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> From my perspective, Google's goals are aligned with improving the world by offering information services. Ah yes. From "Don't be evil" to "Improve the world

> From my perspective, Google's goals are aligned with improving the world by offering information services. Ah yes. From "Don't be evil" to "Improve the world"? Who asked google to "improve" anything? > To me, Facebook has no such world-improving aspirations. Which is why they are being attacked. They are neutral. > Plus, I keep seeing studies of how increased Facebook usage correlates negatively with peoples' moods The same applies to google. The more you use youtube/google/google news/etc, the more depress you are. This also translates to news media itself. > so Zuckerberg's evident goal of "get everyone on Earth on Facebook" feels gross. Google is even worse. Censorship + agenda peddling + discrimination + google has far stronger monopoly on people's attention and far more information. No offense, but I wouldn't work for either google or facebook. Both are terrible for society and freedom and mental health.

Ivoirians 9y ago
I'm not saying Google handles everything correctly. My comment was meant as an explanation as to why one person has a positive perspective of Google and a negative perspective of Facebook. Obviously if someone thinks Google is destroying the world, they're going to want to change my opinion/as many positive opinions of Google as possible, and I respect that even if I disagree. To respond to your points quickly: I'd rather support a company with a moral stance I agreed with than one that was neutral. I think news media in general has a problem with sensationalism/optimizing-for-clicks/echo chambers, but I don't perceive that Google is particularly bad as an news aggregator. I think a lot of complaints about Google/Youtube overlook that most policy decisions about removals/demonetization are driven not by politics or agendas, but by advertisers, without which Google/Youtube would not exist. (And again, if you disagree and believe that targeted advertising is itself a net bad for the world, oh well.) Personally, I think viewpoint polarization and the internet's enabling of echo chambers is the biggest problem facing the world. I know Google is often accused of making the problem worse, but I don't agree. Google News, for example, won't stop showing me Fox/Breitbart articles, even though they have to have enough data on me to know I'm super far-left. Anyway, I did some searching (on Google, ha), but can't find any articles linking Google/Youtube usage to mental health problems, so I'd be interested if I'm wrong. The only one I remember seeing said Youtube had a positive effect on mental health. (https://www.psychalive.org/worst-mental-health-instagram-facebook-youtube/ https://www.psychalive.org/worst-mental-health-instagram-fac...)

Ivoirians 9y ago

I'm not saying Google handles everything correctly. My comment was meant as an explanation as to why one person has a positive perspective of Google and a negative perspective of Facebook. Obviously if someone thinks Google is destroying the world, they're going to want to change my opinion/as many positive opinions of Google as possible, and I respect that even if I disagree. To respond to your points quickly: I'd rather support a company with a moral stance I agreed with than one that was neutral. I think news media in general has a problem with sensationalism/optimizing-for-clicks/echo chambers, but I don't perceive that Google is particularly bad as an news aggregator. I think a lot of complaints about Google/Youtube overlook that most policy decisions about removals/demonetization are driven not by politics or agendas, but by advertisers, without which Google/Youtube would not exist. (And again, if you disagree and believe that targeted advertising is itself a net bad for the world, oh well.) Personally, I think viewpoint polarization and the internet's enabling of echo chambers is the biggest problem facing the world. I know Google is often accused of making the problem worse, but I don't agree. Google News, for example, won't stop showing me Fox/Breitbart articles, even though they have to have enough data on me to know I'm super far-left. Anyway, I did some searching (on Google, ha), but can't find any articles linking Google/Youtube usage to mental health problems, so I'd be interested if I'm wrong. The only one I remember seeing said Youtube had a positive effect on mental health. (https://www.psychalive.org/worst-mental-health-instagram-facebook-youtube/ https://www.psychalive.org/worst-mental-health-instagram-fac...)