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>Who subscribes to porn bots? I would have thought only other porn bots follow porn bots? Clearly if they exist they must have some marginal use. It's like say

by simias 7y ago

>Who subscribes to porn bots? I would have thought only other porn bots follow porn bots? Clearly if they exist they must have some marginal use. It's like saying "who falls for nigerian prince scams?" or "who is influenced by ads?". Clearly some people are, otherwise they wouldn't be quite as popular. I'm sure some real people follow porn bots in order to... see porn. As for the influence I think in isolation it's probably negligible, but if people get flooded by propaganda on social networks it may be quite efficient. "Everybody says it, it can't be completely wrong". The echo-chamber nature of many social networks probably plays into that too. Many people would probably be more likely to follow an obvious bot spamming propaganda that aligns with their beliefs than a real person holding a different opinion. For instance an obviously biased propaganda outlet like Prager U has 2 million followers on Youtube, I doubt all of those are bots.

lonelappde 7y ago
PragerU isn't obvious to most people that's what's insidious about it. It's a fake "university" for people who are too ignorant or low intelligent to know what a real one looks like. Compare PragerU to "A People's History of the United States" book. Both are highly politically biased, both oppose "mainstream" education, but one is intellectually much better than the other. Discerning which requires higher level thinking many people lack.
- simias 7y ago
  I think you're wrong to assume that it only works with people who are "too ignorant or low intelligent". Confirmation bias is not limited to dumb people. It's always more pleasant and comforting to listen to people agreeing with you (even if what they're saying isn't super insightful) rather than people arguing against your values (even if what they're saying is very interesting). Searching for contradictory viewpoints and actually managing to listen to the argument with an open mind takes effort. That's the big problem with most social media currently, they amplify this bias to the extreme. You can hold a fringe belief like "earth is flat" and still manage to find thousand of people agreeing with you, spending hours every day consuming flat earth content and avoiding any dissenting voice.
b_tterc_p 7y ago
Well they’re clearly being marketed as having actual use. Whether it’s true... could go either way

by simias 7y ago

lonelappde 7y ago

PragerU isn't obvious to most people that's what's insidious about it. It's a fake "university" for people who are too ignorant or low intelligent to know what a real one looks like. Compare PragerU to "A People's History of the United States" book. Both are highly politically biased, both oppose "mainstream" education, but one is intellectually much better than the other. Discerning which requires higher level thinking many people lack.

simias 7y ago
I think you're wrong to assume that it only works with people who are "too ignorant or low intelligent". Confirmation bias is not limited to dumb people. It's always more pleasant and comforting to listen to people agreeing with you (even if what they're saying isn't super insightful) rather than people arguing against your values (even if what they're saying is very interesting). Searching for contradictory viewpoints and actually managing to listen to the argument with an open mind takes effort. That's the big problem with most social media currently, they amplify this bias to the extreme. You can hold a fringe belief like "earth is flat" and still manage to find thousand of people agreeing with you, spending hours every day consuming flat earth content and avoiding any dissenting voice.

b_tterc_p 7y ago

Well they’re clearly being marketed as having actual use. Whether it’s true... could go either way