Just another reason to be paranoid these days

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While this may be useful to help people avoid abusers and narcissists and all, this is a terrible idea in general. People can abuse this app and use it for revenge and do rate someone poorly over petty stuff. It could be over a disagreement, something political, different perspective, etc. and this can also be abused by abusers who would wish to use it as a smear campaign on their victims. I will just avoid this app and I have a valid excuse for it. I don't have the right phone to use this app and I have no interest in smart phones.

I must reiterate, it is not just this app that bothers me. It's the idea behind the app that will be even further abused. Someone will make a version that is open and nobody will be required to sign up for it.

The app is just the opening of the problem.

I hope there's a backlash soon pertaining to social media in general.

And to think: in 2005, there was essentially no social media!

I suppose it could turn into something similar to Tinder. Where there was once just one app that offered simplified dating, now there are numerous similar apps that took that design, but aimed it at those who want to cheat on their partners. So where this app needs you to sign on, there might be other ones that promote rating people whether they want that or not.

I remember when I was in college, a website was created where people could rate the attractiveness of students and teachers. It resulted in anger, hurt feelings and a suicide attempt.

Facebook grew out of something like that where the students were rating each other on hotness or something like that.

I find all of it seriously encroaching on our sense of privacy. What's worse is that people don't expect you to have privacy and when you insist on it, it is viewed with suspicion. "What do you have to hide?"

Peeple certainly sounds dehumanizing. I agree, zkydz, that it is an encroachment on our privacy; it seems like there is an increasing tendency to treat humans as objects or property rather than humans. Peeple is one of many potential ways to exclude persons for being different.

There are already personality assessments one must complete in order to be considered for many jobs. Graduate admissions programs are beginning to adopt a personality test, the personal potential index, as part of their admissions (to measure communication skills, teamwork, resilience, planning and organization, and so forth) -- this is not a self-reported rating. One dean expressly said that they could use it to exclude intelligent, qualified applicants for having a low rating on social skills. And let's not forget job references. These things disproportionately affect people on the spectrum, IMO. Whether public shaming or not, there is a definite attempt to weed out..."undesirables" like autistics....

I would put it at "undesirables" and stop there because the line of acceptable behaviour is getting closer and closer.

It's become 1984 folks. George Orwell predicted our future.

I'm doomed then because they will never be able to convince me that 2+2 = 5.

But, I am waiting on the rats cage mask.....

This is why I simply dont use *any* social media.

I've always told everyone I know that it's a bloody stupid idea to use Facebook and whatnot. One thing I learned early on with the Internet... you dont put your real name on it, anywhere. You just dont. And I learned this REALLY early on, as in, when there barely was an internet of any sort.

Of course, nobody listens, and then they wonder why they have occasional problems. Particularly as the Net gets more and more chaotic and dangerous.

If something like this DOES go further, it's probably going to start pulling from the very social media that everyone assumes is "safe" right now. With no info available, you have no info that can be grabbed, which is always what I keep saying.

I always simply refuse to use any of it. It's just too dangerous/stupid. And pointless, anyway. If I want to talk to people I know, I'll do so in person, or maybe send a text message. And hell, things like Facebook arent even used for that sort of thing much of the time. People usually just post completely useless stuff and fill their "friends" lists with random idiots they dont know.

So yeah, I just dont use it, and I figure, if someone else has a problem with that fact... well, tough, it's their problem, not mine.

Something like this though, if it's making you that paranoid, might be a sign to just drop out of social media altogether. It sounds like you dont like it anyway, so why use it? Even if it is just LinkedIn or whatever it's called.

As I said earlier in the thread, I have Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, but anything private I keep squared away on things like Steam chat or email. I post like maybe one thing a month on twitter on average, and even less on Facebook annually.