All of this with 4, different share buttons. Just to flag everyone who visits the site.
Those buttons are privacy-friendly (as stated right above them). They don't load any tracking scripts.
Social Cooling – How big data is increasing pressure to conform
121–130 of 204 posts
Re: Social Cooling – How big data is increasing pressure to conform
#122I think that one of the reasons why awareness is still relatively low, is that it is often hard to imagine the implications of this for the casual internet user as HN is quite a bubble in this regard.
And by implications I mean something more than not seeing job ads, or not getting a loan.
Fortunately, there are no such cases that I am aware of. Unfortunately, it might be just a matter of time.
Re: Social Cooling – How big data is increasing pressure to conform
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
I completely agree, and it's the very reason social media holds no interest for me anymore. I think people have forgotten what it used to be like on Myspace and the early days of Facebook. Social media was about self expression and finding out where the party is, now it's a finely tuned marketing platform for grandmothers.
> Social media was about self expression and finding out where the party is Exactly! My next project is going to be something like that. Based on the fediverse/Mastodon, but firstly about self-expression, connecting with real friends, meeting people. You curate your own home page, share what you want to share, you are invited to interact with strangers. No social media bs. Trying to capture the feeling of local / uni…
The kids seem to be more into picture and messaging hangouts, but those things are lost into the ether (you hope anyways). Myspace jumped the shark customization wise, but there was a unique mix of the site helping you to find people and hanging out in real life, not being the actual hangout itself. Meetup was a good idea, but it doesn't seem to drive engagement. I don't know what the answer is, but I'd love to help out on a project that could be fun.
Re: Social Cooling – How big data is increasing pressure to conform
#124In one model of human behavior we all just become better people because we self-censor. I think that may be true for the first generation of people experiencing these effects in a society. Later generations will have more of a problem. The problem comes when they repress negative emotions and other status detractors because the cost of even being aware of them is too high. Then you have people who, in psychological t…
How does everyone training themselves to think more alike create better people? As the Vulcans say "infinite diversity in infinite combinations." I find inspiration in new view points, especially when I disagree with them.
Re: Social Cooling – How big data is increasing pressure to conform
#125This sounds like a self-fulfulling prophecy. Tell people that having data of them out there will change their behavior, and then they'll become aware of that idea, and will change their behavior. If they don't know about the concept, they might not. You could even say that this page, and people trying to raise awareness for this issue, are harmful! Imagine a few important people stepping up and saying, no, we will no…
Ignorance is not a way out.
In 2015 the databroker market was already worth 150 billion dollars in the US alone. (source: FCC report on databrokers)
Re: Social Cooling – How big data is increasing pressure to conform
#126I see this chilling effect manifested sometimes on HN as well. People will create throwaway accounts to comment on certain subjects.
An example - there was a discussion a couple of days ago about FB and I questioned why a commenter felt the need to create a fake account simply to comment on FB. It turned out they weren't even a current employee but an ex-employee.
Re: Social Cooling – How big data is increasing pressure to conform
#127I was going to write at length about my concerns on this topic, and then I decided not to. Because it's entirely possible that one day many years from now, a prospective employer/insurer/whatever finds such a comment and flags me for it. That's the cooling effect in a nutshell.
Future employer can blow me.
Just wait, eventually that will be part of the job interview too: https://youtu.be/bcaVSTsYyOI?t=49s
Re: Social Cooling – How big data is increasing pressure to conform
#128I see this chilling effect manifested sometimes on HN as well. People will create throwaway accounts to comment on certain subjects. An example - there was a discussion a couple of days ago about FB and I questioned why a commenter felt the need to create a fake account simply to comment on FB. It turned out they weren't even a current employee but an ex-employee.
on HN, the mods are directly responsible for the chilling effect. they censor anyone who doesn't tow the company line, or has any kind of strong dissenting opinion. this is achieved by shadow bans, single-IP bans, and then finally by flagging every single IP they've ever logged in under as blacklisted for new account creation.
i cycled through 3 or 4 accounts with multiple-thousand-points of karma, but in the end i just stopped giving a shit. this sort of amateur-level banning may work against your typical troll, but on HN, the end result is you're wiping out diversity of opinion, because although the people on here are smart and resourceful enough to get around any ban that happens over the internet, at some point it just becomes not worth it just to express your opinion -- that's how censorship actually works in the real world.
at the end of the day, YC is a VC and has interests to protect.
Re: Social Cooling – How big data is increasing pressure to conform
#129Ok, but isn't this the system working as intended? Yes, to me this is absolutely awful, a new form of Gestapo with similar awful consequences, but isn't this exactly what Big Data is supposed to do? Make everyone conform and punish those who step out of line.
Just raising awareness won't change anything - the system is working as intended for the people who were sold on it and the people who implemented it (bar a few unfortunate engineers who had to do it for the money). History is rife with examples of people trying to enforce a more rigid social order with varying degrees of success. Letting people different from you have freedom is not something that many people want. Think hard about the last time you thought "the world would be a better place if everyone thought like me". Then realise how many people don't follow that with "but enforcing a mind-police on society is awful".
Re: Social Cooling – How big data is increasing pressure to conform
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's like any other thing in capitalism. You'll have a contingent of folk that won't do the work, based on ethical reasons, and you have folk that will, for financial reasons. That is true, but going on my peers (especially the ones fresh from university), I think a dangerous proportion of people simply aren't aware on any level of the ethical implications of what they do. It's that which worries me.
I don't think I've ever seen as much apathy in a classroom as my fellow CS majors displayed in our society and ethics course.
Because "society and ethics" sound a lot like "bowing to the man", which coincidentally is exactly what this fine article is against. Because the man does stupid decisions based on flawed assumptions.