4 ms·

Same argument was made for radio and TV. People got by.

nickrubin 4y ago
Do you really think scrolling through TikTok has the same effect on someone's brain as listening to the radio?
p0pcult 4y ago
Radio and TV didn't have algorithmic feedback loops built to custom-prey on said dopamine receptors, and evolve themselves.
- Regnore 4y ago
  I tend to agree but also acknowledge that TV and radio did have engagement feedback loops. Viewer numbers and focus groups were/are used to “optimize” the content. Those are obviously not as extremely personalized as what’s available in modern forms of media but I struggle to identify a specific tipping point at where such feedback loops become problematic.
- Manuel_D 4y ago
  They did, it's just that the algorithms were executed by marketing and sales teams.
wildrhythms 4y ago
The difference is that TV and radio content was never hyper-individualized like it is today.
tdehnel 4y ago
You might be right. Or social media might be the crack to tv and radio’s cocaine.
- giraffe_lady 4y ago
  This is funny to me because this particular distinction between the two forms of the drug is a decades out of date bit of racist drug war propaganda that was widely spread through TV news. I'm not sure if that says anything about the relative risks of these media formats, but it's grimly funny.
  - tdehnel 4y ago
    Have you actually done both of those drugs? They are quite different.
    - giraffe_lady 4y ago
      I have many times yes. I was a homeless addict for years and neither was my preference but any port in a storm you know. They are definitely different experiences, but nearly all drugs have different delivery mechanisms with different onset times and intensities and long-term consequences of using them. The crack-vs-powder cocaine difference is nowhere near, for example, the difference between smoking and injecting heroin. But that is not considered a different, more dangerous, more brutally punished drug if you inject it. And more importantly the subjective experience of the delivery doesn't matter, the origin of the distinction is in the historical record. Crack cocaine was given different, much harsher, sentencing guidelines for unambiguously racist reasons, that then needed to be justified in the public consciousness.
      - tdehnel 4y ago
        Ah, at first I was like why is this person hijacking my comment to make a completely unrelated point, but now I see you’re just being anti racist. Should I never use crack cocaine as a metaphor ever again?
        giraffe_lady 4y ago
        Possibly? Is that so incomprehensible? It's based on a relationship between drugs that only ever existed to justify a racist sentencing policy. Not a strong basis for an effective metaphor imo, but I'm not your editor.

Do you really think scrolling through TikTok has the same effect on someone's brain as listening to the radio?

Radio and TV didn't have algorithmic feedback loops built to custom-prey on said dopamine receptors, and evolve themselves.

Regnore 4y ago
I tend to agree but also acknowledge that TV and radio did have engagement feedback loops. Viewer numbers and focus groups were/are used to “optimize” the content. Those are obviously not as extremely personalized as what’s available in modern forms of media but I struggle to identify a specific tipping point at where such feedback loops become problematic.
Manuel_D 4y ago
They did, it's just that the algorithms were executed by marketing and sales teams.

wildrhythms 4y ago

The difference is that TV and radio content was never hyper-individualized like it is today.

tdehnel 4y ago

You might be right. Or social media might be the crack to tv and radio’s cocaine.

giraffe_lady 4y ago
This is funny to me because this particular distinction between the two forms of the drug is a decades out of date bit of racist drug war propaganda that was widely spread through TV news. I'm not sure if that says anything about the relative risks of these media formats, but it's grimly funny.
- tdehnel 4y ago
  Have you actually done both of those drugs? They are quite different.
  - giraffe_lady 4y ago
    I have many times yes. I was a homeless addict for years and neither was my preference but any port in a storm you know. They are definitely different experiences, but nearly all drugs have different delivery mechanisms with different onset times and intensities and long-term consequences of using them. The crack-vs-powder cocaine difference is nowhere near, for example, the difference between smoking and injecting heroin. But that is not considered a different, more dangerous, more brutally punished drug if you inject it. And more importantly the subjective experience of the delivery doesn't matter, the origin of the distinction is in the historical record. Crack cocaine was given different, much harsher, sentencing guidelines for unambiguously racist reasons, that then needed to be justified in the public consciousness.
    - tdehnel 4y ago
      Ah, at first I was like why is this person hijacking my comment to make a completely unrelated point, but now I see you’re just being anti racist. Should I never use crack cocaine as a metaphor ever again?
      - giraffe_lady 4y ago
        Possibly? Is that so incomprehensible? It's based on a relationship between drugs that only ever existed to justify a racist sentencing policy. Not a strong basis for an effective metaphor imo, but I'm not your editor.