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Social media is designed to make money, whether that be from selling data or conglomerating it and advertising to you. They want the user to be purely a consume

by VA0 2y ago

Social media is designed to make money, whether that be from selling data or conglomerating it and advertising to you. They want the user to be purely a consumer. They are designed to make people reactive and have a short attention span, they are easier to sell to.the users mental reward system is essentially brainwashed to be an easier target to sell to.

ryandv 2y ago
Advertising is one of the main reasons modern social media is experiencing continued enshittification in this era. Noam Chomsky in his "Manufacturing Consent" wrote of three "filters" that determined which content would be presented to viewers, and while he wrote on the mass media in 1988, I believe this framework applies equally to social media in 2024: access to capital; the "advertising license to do business;" and a symbiotic relationship with government, who provides access to authoritative sources of news. Take X, for example: its access to capital allows it to eclipse most other social media and build network effects that are difficult for other startups to disrupt; after the Musk acquisition, advertisers began withdrawing from the platform; and as the Twitter files have claimed, its collusion with the U.S. government in the promotion/demotion of certain viewpoints. If you want to see genuine viewpoints, you'd best seek out media that are largely independent of these three "filters" over what messages are permissible on the medium.
red-iron-pine 2y ago
you left out brand-shaping and consensus-building, which is arguably just very advanced advertising. almost universal overlap with agit-prop as well
quest88 2y ago
I think that's part of it but not all of it. Even here on HN, with no ads, you can find hostility in the comments.
- HughParry 2y ago
  people are a bit happier here to have an argument and then get on with their lives though
- Ginguin 2y ago
  Even in a place like HN, you can't escape the behaviors and attitudes that people pick up in other social spaces online. If someone gets used to reading ill intent into a comment, they don't suddenly stop doing that because they are in a place where ill intent is less likely. Those social norms get carried with them from space to space. The toxicity is a contagion, even if this space isn't an incubator for it.
- klondike_klive 2y ago
  Up yours! (Sorry)
  - quest88 2y ago
    FU, buddy!

by VA0 2y ago

ryandv 2y ago

Advertising is one of the main reasons modern social media is experiencing continued enshittification in this era. Noam Chomsky in his "Manufacturing Consent" wrote of three "filters" that determined which content would be presented to viewers, and while he wrote on the mass media in 1988, I believe this framework applies equally to social media in 2024: access to capital; the "advertising license to do business;" and a symbiotic relationship with government, who provides access to authoritative sources of news. Take X, for example: its access to capital allows it to eclipse most other social media and build network effects that are difficult for other startups to disrupt; after the Musk acquisition, advertisers began withdrawing from the platform; and as the Twitter files have claimed, its collusion with the U.S. government in the promotion/demotion of certain viewpoints. If you want to see genuine viewpoints, you'd best seek out media that are largely independent of these three "filters" over what messages are permissible on the medium.

red-iron-pine 2y ago

you left out brand-shaping and consensus-building, which is arguably just very advanced advertising. almost universal overlap with agit-prop as well

quest88 2y ago

I think that's part of it but not all of it. Even here on HN, with no ads, you can find hostility in the comments.

HughParry 2y ago
people are a bit happier here to have an argument and then get on with their lives though
Ginguin 2y ago
Even in a place like HN, you can't escape the behaviors and attitudes that people pick up in other social spaces online. If someone gets used to reading ill intent into a comment, they don't suddenly stop doing that because they are in a place where ill intent is less likely. Those social norms get carried with them from space to space. The toxicity is a contagion, even if this space isn't an incubator for it.
klondike_klive 2y ago
Up yours! (Sorry)
- quest88 2y ago
  FU, buddy!