The entire lingo of this “release” is mind-numbingly vapid: “made improvements in...”, “partnered with ${vague}”, “take steps to...” Many words saying nothing.
What “The Social Dilemma” Gets Wrong [pdf]
51–60 of 129 posts
Re: What “The Social Dilemma” Gets Wrong [pdf]
#52Was this intended for public consumption?
Directly responding to the film by name is such an obviously terrible idea PR-wise, I’m shocked to even be seeing this from Facebook. It must be an accident.
Re: What “The Social Dilemma” Gets Wrong [pdf]
#53The film explains that when they say “you are the product” they mean Facebook is selling a chance to influence your behavior. It’s an interesting perspective, but this PR piece from Facebook seems to willingly misinterpret this
"Influence your behavior" seems like an over dramatic description of "show me ads".
They literally did it, it’s not over dramatized.
From 2014:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/29/facebook-...
> now Facebook, the world's biggest social networking site, is facing a storm of protest after it revealed it had discovered how to make users feel happier or sadder with a few computer key strokes.
> It has published details of a vast experiment in which it manipulated information posted on 689,000 users' home pages and found it could make people feel more positive or negative through a process of "emotional contagion".
Re: What “The Social Dilemma” Gets Wrong [pdf]
#54It's all about agency; the intermediary becomes accountable through its manipulation of the conversation. To avoid these problems, features of the system should emerge from negotiations between participants, not announced by decree.
*Voting is one such mechanism; it works best together with a preceding conversation.
Re: What “The Social Dilemma” Gets Wrong [pdf]
#55I wasn't planning on watching Social Dilemma, but seeing that it rattled FB enough to issue a "wait, let us explain why they're wrong" statement I think I will watch it. Also, fuck you Facebook. You had multiple chances to redeem yourself and start being not-so-corrosive for the society and you intentionally went out of your way to make the wrong choice every single time.
This comment breaks the site guidelines, which include: Please don't fulminate. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Maybe you don't owe Facebook better, but you owe this community better if you're commenting here.
Apologies Dang, it wasn't my intention to do so.
Thanks for pointing it out.
Re: What “The Social Dilemma” Gets Wrong [pdf]
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
This comment breaks the site guidelines, which include: Please don't fulminate. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Maybe you don't owe Facebook better, but you owe this community better if you're commenting here.
Apologies Dang, it wasn't my intention to do so. Thanks for pointing it out.
Appreciated!
Re: What “The Social Dilemma” Gets Wrong [pdf]
#57I found this press release pretty disappointing. It is very weak. This press release is like saying when the documentary about how bad McDonald is for you (Super Size me) came out, McDonald's issues a statement saying, oh but they (filmmakers) were not fair, they did not show you guys the steps we take to keep harmful bacteria from your food and ensure we don't poison you. This whole Press release is about the "Steps…
> If feels to me that FB is mega coorp where the people in it want to do better but the machine is so much bigger than the people in it they are currently lost on how to do it
Maybe it's just that the whole concept - Algorithmic curation of content, instead of human editors - is flawed and impossible to fix. Maybe YouTube has the exact same problem only fewer clearnames and a higher barrier-to-entry (no text posts).
How can one ever assume that it's possible to design an algorithm which hands every individual a customized newspaper that is "good for him".
Re: What “The Social Dilemma” Gets Wrong [pdf]
#58"Facebook's experts say Facebook not evil, Facebook says."
"Tobacco companies say cigarettes are good for you"
"Here, come take one. I'll light it up for you. That's better, now you look like a badass cowboy."
/s that was the part I was missing from the PR post. Somebody at Facebook doesn't know how PR works, it seems.
Re: What “The Social Dilemma” Gets Wrong [pdf]
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Source is here: https://www.emarketer.com/content/average-social-media-time-... Not sure how they collected the data though.
That's total time spent on social media. According to the source, Facebook's usage is 38 minutes a day. I suppose this also counts people who don't use Facebook though.
Ack, you're totally right. I pulled that link from this https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-stats-for-markete..., which makes that stat sound like it's Facebook-specific.
https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/average-daily-time-on-s... puts it at 58 minutes, and https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/business/facebook-bends-t... (from 2016) notes that it's 50 minutes (apparently reporting by FB in an earnings report).
Re: What “The Social Dilemma” Gets Wrong [pdf]
#60I found this press release pretty disappointing. It is very weak. This press release is like saying when the documentary about how bad McDonald is for you (Super Size me) came out, McDonald's issues a statement saying, oh but they (filmmakers) were not fair, they did not show you guys the steps we take to keep harmful bacteria from your food and ensure we don't poison you. This whole Press release is about the "Steps…
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