Re:Twitter set to accept Musk's $43B offer – sources
by homonculus1 on Monday April 25, 2022 @05:16PM
(#31160734)
I have a deep hunch that it gets far stupider even than measuring compulsion.
Suppose that your feed refreshes itself while you're trying to read a particular tweet. You go back looking for it--now badly ordered, irrelevant content is positively correlated with your amount of scrolling and time spent in-app.
So the app isn't just optimizing against your lazy attention, it's probably in some cases also rewarding itself for actively hindering you.
These software patterns are anti-human. Imagine using a hammer that is trying to maximize your engagement with the hammer itself. Well, I know I'll be more engaged with the hammer if the head keeps falling off, but that isn't what a hammer is for.
Suppose that your feed refreshes itself while you're trying to read a particular tweet. You go back looking for it--now badly ordered, irrelevant content is positively correlated with your amount of scrolling and time spent in-app.
So the app isn't just optimizing against your lazy attention, it's probably in some cases also rewarding itself for actively hindering you.
These software patterns are anti-human. Imagine using a hammer that is trying to maximize your engagement with the hammer itself. Well, I know I'll be more engaged with the hammer if the head keeps falling off, but that isn't what a hammer is for.