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I genuinely dislike Apple but their CEO has just shared some insights that very much go against your premise of social networks as just another harmless enterta

I genuinely dislike Apple but their CEO has just shared some insights that very much go against your premise of social networks as just another harmless entertainment industry. "At a moment of rampant disinformation and conspiracy theories juiced by algorithms, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of technology that says all engagement is good engagement -- the longer the better -- and all with the goal of collecting as much data as possible" "What are the consequences of seeing thousands of users join extremist groups, and then perpetuating an algorithm that recommends even more?" "Will the future belong to the innovations that make our lives better, more fulfilled and more human? Or will it belong to those tools that prize our attention to the exclusion of everything else, compounding our fears and aggregating extremism, to serve ever-more-invasively-targeted ads over all other ambitions?"

dionian 6y ago
and of course, we all know who gets to define 'extremism'
- TeaDrunk 6y ago
  Could you clarify? I don't understand the implication here. The above language can apply equally to any number of large, sometimes violent, protests that are primarily built on and disseminate information via a social media platform.
  - JKCalhoun 6y ago
    I thought extremism pretty much defined itself. Any political position that is void of any factual evidence to back it up, that acknowledges no nuance.... Just off the top of my head, but I think we all know extremism when we see/hear it.
    - TeaDrunk 6y ago
      Yes, that's why I'm asking what the parent meant by "we all know who gets to define 'extremism'" because the rhetoric suggests my assumption of a broadly applicable notion of extremism might be incorrect.
    - chevill 6y ago
      >Just off the top of my head, but I think we all know extremism when we see/hear it. I think there's a substantial amount of people that don't. Or rather, they can easily identify extremism in people they don't relate to while completely ignoring it in people that they find even the tiniest amount of common ground with. This seems to be the natural and inevitable result of treating politics like a team sport for 200+ years.

dionian 6y ago

and of course, we all know who gets to define 'extremism'

TeaDrunk 6y ago
Could you clarify? I don't understand the implication here. The above language can apply equally to any number of large, sometimes violent, protests that are primarily built on and disseminate information via a social media platform.
- JKCalhoun 6y ago
  I thought extremism pretty much defined itself. Any political position that is void of any factual evidence to back it up, that acknowledges no nuance.... Just off the top of my head, but I think we all know extremism when we see/hear it.
  - TeaDrunk 6y ago
    Yes, that's why I'm asking what the parent meant by "we all know who gets to define 'extremism'" because the rhetoric suggests my assumption of a broadly applicable notion of extremism might be incorrect.
  - chevill 6y ago
    >Just off the top of my head, but I think we all know extremism when we see/hear it. I think there's a substantial amount of people that don't. Or rather, they can easily identify extremism in people they don't relate to while completely ignoring it in people that they find even the tiniest amount of common ground with. This seems to be the natural and inevitable result of treating politics like a team sport for 200+ years.