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It can. The root cause of a lot of problems Facebook creates is the like count next to every utterances, article or behaviour on the net. This has to be regula
by obelix_ 8y ago
It can.
The root cause of a lot of problems Facebook creates is the like count next to every utterances, article or behaviour on the net. This has to be regulated much more than private data/friend graphs/location data/what you view/search for etc etc.
Psychologists will tell you the most effective way to influence behaviour of an individual is to show people what the herd around them is thinking, saying or doing. This is how society has always created "social norms".
If people around you don't smoke, you are less likely to be a smoker. Teen girls who see other girls get pregnant are more likely to get pregnant. There are literally thousands of examples that can be cited about how seriously we take this signal.
In a world with too much info that no one is trained to handle or are too busy or distracted to handle, we look at what what the majority of people around us are doing and do that blindly. This is signal influences behaviour. Both good and bad.
Facebook has fucked that signal up for society. In every sphere of life. And we are currently dealing with the fallout. The signal is being delievered too fast and too much imho. And this speed is highly overrated in its value to society.
Whether these counts should be displayed, to who, how quickly, next to what type of content, for different communities, education levels etc needs to be debated and regulated.
- amelius 8y ago> Whether these counts should be displayed, to who, how quickly, next to what type of content, for different communities, education levels etc needs to be debated and regulated. Yeah, but wouldn't that apply to HN too? What if they decide that we're seeing too many different articles posted on HN? That we might get stressed by the amount of new computer languages we hear about, or depressed by the number of Show HN posts ...
- obelix_ 8y agoMost definitely it does effect the HN users. Every site that uses the upvotes mechanism as a signal to the group about what they should think or focus on is producing both positive and negative consequences. It's used not because the good outweighs the bad but because it's implemented by programmers who find it easy to implement. If you asked a social psycologist/socialogist/ecologist or an educator with experience in building learning environments a very different system would be in place. We need these kind of people influencing these feedback loop not just the well intentioned but misguided programmer. I have bought this up multiple times before. There are a lot of impressionable minds around here being exposed to lot of half baked/frustrated/misguided thoughts. Many times the upvotes mechanism just amplifies and reinforces these thoughts.
- 2trill2spill 8y ago> I have bought this up multiple times before. There are a lot of impressionable minds around here being exposed to lot of half baked/frustrated/misguided thoughts. Many times the upvotes mechanism just amplifies and reinforces these thoughts. So people should only be able to see vetted information? Who decides whats not a "half baked/frustrated/misguided thoughts"? Seems like a slippery slope.
- obelix_ 8y agoThe programmers who implement these systems don't even know that their upvotes mechanisms can have a down side. Only after they acknowledge it as an incomplete and incorrect social signal and that they are out of their depth in controlling the unintended effects can the debate begin.
- dqpb 8y agoGood point. While we're at it, let's get rid of Amazon and Netflix recommendations, Google search results ordered by quality and relevance, and email spam filtering.
- hux_ 8y agoSo you think the like counts don't have negative effects on people's beliefs and behaviours? Please read Nudge by Richard Thaler to understand how easily misguided the herd is when following the wrong signals.
- cfadvan 8y agoYou don’t see a difference between rating products for consumption, and rating people and their behavior? Spooky.