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I resigned from Twitter

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Re: I resigned from Twitter

#471

Post by captainmuon »

spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

No, gullible people, misinformation, polarisation has been there before social media. But in the old days, classic media used to keep a lid on it by mediating which positions could be heard publicly. We haven't learned yet as a society to ignore the unimportant noise.

I believe that free publishing, or many-to-many media, is crucial for the future of our society. If anything, it is still not easy enought to get ideas out there and discussed (unless you have enough reach).

To phrase it a bit provocatively, I believe radical democracy is a good thing, even if many of the plebs are stupid.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#472

Post by the-pigeon »

pram wrote: post #390
pvsukale3 wrote: post #380

Unrelated: I really liked the "Hi mom!" at the end of the letter. To be one of the co-founders and CEO of global tech co, and to say "Hi mom!" at the end of the your publicly shared resignation letter is such a big flex. I understand his mom must already have been very proud of him, but this hit different.

Yeah also a big flex saying the company you just quit should be the most transparent (but not during my tenure of course)

Haha yeah. What an asshole move.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#473

Post by runjake »

spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

Well said.

But as CTO, the new CEO seems to have focused on increasing engagement and growing audiences. Unless that changes, expect the problem you describe to get bigger.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#475

Post by noahtallen »

mattnewton wrote: post #432
wonderwonder wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they are a symptom, not the root. The root started before them with the advent of pay per click advertising. Everything else has spiraled from that. I truly believe that the massive divisiveness of the last 2 decades can be traced to this. Social media echo chambers, youtube rabbit holes, click baity headlines, all of it is because of pay per click advertising. The ML algorithms we have now have become so eff…

But I think calling it pay-for-click is a misnomer, that's just the latest version of a very old business model. Cable news, like Fox, has had the same outrage-fueled engagement metrics that predate the internet, and before them there were newspapers doing the same thing. I think the technology of social media is just creating small efficiencies in an existing business model preying on very old aspects of human natur…

I think the difference is that cable news is hard to access for a lot of people. For example, you don’t have ML algorithms on cable boxes trying to suggest a show which will result in high engagement. It’s fairly siloed, in that you have to deliberately choose to watch cable news. (Though they definitely keep you hooked!) Social media really allows it to be much more pervasive.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#476

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

c7DJTLrn wrote: post #383
spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

I wonder how much your mind would have to distort reality for you to believe you're providing the world with a good service when you're at the helm of Twitter or Facebook.

I expect it's quite easy; you believe that you're connecting people and that this is a good thing, and then you ignore the undesirable second-order effects of how you're doing it.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#477

Post by Nasrudith »

spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

You do realize that there is a pandemic ongoing, right? While not good the moral panic about social media is downright absurd and lacks any sense of proportion.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#478

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

Nasrudith wrote: post #447
c7DJTLrn wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how much your mind would have to distort reality for you to believe you're providing the world with a good service when you're at the helm of Twitter or Facebook.

You just need to respect human agency instead of thinking you inherently know better than the world how to use it. It is a sentiment which is very out of current zeitgeist with its "boy who cried dystopia" bent.

How do gigantic globe-spanning ad machines "respect human agency"?

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#479

Post by the_doctah »

syshum wrote: post #244
afavour wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read it differently than "shaping public opinion". The reality is that social media (and Twitter especially) is toxic. That underlying toxicity comes from humans of course, but recommendation algorithms accelerate and highlight it because it leads to high "engagement", and thus more money. These sites already "guide" conversation, just using metrics that can end up being harmful. A social media CEO that's intereste…

The problem here is that "toxic" is subjective, what I find toxic and disagreeable may not be the same thing you find toxic and disagreeable. Take for example hot button issue of Gun ownership, I believe it an essential right and extension of self defense, others view any talk about guns as toxic that should be banned. Who's worldview should win? Mine, your's, Twitters? IMO platforms like twitter should not be making…

Take Reddit for instance. They have started hiding "controversial" comments by default (it's a setting now).

It's pretty well known that Reddit is Liberal-dominated, hence Conservative opinions are far more likely to be downvoted. And now, hidden by default.

It's easy to see how systems like this just serve to amplify the echo chamber.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#480

Post by intricatedetail »

spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

Isn't it how media in general work? Only difference is that almost anyone can publish and you don't have to wait for it to print and reach stores, subscribers... E.g. when the press publish something false you may get correction few issues later somewhere in small print, whereas on Twitter you actually can get a chance of seeing rebuttal in the thread. Most people only read headlines regardless of the medium.
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