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"If you really give people what they want, and give them ability to communicate what they want, bad things happen"
by anovikov 2y ago
"If you really give people what they want, and give them ability to communicate what they want, bad things happen"
- zamadatix 2y agoI think it works better if you replace desires with engagement. The biggest problem posed by social media, IMO, is it's optimized towards what keeps people using it the most not necessarily what the users actually want from it. If Jim Bob's photos at the beach is posted after Jim Bob's rant on some political topic you're still pushed to see the rant first and for longer because it's what people engage with the most even if it's what they like the least.
- BizarroLand 2y agoI bet part of it is the dopamine response of getting a lot of likes combined with the uncertainty of when or if you'll get it again. That's the crux of the skinner box, right? If you make a post that gets 100+ likes more than usual, it feels good. "I am so smart. I am so clever. Everyone likes me!" you get to say to yourself as the likes roll in. Then, the feeding frenzy is over and you're back to being you. Anything that feels good can be addictive. Get enough people whose whole lives revolve around getting dopamine responses from positive social media interactions and you'll have a bunch of people who have MK Ultra'd themselves into being the zombie patsies of a bot farm who provides them with the dopamine they live for as long as they do the things your bot farm has told them to do. Spin the wheel up enough and let it fly. Rinse and repeat and you can have an army of happy and well-paid misinformation soldiers at your beck and call backed up by a horde of dopamine junkies willing to say or do almost anything to keep the dopamine flowing. It's quite terrifying once you step back far enough to see the whole thing.