridge shooting in british columbia
00:08:02.460when you have a troubled teen who maybe had some identity yes uh she identified as a girl but she
00:08:08.140was born a male and that's fine trans right i'm here for the lgbtq plus community that's besides
00:08:14.220the point it's all of the things that they are exposed to on social media really really messes
00:08:18.700with your head and am i correct that uh ai chat gpt had flagged this individual's account yes but
00:08:25.580didn't tell the authorities nope so then what's the point of doing all that then what's the point
00:08:30.300of having access to that so i i had a conversation with someone recently and we talked about the
00:08:36.780social media restrictions in australia now to me australia is a very democratic progressive country
00:08:43.020but they had identified a problem with their youth and put in restrictions that you can't have social
00:08:48.300media if you're a certain age now i am pro freedom pro everyone do what you do but i am seeing
00:08:54.300evidence that it's having a real adverse effect on our youth and i'm okay saying if you're 14 or
00:09:00.460under in canada you can't be in social media i agree i completely agree and right now i think
00:09:05.900it's it's a tough spot for a lot of parents because a lot of them don't want to give in
00:09:10.060they don't want to give them the phone they don't want to do this but then they're seeing all their
00:09:13.340friends have it and everyone else is on social media so then you feel left out and then you
00:09:16.700feel isolated so then that's another mental health issue where you feel like you can't connect with
00:09:21.500your peers right so it's like where do we draw the line and there was a well it's actually quite
00:09:27.020a sad stat a story that came out in ontario the amount of young men seeking help for online
00:09:33.180gambling problems because of all the gambling apps on their phone as well it was staggering the
00:09:38.060amount of young men asking for help also can i just point this out actually as i'm doom scrolling
00:09:43.900on tick tock because i am guilty of doom scrolling i will tell you that but i am seeing a crazy
00:09:49.820amount of ads for sports betting apps and for uh gambling apps as well yes it's it's very strange
00:09:56.460like if i were to open tick tock right now i can guarantee you the first ad i will see is for like
00:10:00.220bet 365. am i allowed to say the names of them whoa we are now we are now but for bet 365 and
00:10:07.660like i don't even remember the names of them but i'm like why is this being pushed out to people
00:10:13.420so much well that i don't understand so i i know with my wife and i my partner and i when we'll
00:10:19.340look up hey we want to go to ikea get a shelf or we're looking at uh you know doing something
00:10:24.780all of a sudden all our feeds are populated with you know ads and stories like i've just grown to
00:10:30.780be accustomed to that they're listening but it is weird to me that in your um algorithm which
00:10:37.900is nothing to do with sports gambling or online betting you're getting ads for but that's what i
00:10:43.580don't understand my algorithm is very simple it's it's it's makeup it's true it's it's you know fun
00:10:50.220light-hearted things it's millennial nostalgia and then i just keep seeing all of these casino apps
00:10:55.500so if you're a 13 year old boy in canada who maybe is looking at basketball and video games
00:11:03.420and i don't know cats and you're getting gambling ads in the algorithm what's to stop them from
00:11:09.740starting to look into and getting sucked exactly and i mean you can put an age restriction on
00:11:14.380those things but there's a way around them right you know it's the same thing as you know doing
00:11:20.140under 18 things when but the kids have been doing that exactly for hundreds of years exactly there's
00:11:26.380always a way around it i mean i may or may not have had a fake id back in the day but that's
00:11:38.840What are the things where it is a good thing?
00:11:40.760Oh, there are absolutely so many pros.
00:11:42.400I mean, for businesses, for small businesses, there are so many ways for them to get their content out there.
00:11:46.920And, you know, bakeries, people who are running businesses out of their homes, a lot of people who do like lash extensions and beauty services and things like that.
00:16:17.220And if you are this billionaire, you are behind all of these platforms, you have the opportunity to use your voice, to use your influence, to actually make a difference.
00:16:26.040And I, like literally, and I'm going to keep coming back to this.
00:16:29.340If I were ever in a room with Mark Zuckerberg, the first thing I would do is ask him,
00:16:32.600what do you have against news on your platforms?