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> What makes social media unhealthy is a the fact the whole thing is a giant marketing exercise. No. That's not the problem. Remove all ads from Twitter or Fa
by vkou 4y ago
> What makes social media unhealthy is a the fact the whole thing is a giant marketing exercise.
No. That's not the problem.
Remove all ads from Twitter or Facebook, bestow a quadrillion-dollar endowment on them, and they'll still turn into shitty, toxic cesspits, because of the way the algorithms bring different people together... In a way that tends to maximize anger.
Now, it's true that 'maximizing engagement' was the reason that those algorithms were built the way they were, but that's only tangential to chasing ad revenue. As long as there's work being done on growing the network, regardless of the reason, the temptation to build it out in that toxic manner will be present.
- BlueTemplar 4y agoI'm going to have to disagree here. Remember how they started out without "algorithms", only a time-ordered feed ? A completely opposite counter-example : fitness memberships don't care about your "engagement", only that your keep paying your monthly subscription.
- elliekelly 4y agoThe paid ads on Twitter and Facebook are hardly the only marketing efforts you see on those sites. In fact I’d say most of the marketing we’re exposed to on Twitter and Facebook isn’t via “ads”.
- vkou 4y agoGuerilla marketing and propaganda is annoying, but hardly the worst aspect of those sites.