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> It seems (to me) that the way Twitter increases "engagement" is to show you the tweets that will upset you the most I don't think upsetting you is an intenti
by yosito 5y ago
> It seems (to me) that the way Twitter increases "engagement" is to show you the tweets that will upset you the most
I don't think upsetting you is an intentional design on the part of Twitter, it's just that optimising for engagement in the context of human psychology often leads to upsetting things being promoted because that's what humans naturally find engaging (though also unpleasant). I have a carefully curated Twitter, I've unfollowed anyone who posted anything that seemed to me ideological, and I rarely see upsetting content on Twitter anymore. Granted I'm following less than 100 people and unfollow people for ideological tweets about once a month.
- bambax 5y agoWell, maybe you succeeded, and if so good for you. In my experience, unfollowing does almost nothing. My problem was not especially "ideological" people as much as "concerned" people. For example I followed a brilliant young French doctor who was usually entertaining, but who's incensed by all the antivax noise and who would regularly retweet antivax rhetoric, not to defend it of course but to expose it. That would get me all worked up... and for what? There is no benefit to this for anyone (and not even for Twitter, as I only used it on desktop with an adblocker). If I want to read interesting articles about any topic by many other means (including HN!); Twitter isn't bringing anything useful to me (but again, that's just me, YMMV, etc.)
- yosito 5y agoJust unfollow people who post content you don't want to see.