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4Q Basket Case said:
And that sort of garbage is why I'm not, never have been, and never will be on Facebook.
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I stay on FB for interests(mainly groups that are into obscure music, and running and kayaking groups), and to keep in touch with old work/college friends.

As soon as someone starts yammering about politics or divisive issues, I unfollow them, so I don't see that stuff.
 
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4Q Basket Case said:
You're probably aware of this, but the Netflix movie, "The Social Dilemma," addresses why the algorithms do what they do. It's a docu-drama with aspects of a documentary, agumented with some fictional drama storylines.

The algorithms aren't a function of the political biases of Facebook management. They're about reinforcing their users' pre-existing biases in order to keep them more engaged for longer periods of time....which drives ad revenue and therefore Facebook profit.

If Facebook could make more money by presenting content that goes contrary to its users' biases, it would do that. But it makes more money by presenting content that reinforces users' biases -- so it does that.

The Social Dilemma is highly instructive and really, really chilling. For anyone who hasn't seen it, it's well worth an hour and a half of your time. I just checked, and as of this writing, it's still available on Netflix.
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A couple years ago, I decided to take a one month sabbatical from FB. When I came back, my news feed had stalled, hardly any updates. It was as if the algorithm just thought I had died or disappeared.
 
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mdb-tpet said:
Facebook is designed for angry, unresolvable, continuous keyboard conflict. Why anyone would want that, is beyond me. It wasn't always that way, but now with the engagement algorithms coupled with the lack of moderators and sea of trolls seals the deal for me.
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I left Facebook 5 years ago and haven't looked back. Between Covid, the election, and all the crap going on 5 years ago I had enough. I did not send out a long drawn out dramatic goodbye. I just left. Most people didn't notice. I had family direct/private messaging me and my mom had to tell them I left it.
 
mdb-tpet said:
Facebook is designed for angry, unresolvable, continuous keyboard conflict. Why anyone would want that, is beyond me. It wasn't always that way, but now with the engagement algorithms coupled with the lack of moderators and sea of trolls seals the deal for me.
Click to expand...
I figured out long ago that I had control over the algorithm based on how I reacted to the content that was presented. The result is my FB and IG feeds are simply friends sharing interesting stuff as that's what I 'like' and / or respond to. I don't engage with the political, religious, etc stuff that gets so many people riled up and so the algorithm doesn't include that stuff in my feed.

It's pretty easy to train these algorithms to show you what you want to see - just take a tiny bit of discipline.

Once trained, these algorithms are great, my feeds are awesome - it's full of celebrations of life, music, sports, etc.
 
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4Q Basket Case said:
You're probably aware of this, but the Netflix movie, "The Social Dilemma," addresses why the algorithms do what they do. It's a docu-drama with aspects of a documentary, agumented with some fictional drama storylines.

The algorithms aren't a function of the political biases of Facebook management. They're about reinforcing their users' pre-existing biases in order to keep them more engaged for longer periods of time....which drives ad revenue and therefore Facebook profit.

If Facebook could make more money by presenting content that goes contrary to its users' biases, it would do that. But it makes more money by presenting content that reinforces users' biases -- so it does that.

The Social Dilemma is highly instructive and really, really chilling. For anyone who hasn't seen it, it's well worth an hour and a half of your time. I just checked, and as of this writing, it's still available on Netflix.
Click to expand...

BTW - you bring up a point which is why I think too much has been made about the whole "Russian interference" (which, yes, DID happen) in the 2016 election with your reference to algorithms.

Yeah, sure, I have no doubt Russia flooded the internet with God knows what about "bad Hillary." But the idea that they went on Facebook and CONVERTED a bunch of Hillary voters into Trump voters with a bunch of propaganda has always sounded like little more than a hollow "why we lost" excuse to me. OR the idea that they converted a bunch of non-voters into Trump voters, again, I just don't buy it. You can show me all of the THEORETICAL OCCURENCES you wish, but as Kevin Costner noted in "JFK," theoretical physics can prove that an elephant can hang over a cliff from a daisy, too.

People are not blank slates just waiting to be filled with information, certainly not 45-year-olds with a long voting history. It's also why the "but her emails" excuse is so damn lame. The idea that this is meant to "prove" is that there were thousands/millions of voters out there who were for Hillary/not voting, they heard this bad information about her and SWITCHED THEIR VOTES (that's the key point) to Trump. And given the turnout in 2016 was the lowest since the Clinton-Dole snooze-fest of 1996, good luck arguing "millions who were NOT voting ran into the polling booth for Trump".

I don't doubt for a second social media REINFORCED notions already baked into the cake - that's what happens. But these same voters are supposedly the ones who "watch Fox News because it will tell them what they ALREADY think to be true", which kinda contradicts the entire theory of switched votes.

Also - I see I need to follow CA's discipline in more ways than one.
 
crimsonaudio said:
I figured out long ago that I had control over the algorithm based on how I reacted to the content that was presented. The result is my FB and IG feeds are simply friends sharing interesting stuff as that's what I 'like' and / or respond to. I don't engage with the political, religious, etc stuff that gets so many people riled up and so the algorithm doesn't include that stuff in my feed.

It's pretty easy to train these algorithms to show you what you want to see - just take a tiny bit of discipline.

Once trained, these algorithms are great, my feeds are awesome - it's full of celebrations of life, music, sports, etc.
Click to expand...

My YouTube algorithm is awesome. I am listening to really great music that I would have never discovered were it not for AI. Stuff from artists and bands who get limited airplay. It's like the further it goes down the rabbit hole, the more joy it brings.
 
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Its On A Slab said:
I stay on FB for interests(mainly groups that are into obscure music, and running and kayaking groups), and to keep in touch with old work/college friends.

As soon as someone starts yammering about politics or divisive issues, I unfollow them, so I don't see that stuff.
Click to expand...
There are 3rd party addons which allow you to make your Facebook whatever you intend. Mine is not fractious at all...
 
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crimsonaudio said:
FBPurity makes all the difference in the world.
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That and PC Mechanic. I have "Lite" on my phone, which I look at occasionally, while waiting somewhere. It's like two different worlds, since the add-ons don't work with that version. Their algorithms are in charge. I only found out recently that "algorithm" is an Anglicization of the Arab inventor of algebra in the 9th century - Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi...
 
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Gas prices have gone up 10 cents over the weekend here to 2.899

The price has been bouncing around 2.699 to 2.899 for the past few months.
 
TIDE-HSV said:
... I only found out recently that "algorithm" is an Anglicization of the Arab inventor of algebra in the 9th century - Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi...
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I thought it was a derivation of "Al Gore-ism" - because he invented created the internet. :cool:
 
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