Could Removing Social Media Metrics Reduce Polarization?

Re:Could Removing Social Media Metrics Reduce Polarization? by facethrowaway on Tuesday August 20, 2019 @07:05PM (#20753154)

It’s a giant political dodge that has nothing to do with the underlying issues. You want to know what’s the real cancer, the real drug these dealers don’t want you regulating? The NOTIFICATIONS. That’s something everyone on the inside knows. The average person treats validating push notifications like a mouse getting cheese and will act out and continue to generate content to get it.

Look at the emails and push notifications these companies send out to regular people on a constant, daily basis, and you will find the cancer you’re looking for. Eliminating like counts and follower numbers is a nice idea that excites teenage activists but is pointless now that these companies have already built accounts with zillions of followers.

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Re:Could Removing Social Media Metrics Reduce Polarization? by airstrike on Tuesday August 20, 2019 @07:17PM (#20753223)

> has nothing to do with the underlying issues

You make a fair point, but I wouldn't say it's got nothing to do with the real problem. It's a step in the right direction, even if it isn't a panacea.

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Re:Could Removing Social Media Metrics Reduce Polarization? by xwdv on Tuesday August 20, 2019 @10:31PM (#20754116)

You hit the nail on the head.

Don't remember where I saw it, but a long time just as smartphones were coming out I saw a bold take on what the next major platform would be. It wasn't going to be web, it wasn't going to be mobile, it was going to be NOTIFICATIONS. The app companies that understood this thrived, and the rest withered and died.

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Re:Could Removing Social Media Metrics Reduce Polarization? by needle0 on Tuesday August 20, 2019 @10:41PM (#20754163)

I did notice that notifications were habit-inducing early on, and disabled them entirely for Facebook/Twitter/Email years ago. Still, finding myself regularly going back to all of them, I'm not sure that it's the only problem

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Re:Could Removing Social Media Metrics Reduce Polarization? by Cd00d on Wednesday August 21, 2019 @12:20AM (#20754535)

This XKCD makes a similar argument highlighting opening habits rather than notifications: https://xkcd.com/2183/

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Re:Could Removing Social Media Metrics Reduce Polarization? by robert_foss on Wednesday August 21, 2019 @12:20AM (#20754536)

Polarization is orthogonal to habit formation.

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