The high modernism of social media companies

Re:The high modernism of social media companies by makomk on Thursday April 12, 2018 @08:52AM (#16820333)

One of the other big criticisms of Facebook and other social networks is that they're "filter bubbles" which make sure people don't see any information or viewpoints from outside their own social circles and perspectives. The main unifying aspect that the "filter bubble" criticism and the "connecting people" criticism seem to have in common is that both involve Facebook taking away some control of the culture from the press, the media, and other powerful groups and giving it to the populace; other than that, they should be contradictory.

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Re:The high modernism of social media companies by dragonwriter on Thursday April 12, 2018 @09:28AM (#16820669)

> The main unifying aspect that the "filter bubble" criticism and the "connecting people" criticism seem to have in common is that both involve Facebook taking away some control of the culture from the press, the media, and other powerful groups and giving it to the populace

No, it's giving it to a new powerful group, specifically, Facebook. Just as Stalin stated, “I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how,” so, too, is it true of social media; power doesn't lie with the people who can press “Like” (etc.), it lies with the people who select and continuously tweak based on observed effect the algorithm by which Likes and similar actions are used to shape the flow of information to and between users.

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Re:The high modernism of social media companies by manjushri on Thursday April 12, 2018 @10:48AM (#16821476)

>power doesn't lie with the people who can press “Like” (etc.), it lies with the people who select and continuously tweak based on observed effect the algorithm by which Likes and similar actions are used to shape the flow of information to and between users.

Interesting. So no matter how much apparent power is gained by people connecting politically on social media, the "(wo)man behind the curtain" who controls the platform and it's algorithm will by default always be more powerful?

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Re:The high modernism of social media companies by dragonwriter on Thursday April 12, 2018 @12:26PM (#16822477)

Yes, if your power comes from someone else and continues only as long as they choose to maintain it, the person directing power to you has the greater power.

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Re:The high modernism of social media companies by organsnyder on Thursday April 12, 2018 @09:13AM (#16820533)

> ...taking away some control of the culture from the press, the media, and other powerful groups and giving it to the populace;

Shouldn't we replace "populace" with "social media networks (via the algorithms they create)" in that sentence?

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Re:The high modernism of social media companies by ionised on Thursday April 12, 2018 @10:12AM (#16821086)

Nothing is being given to the populace in this scenario.

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