FB, TWTR, GOOG, INSTA, everyone switched from timeline to personal recommendation engines and TikTok is just doing it so much better. Where will things be in 5, 10, 50 years? Terrifying and exciting.
Do these tech companies sit on research to suggest that these algorithms can induce behavior-changing tactics through trial-and-error? Will they all have their tobacco-causes-cancer moment?
Old-Age Fear: YouTube algorithm sending people down the conspiracy rabbit hole
New-Age Fear (Hyper-Efficient): TikTok secretly radicalizing individual in X?
I've been re-reading Infinite Jest recently and it is amazing how prescient David Foster Wallace seems. The deep philosophical question - does American individualism mean anything in a world where the average person cannot be expected to delay gratification?
>> research to suggest that these algorithms can induce behavior-changing tactics through trial-and-error?
Cambridge Analytica certainly had that research. Media campaigns are no longer about "getting the word out", projecting an idea and hoping it sticks. Modern campaigns are about changing a narrative, moving individuals from one opinion to another through whatever means works best for that individual. I cannot see how Facebook wouldn't be studying this.
FB, TWTR, GOOG, INSTA, everyone switched from timeline to personal recommendation engines and TikTok is just doing it so much better. Where will things be in 5, 10, 50 years? Terrifying and exciting.
Do these tech companies sit on research to suggest that these algorithms can induce behavior-changing tactics through trial-and-error? Will they all have their tobacco-causes-cancer moment?
Old-Age Fear: YouTube algorithm sending people down the conspiracy rabbit hole
New-Age Fear (Hyper-Efficient): TikTok secretly radicalizing individual in X?
The big question strikes: "what is free will?"
Amazing read