Channel 4 News
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2018–2019
21:01 · 4M views · Jun 15, 2018
A Channel 4 News interview with technologist Jaron Lanier, who argues that social media damages people's lives. He discusses how Facebook, YouTube and Google use algorithms and data collection to shape what users see.
Offered as a concise summary of the economics and manipulation behind social media addiction in Facebook-related threads.
3 comments from Hacker News
Couple of points people are missing: - The biggest problem with Facebook in terms of immediate impact is not loss of privacy, though that’s real. It’s behavioural manipulation, which has lots of very negative outcomes for you as a user as well as society. Don’t think you’re not been manipulated, you are, and you are susceptible to it. Your behaviour and emotions are negatively impacted by the fact you use facebook. - This is not “capitalism” or “consumer voting with their money”. Firstly, due to network effects Facebook has a monopoly on their kind of product. The choice is Facebook vs no facebook. Second, the currency is time and attention to sell ads. Finally, most people are addicted to social media by design and it’s arguable whether they have a truly free choice. Is a gambling addict voting with their feet? The gambling addict knows they won’t win and usually knows they’re addicted; social media addicts people very subtly and manipulates you over time. Few people would admit to being addicted, but if you really think you’re not - fine, if it’s no big deal then just take a month off from social media and see what happens. Good summary is Jaron Lanier’s interview this video
>Remove the YOU from social media, and use it to have fun about whatever it is you do to have fun, and it can actually be ... fun. This doesn't change the fact that 99% of things people give credit for to social media can be easily done without mediation through a multi-billion dollar corporation. Neither does it change the fact that Twitter and Facebook have a whole slew of horrible social effects. Centralization of the web, political polarization, emergent mobs trying to ruin people's lives, rise in depression and suicide rates, normalization of global surveillance, normalization of censorship, etc, etc. Jaron Lanier has some interesting thoughts on the economy behind some of this: this video
Interestingly that's exactly how algorithms make things go viral. They pick up on things that get a quick reaction with complete disregard for what happens in the long term. Jaron Lanier explains this in his talks [0]. So features on social media are decided based on short term gains and posts on social media are promoted like that too. It's like an entire industry forgot their parents warnings about thinking about the future. [0] this video