I wonder who is behind the "social dilemma" propaganda/advertising campaign.
"Ask HN: What do you think about “The Social Dilemma”?"
The Social Dilemma
41–50 of 421 posts
Re: The Social Dilemma
#42Great movie that I agree with 1000% . I suggest Lost Connections and 10 Arguments for deleting your social media ( mentioned in the movie) as well. I stopped using all social media as of last year and the results have been amazing. I'm more at peace , I no longer getting into stupid Facebook arguments. Online you aren't interacting with whole people, so being absurdly mean is easy. Most people online are just their f…
I no longer getting into stupid Facebook arguments That's the one thing I absolutely loathe about Facebook. There's no constructive dialogue going on. Everyone is so full of themselves that any kind of argument derails pretty fast. And then there is the fact that the platform doesn't provide the structure for long conversations. After a couple of replies all text has the same indentation so it's hard to see who's res…
Sometimes I have commented on facebook forgetting it was not HN or another niche community. If you start talking about how your country's weather bureau monitors itself for forecast accuracy then you will almost certainly be met with silence if you try to do that on facebook.
Re: The Social Dilemma
#43I thought the movie was well made and did a good job explaining things, especially to people who don't follow the business. There is one consideration no one seriously thinks about when it comes to social media companies, in particular Facebook and Twitter. They cannot be fixed. They are failed experiments and need to end. The whole premise of the companies is to guide people's emotions for profit whether where they…
thoughts on nationalisation or decentralization as ways to solve this?
Re: The Social Dilemma
#44Great movie that I agree with 1000% . I suggest Lost Connections and 10 Arguments for deleting your social media ( mentioned in the movie) as well. I stopped using all social media as of last year and the results have been amazing. I'm more at peace , I no longer getting into stupid Facebook arguments. Online you aren't interacting with whole people, so being absurdly mean is easy. Most people online are just their f…
>10 Arguments for deleting your social media
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Mostly for this golden quote which I have saved:
>Cats have done the seemingly impossible: They’ve integrated themselves into the modern high-tech world without giving themselves up. They are still in charge. There is no worry that some stealthy meme crafted by algorithms and paid for by a creepy, hidden oligarch has taken over your cat. No one has taken over your cat; not you, not anyone.
Re: The Social Dilemma
#45I thought the movie was well made and did a good job explaining things, especially to people who don't follow the business. There is one consideration no one seriously thinks about when it comes to social media companies, in particular Facebook and Twitter. They cannot be fixed. They are failed experiments and need to end. The whole premise of the companies is to guide people's emotions for profit whether where they…
> There is one consideration no one seriously thinks about when it comes to social media companies, in particular Facebook and Twitter. They cannot be fixed. They are failed experiments and need to end.
If I'm understanding this correctly you're basically calling for them to be shut down. Wouldn't everyone just migrate to alternatives based in other countries? (Perhaps those less friendly to western values)
Would you prefer to have TikTok to Facebook? If so, why?
Re: The Social Dilemma
#46This film is full of hypocrites who got rich off social media and then found religion.
They were in their early 20s trying to build a company not knowing if they would succeed, and the downside of social media is still not well understood. People who realize their past actions caused harm should be praised not denigrated.
Please. The free software movement has been highlighting the danger of software that works for its authors rather than its users for 35 years.
If these very intelligent people are going to claim they didn't understand what they they were doing, my only response is: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."
Re: The Social Dilemma
#47I just watched this last night. A lot of the content will already be well known to the HN audience. There was one big light-bulb moment for me. One of the speakers was clarifying the "If you're not paying then you are the product" idea. He refined it to, (rough quote), "Changes to your behavior and actions are the product" That distinction made the insidiousness much more clear than the former statement.
> He refined it to, (rough quote), "Changes to your behavior and actions are the product"
That's true of all media. Doesn't matter if you pay for it or not. Even netflix. Even this post.
What is the "documentary" trying to achieve? Change behavior.
Who is behind the social media campaign?
"Ask HN: What do you think about “The Social Dilemma”?"
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24468533
> That distinction made the insidiousness much more clear than the former statement.
Just as insidious are "documentaries". They are just as sneaky and agenda driven as facebook algorithms.
Re: The Social Dilemma
#48I wonder who is behind the "social dilemma" propaganda/advertising campaign. "Ask HN: What do you think about “The Social Dilemma”?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24468533
I have the top comment on this thread, and nobody's paying me :)
I think people are talking about it here because it's been a popular topic on HN forever, and this movie brought it mainstream. It's "controversial" to tech people for a lot of reasons (diversity, "apology tour", etc). And it's also the first time a lot of our friends and family are talking about these issues.
[EDIT] I had the top comment... I've changed my mind, definitely a conspiracy!
Re: The Social Dilemma
#49A lot of people are going to say this movie is filled with people who made their millions and are now on an apology tour. Their bank accounts are still large, and their creations are still at large. I agree. But this also makes them the most effective people to talk about it. I've had so many non-tech people in my life be blown away by this movie. Nothing in it was new to me or anyone here, but most people don't hear…
> But this also makes them the most effective people to talk about it. Nope nope nope. While tech people might have some insight into how some of the tech works, they're still lost in how to both define the problem [1] and describe how these technologies may shape society [2]. Nothing in their professional or personal experience has adequately prepared them to answer these questions. The thing tech people can do now…
Do you have some recommended reading? I enjoyed reading Neil Postman’s Technopoly, but any contemporaries you find particularly insightful?
Re: The Social Dilemma
#50The film does play a major role. Many of us here on HN don't even have an face/insta/twi/tube account. We've known about this for years. But explaining it to the layperson makes you sound like you are paranoid. The movie explains it very well. (although they omit Netflix as a culprit).
Here is one thing that I have a hard time explaining to people. Fun is the enemy. Or at least the enemy is disguised as. When you share a meme, it's because it's fun. No harm there. But memes are fuel that keep the system going. People are not being misinformed (only) because the media is spewing conspiracies. They are misinformed because they are getting their news from facebook memes. You know those low quality screenshot of a news article? Or the set of 3 pictures that shows an exaggerated reaction to some news? Or worse, the twitter screenshot with no context?
It is funny. That's why we share it. But when you realize what is happening in the background, it is not funny anymore.
Edit: I wish they had added some metric to the little bell on top: https://i.imgur.com/WNFThds.png . it would have shown how much the little red circle entices you to click.
