You are in the Matrix... yes, almost... (1 Viewer)

[Slavister]

"The Social Dilemma" - a very interesting (and really should be an eye-opening) documentary on Netflix on social media.

I am in the business and even I learned some interesting things.

I'd say 99% of people underestimate the role that social media plays in political polarization, spread of fake news, and a lot of problems we see in US as well as other democracies. And that's by design - you are NOT supposed to know. The business model of all the "free" content we get online is simply controlled by the profit motives of the giant tech companies. And no, I am not saying companies are evil - but their business model effectively results in terrible outcomes. If you think about it, it makes total sense. It's the same complaint people have of cable news, except tech behind online content is actually much more advanced and scary with Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube feeds, News feeds, etc, etc.

Some tid bits

- A race for the best AI has been going on for a while now in these giants to monetize all those "free" services, which at the end of the day, make these companies the richest ones on the planet. Machine learning is improving every day in manipulating your behavior, from keeping you on the site longer to changing your behaviors ever so slightly to get addicted to social media consumption.

- Few simple but fascinating tricks they use to keep you clicking and interested (you'll have to watch the video to learn what they are)

- What you see as results of your Google searches or on Facebook, Twitter, etc, is DIFFERENT for different people. People are served up DIFFERENT "facts" based on what AI think will appeal to YOU the most, and boy do they have a LOT of data on you.

- Self image of too many people is affected, especially younger generations

- Studies showed fake news spreads 6 times faster than the "boring" truth online

- Around the world, dictators and authoritarians are using this technology as best propaganda platform they've ever had their hands on

- Human psychology is ripe for content that is more outrageous - keeping you addicted to a site longer lends itself well to it. Propagation of Flat Earth, Pizzagate, and other conspiracy theories is covered as well.

- Even if YOU are not on Facebook, Twitter, etc, other people are and their changed worldview and behavior WILL affect you

- A lot of great succinct thoughts and quotes!

 

[Mycroft]

"The Social Dilemma" - a very interesting (and really should be an eye-opening) documentary on Netflix on social media.

I am in the business and even I learned some interesting things.

I'd say 99% of people underestimate the role that social media plays in political polarization, spread of fake news, and a lot of problems we see in US as well as other democracies. And that's by design - you are NOT supposed to know. The business model of all the "free" content we get online is simply controlled by the profit motives of the giant tech companies. And no, I am not saying companies are evil - but their business model effectively results in terrible outcomes. If you think about it, it makes total sense. It's the same complaint people have of cable news, except tech behind online content is actually much more advanced and scary with Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube feeds, News feeds, etc, etc.

Some tid bits

- A race for the best AI has been going on for a while now in these giants to monetize all those "free" services, which at the end of the day, make these companies the richest ones on the planet. Machine learning is improving every day in manipulating your behavior, from keeping you on the site longer to changing your behaviors ever so slightly to get addicted to social media consumption.

- Few simple but fascinating tricks they use to keep you clicking and interested (you'll have to watch the video to learn what they are)

- What you see as results of your Google searches or on Facebook, Twitter, etc, is DIFFERENT for different people. People are served up DIFFERENT "facts" based on what AI think will appeal to YOU the most, and boy do they have a LOT of data on you.

- Self image of too many people is affected, especially younger generations

- Studies showed fake news spreads 6 times faster than the "boring" truth online

- Around the world, dictators and authoritarians are using this technology as best propaganda platform they've ever had their hands on

- Human psychology is ripe for content that is more outrageous - keeping you addicted to a site longer lends itself well to it. Propagation of Flat Earth, Pizzagate, and other conspiracy theories is covered as well.

- Even if YOU are not on Facebook, Twitter, etc, other people are and their changed worldview and behavior WILL affect you

- A lot of great succinct thoughts and quotes!

Add to that those social media platforms deciding WHICH viewpoints get posted and we end up with them having total control of the narrative.

 

[Schweddy]

I was soooo thinking about creating a post on this a few mins ago. Scary stuff.

We all knew they track us and the old "they know everything anyway" argument ... but I personally didn't realize the manipulation, to what extent and WHY.
It also was eyeopening that whatever the bias is percieved it may just be AI controlling the narrative in order to keep us engaged. Holy ****!

 

[Mycroft]

I was soooo thinking about creating a post on this a few mins ago. Scary stuff.

We all knew they track us and the old "they know everything anyway" argument ... but I personally didn't realize the manipulation, to what extent and WHY.
It also was eyeopening that whatever the bias is percieved it may just be AI controlling the narrative in order to keep us engaged. Holy ****!

And people are worried about the Russians?

They should be worried about the Americans!

 

[Schweddy]

And people are worried about the Russians?

They should be worried about the Americans!

Kinda the point... how real was the Russian stuff? Pizzagate? Did it even matter?

As long as the AIs are publishing, and people are engaged the system, the system doesn't even know what is real.

 

[TobyOne]

Drama sells. Appealing to the lowest common denominator yields profits. The way to combat this is through a citizenry that has critical thinking skills. Based on what we're seeing about education all the way through college, I'm not optimistic.

The Idiocracy wasn't satire it was prophesy.

 

[Moderate Right]

Add to that those social media platforms deciding WHICH viewpoints get posted and we end up with them having total control of the narrative.

I totally 100% agree that social media has polarized America at exponential rates but when the left starts censoring this stuff so that only the left polarization remains, they are the enemy of the people. The left want to filter out Trump's "lies" but somehow they let all of the lies from the left remain in place. Exactly who are the lie police?

 

[Schweddy]

The way to combat this is through a citizenry that has critical thinking skills.

The challenge with critical thinking skills is that most people do not have it and regardless how one questions everything... if they are constantly innondated with "Pizzagate", "Trump is a liar", "Biden smells little girls" - they will start to believe it.

 

[Praxas]

I totally 100% agree that social media has polarized America at exponential rates but when the left starts censoring this stuff so that only the left polarization remains, they are the enemy of the people. The left want to filter out Trump's "lies" but somehow they let all of the lies from the left remain in place. Exactly who are the lie police?

Well the dishonest conservatives of this country are CONSTANTLY telling us that capitalism is king and ANYONE can make ANYTHING they want to it just requires HARD WORK, so why haven't the lazy ass conservatives of this country created a CONSERVATIVE social platform like Facebook then?

 

[Moderate Right]

Well the dishonest conservatives of this country are CONSTANTLY telling us that capitalism is king and ANYONE can make ANYTHING they want to it just requires HARD WORK, so why haven't the lazy ass conservatives of this country created a CONSERVATIVE social platform like Facebook then?

So, you're saying that you want socialism and you're saying that we need to get rid of the first amendment so that only socialist viewpoints remain?

 

[Ikari]

"The Social Dilemma" - a very interesting (and really should be an eye-opening) documentary on Netflix on social media.

I am in the business and even I learned some interesting things.

I'd say 99% of people underestimate the role that social media plays in political polarization, spread of fake news, and a lot of problems we see in US as well as other democracies. And that's by design - you are NOT supposed to know. The business model of all the "free" content we get online is simply controlled by the profit motives of the giant tech companies. And no, I am not saying companies are evil - but their business model effectively results in terrible outcomes. If you think about it, it makes total sense. It's the same complaint people have of cable news, except tech behind online content is actually much more advanced and scary with Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube feeds, News feeds, etc, etc.

Some tid bits

- A race for the best AI has been going on for a while now in these giants to monetize all those "free" services, which at the end of the day, make these companies the richest ones on the planet. Machine learning is improving every day in manipulating your behavior, from keeping you on the site longer to changing your behaviors ever so slightly to get addicted to social media consumption.

- Few simple but fascinating tricks they use to keep you clicking and interested (you'll have to watch the video to learn what they are)

- What you see as results of your Google searches or on Facebook, Twitter, etc, is DIFFERENT for different people. People are served up DIFFERENT "facts" based on what AI think will appeal to YOU the most, and boy do they have a LOT of data on you.

- Self image of too many people is affected, especially younger generations

- Studies showed fake news spreads 6 times faster than the "boring" truth online

- Around the world, dictators and authoritarians are using this technology as best propaganda platform they've ever had their hands on

- Human psychology is ripe for content that is more outrageous - keeping you addicted to a site longer lends itself well to it. Propagation of Flat Earth, Pizzagate, and other conspiracy theories is covered as well.

- Even if YOU are not on Facebook, Twitter, etc, other people are and their changed worldview and behavior WILL affect you

- A lot of great succinct thoughts and quotes!

Well I've long hated social media, I think it's connected all the wrong things in society such that we end up giving a shit about what dumb ass celebrities think and not so much educated people regarding the topics they're experts in.

But I'm not sure what we can exactly do about it. Try to teach critical thinking skills a bit more I suppose. Try to teach the obvious "don't believe everything you see". But this whole, fake news spreads faster than boring news is pretty much a "no duh". It's not just online, it's been with broadcast too. If you look at places like Fox News and CNN, it's all just sensationalized BS. It's for ratings, and we've been eating it up for decades at this point. Nobody watches C-Span. We don't want "just the facts", we don't want to have something that makes us think, we want to be told and in an entertaining manner.

We're a reality TV society, which is why we have the Reality TV President. We're not thinkers, we don't care about what scientists and engineers and doctors and experts have to say on anything. All we want is the drama and the train wreck. This is what we get for it.

" The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. " - Issac Asimov