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Yes, it works and it sort of scales. Why, then, does the outrage porn rise to the top of the Reddit home page? Because it measurably increases sales in a huge
by nkingsy 5y ago
Yes, it works and it sort of scales.
Why, then, does the outrage porn rise to the top of the Reddit home page?
Because it measurably increases sales in a huge way right now.
To use a baseball analogy, how do you tell a juiced to the gills superstar that steroids are actually hurting their long-term outlook?
There’s no way to show Barry Bonds a future in which he’s shadow banned from the hall of fame and unmentionable even on his own teams broadcasts.
The change will come either with regulation or when a new, better system comes along and steals their users.
- CydeWeys 5y agoOutrage has always traveled faster than dry factual information. This isn't a new Internet phenomenon. You can see it in action all the way back in Greek and Roman history as well. It's an inmate feature of human psychology, not a new invention by reddit/Twitter.
- nkingsy 5y agoYes, and the fact that these platforms haven't taken steps to prevent abuse of the cheat code in our psychology means that they find the benefits of outrage to their bottom line outweigh the "unmeasurable" costs such as damage to society and the hollowing out of their platform.
- intended 5y agoThe front page of Reddit is not always outrage. Besides, if our brains are designed to zoom in on certain signals, is it rational to expect technology to somehow prevent this?
- dragonwriter 5y ago> Besides, if our brains are designed to zoom in on certain signals, is it rational to expect technology to somehow prevent this? Technology can mitigate it (by suppressing the signals, offsetting the effect) or exploit and exacerbate it. The former is often socially useful, but the latter is usually the path of least resistance to profits, and capitalism isn't a system whose incentives optimize for social utility.