Re:Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will
by addicted on Monday November 20, 2017 @04:53PM
(#15743644)
The demarcation line is pretty clear IMO (it isn’t even social media). It’s technology whose goal is to manipulate its users to engage with itself. And it hires an army of engineers, designers, scientists, and soon AI to achieve that goal.
Right now it’s social media that is at the forefront of this war with people. Tomorrow it might be a different technology.
Re:Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will
by standupstandup on Monday November 20, 2017 @05:23PM
(#15743872)
That's not clear at all. Do you think the Twitter founder's goal was literally written down somewhere as "manipulate users to engage with it"? Or for Facebook? None of these companies will agree with that assessment, so it's entirely your own subjective opinion.
Re:Modern Media Is a DoS Attack on Free Will
by addicted on Monday November 20, 2017 @05:47PM
(#15744054)
Well, the interviewee in the article provides a good metric.
You don't need to look at the founders' intentions. You simply need to look at the metrics they are optimizing on. For public companies like Facebook and Twitter it's even easier. You have to look at the metrics they are talking to their investors about.
The moment you start down the "we are weak and helpless and we need the smart benevolent geniuses in Government to help us" you're just gonna lose a whole lot of people. Because there's no reason to believe there is even a problem here, let alone a problem that needs to be solved with regulation.