Re:“User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction”
by TeMPOraL on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @10:05AM
(#26154488)
> Big TV’s goal is to broadcast as engaging as possible material to a general audience. This is broad and therefore not very addictive.
That may have been true once, but since then TV distilled down the patterns for maximizing addiction across the biggest segment of the population - that's why most TV is so mind-dumbing that you can almost feel your brain being sucked out of your skull when watching.
But I agree that Internet media are much more focused and much heavier hitters.
Re:“User Engagement” Is Code for “Addiction”
by zests on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @09:53AM
(#26154343)
Here is a rough ranking of information sources by amount of "user engagement".
Books < TV < Video Games <= Social Media
The rankings are potentially different per individual and each information source effects people in different ways. This is my mental model of different user engagement sources. The hard part is where to draw the line and the inevitable fact that pandora is already out of the box.
Big TV’s goal is to broadcast as engaging as possible material to a general audience. This is broad and therefore not very addictive / effective.
Big Tech’s goal is to broadcast as engaging as possible material to an individual. This is specific and therefore very addictive / effective.
Regardless that the goal is the same, one is a heavier hitter, and we should have regulations to protect people against the bigger punches.