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An open letter to FB, Twitter, Instagram regarding algorithms and my son's birth

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Re: An open letter to FB, Twitter, Instagram regarding algorithms and my son's birth

#311

I'm someone saddened that the discussion here focuses only on what the advertiser (/ tech companies) should have done and leaves out the aspect of how we have failed to bring the obvious solution to the harmed individual: Install an adblocker at the first sign of trouble. How come she was so morally obliged to watch any ads in the first place instead of engaging in basic self defense? Or if the answer is technologica…

I dont see tyranny, but I do see a ton of sheep flocking to a pasture.

Re: An open letter to FB, Twitter, Instagram regarding algorithms and my son's birth

#312

Instagram is not a person. Don't ask it to be decent. Those ads are not your friends. Don't expect them to treat you like they care. You're not sharing your information with a human. You're sharing it with a business who is tuned to maximize profit. The ROI on dealing with still births for advertising is probably negative. They don't care about you. You've made the decision to let a business deep into your personal l…

You've made the decision to let a business deep into your personal life, a space once reserved only for loved ones. These are the consequences. Nice victim blaming there, let's hold individuals responsible for the bad experiences they have with the vast data collection and ad targeting infrastructure they're virtually forced to interact with. If only they had been studying the blade instead.

I didn't read that as victim blaming. Maybe it's a little callous but I don't think the commenter is trying to shift the blame or responsibility from the companies to the author; instead I read it as trying to change expectations about the level of empathy and humanity the author will receive.

> If only they had been studying the blade instead.

Uh, what?

Re: An open letter to FB, Twitter, Instagram regarding algorithms and my son's birth

#314
post #118

I felt immense pity for the mother in this scenario, and after reading the article I agreed that FB aught to have some sort of way to indicate that such advertisements are offensive and should not be shown to the user. Ideally, I'd like to see a paid tier that gets rid of advertising altogether. Then I read some of the comments here and on other sites. To put it bluntly, I don't understand the tone of entitlement peo…

I don't think the OP is asking for regulation. I think the OP is begging for consideration. As a user, we have every right to state our opinions. It's not "immoral" or "unfair" to say, "You're making money off of me, I'd really like you to change your behavior." I don't know why or how you jumped all the way to "regulatory hoops." Have you seen people advocating laws in this discussion? I haven't.

Consideration from whom?

Some advertisers have bought the right to display their ads to people the platform has probably identified as “women having babies soon”.

Does the OP want consideration from the platform or the advertisers?

I feel the OP is venting the feeling that they’ve had a huge personal tragedy yet the world has just kept on going like nothing happened.

Re: An open letter to FB, Twitter, Instagram regarding algorithms and my son's birth

#315
post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Posting in case this may be of use. I've been able to make all the social networks more or less serve me irrelevent stuff or not serve me stuff. Here's how: * I use Facebook in safari on ios and have ad blockers enabled * I use the youtube app logged out * Twitter I generally visit people's profiles directly or in a 3rd party all Instagram is the only one I can't fix, as I use the app. Maybe if I did more in the web…

Instagram is view only in the browser as far as I can tell. No way to post images.

Yeah, that's the one I use as an app. And that's why I actually see somewhat targeted ads there.

I might actually switch to viewing it in browser more. But I think you lose the messaging. And the ability to post as well, but I don't post as much as I watch.

Re: An open letter to FB, Twitter, Instagram regarding algorithms and my son's birth

#316
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am coming to the conclusion that the only way to beat the system is to not play in the system. Or play as little as possible. I no longer go on FB, Instagram or Amazon. I do my best to just be anonymous. I don't "need" to hang out on social media. I lived quite happily before these services even existed, and will continue without them. We have control. We can resist their shiny toys. If we are waiting for THEM (or…

This would be a solution if the problem was social media. The problem here is the intrusiveness of advertisement. Personally targeted advertisement exists on the non-social web, on the phone, in your mailbox, at your door. Group-targeted[#] and still intrusive advertisement exists in the public transports, on the radio, in newspapers, in the streets, on most "things" in your house (as branding), on your clothes. I th…

In that case the solution would seem to be more trivial: block the ads. Ad blocking tools are readily available.

About the only issue you may run into still is shopping sites, where they may offer "related" products. Amazon is brutal with this in particular.

Re: An open letter to FB, Twitter, Instagram regarding algorithms and my son's birth

#317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the OP is asking for regulation. I think the OP is begging for consideration. As a user, we have every right to state our opinions. It's not "immoral" or "unfair" to say, "You're making money off of me, I'd really like you to change your behavior." I don't know why or how you jumped all the way to "regulatory hoops." Have you seen people advocating laws in this discussion? I haven't.

Consideration from whom? Some advertisers have bought the right to display their ads to people the platform has probably identified as “women having babies soon”. Does the OP want consideration from the platform or the advertisers? I feel the OP is venting the feeling that they’ve had a huge personal tragedy yet the world has just kept on going like nothing happened.

If an advertiser saw this and were horrified, I'm sure they'd be asking the platform to try to do something about it.

If the platform saw this and were horrified, I bet advertisers would appreciate or at least not mind, if they fixed situations like this.

If you and I saw this and were horrified, we might amplify her voice.

Re: An open letter to FB, Twitter, Instagram regarding algorithms and my son's birth

#318
post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Posting in case this may be of use. I've been able to make all the social networks more or less serve me irrelevent stuff or not serve me stuff. Here's how: * I use Facebook in safari on ios and have ad blockers enabled * I use the youtube app logged out * Twitter I generally visit people's profiles directly or in a 3rd party all Instagram is the only one I can't fix, as I use the app. Maybe if I did more in the web…

Instagram is view only in the browser as far as I can tell. No way to post images.

If you use the chrome inspector to change your user agent to a phone, you can use it to post

Re: An open letter to FB, Twitter, Instagram regarding algorithms and my son's birth

#319
post #262
post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Statistically speaking, a person who just bought an 8oz hammer is much more likely to buy another 8oz hammer than some other random person from the population of people who has never shown any interest in hammers at all.

Sure but I'm going to guess statistically they are more likely to buy something not a hammer than a hammer. Maybe "people who bought a hammer also bought...", or, you bought a hammer and nails, here is a cordless drill. I mean, why would I buy a hammer twice in a row, and after that unlikelihood, a third hammer? If I were going to buy two hammers, I’d have put “2” in the basket in the first place. That’s the more lik…

If you're advertising hammers, and you can isolate a cohort of users statistically more likely to buy hammers than users at large, it would be irrational not to target hammer ads at those users.

Re: An open letter to FB, Twitter, Instagram regarding algorithms and my son's birth

#320
post #163
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't read that as she "voluntarily signaled to these platforms that she was pregnant". She made social media posts with many clear signals that she was pregnant. She basically said, "I know your algorithms can detect that I was pregnant. Can't your algorithms detect that my baby is no longer alive?" That seems like a pretty fair statement.

So now society is frustrated because it’s data isn’t being analyzed and used to serve ads effectively enough? We’ve officially come full circle. How about this- if you are uncomfortable with the prospect of ads potentially shown to you that may upset you based on recent history that’s now changed, lay off the platform for a while.

This is precisely the hazardous morality we begin to enter when we become as passively engaged as social media allows. The platform becomes an antidote to sadness; social media has reached a place in society where it's casually being used as a means for self-medication.

People who are on social media appear to be deluding themselves into believing that social media can offer some sort of support and minimize the pain, but this is probably the biggest misconception about which we can convince the public otherwise.

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