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Facebook is cooked

pilk.website

791–800 of 890 posts

Re: Facebook is cooked

#791

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, if he's been looking at material that indicates an interest in thirst trap stuff for years, then looks at pottery for a couple of weeks, the algorithm correctly identifies that he isn't really into pottery and corrects back.

Except that I am into pottery, and I'm a parent into parenting stuff. But instead of just liking the stuff it was showing me, I made the extra effort to seek out that content and like more of it in an attempt to train the algo. Also, as I mentioned elsewhere, this problem only started about two years ago, and I've had instagram for 15 years. So either they did something differently, or suddenly there was a lot more o…

I don't have an Instagram, so maybe they did change their algorithm recently. However, remember that the whole concept of "training the algorithm" and "not wanting to mess up your algorithm" has been a common saying for years at this point. Unfortunately, this is against what the social media companies actually want, which is more engagement. So they start to look at other factors that are more difficult to game. For instance, it may have noticed that you linger at images of thirst traps more than other images it shows. In fact, it may notice that while you are purposely liking pictures of pottery and parenting, the actual pictures that you are liking have both thirst trap qualities and pottery/parenting qualities. Not accusing you of anything, just saying that that is the pattern they use because they know that overtly liking thirst trap pictures may be frowned upon.

Re: Facebook is cooked

#792

> So: is this just something wacky with my algorithm? No, it's not. Once Meta identifies you as male, you will get almost exclusively thirst trap posts no matter what you do. It started about two years ago. Some other interesting points: A woman posted on reddit recently saying she noticed her son's feed was filled with this stuff, so she created her own instagram account, identified as a man, and had the same feed.…

Mine started as women with ample posteriors at hockey games but quickly switched to police arguing with people and really sick ski and snowboarding videos. The police stuff is trailing off.

I do ski patrol, guess it thought, a ski cop, I liked cops and skiing. Oh I was also getting a lot of ai generated bane videos. Felt sorry for that guy, judge was real inhumane to him.

Re: Facebook is cooked

#793
post #729

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, isn't it only a relatively recent split - mid 20th century, I think? Before that, the term "economy" was only used as a synonym for thrift or a system of management or control (and "economist" tended to mean someone who wanted to reduce spending or increase restrictions on something).

Arguably Marx is the most important historical scientist when it comes to political economy. The methodology pioneered by him has been extremely influential. Reactionary liberalism, e.g. neoliberalism, Austrian school, that kind of thing, discards the 'mess' of interdisciplinary approaches and seek a return of a protestant worldview, riffing off of their use of the New Testament verses about "render unto Caesar". Thi…

This is a reply to nradov.

> He didn't follow the scientific method.

Science is not the only legitimate form of gaining knowledge. What you write applies to every philosopher. And economics is not generally known for being the most scientific of all sciences. This is all the more true of neoclassical economists, who are probably closer to your worldview if Marx triggers such a knee-jerk reaction in you. Whether you like it or not, Marx was a gifted systematic and analytical thinker. Even his ideological opponents admit this. At least if they can hold a candle to him intellectually...

Re: Facebook is cooked

#794

The conclusion doesn't follow from the content. Facebook is not cooked, humans are cooked.

The title is silly. Facebook "family of apps" have 3 billions users and still growing. Usage per user still going up. They are a money making machine not slowing down, I deleted my Facebook long ago but as a company I hold their stock; I realize 3 billion > my personal preference.

Re: Facebook is cooked

#795

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the reasons I always identify as non-binary when asked.

That is a pretty clever algorithm hack. I wonder if you get bombarded with pharmaceutical ads as a consequence.

I block pretty much all ads, but that's an interesting question.

Re: Facebook is cooked

#796

The conclusion doesn't follow from the content. Facebook is not cooked, humans are cooked.

The title is silly. Facebook "family of apps" have 3 billions users and still growing. Usage per user still going up. They are a money making machine not slowing down, I deleted my Facebook long ago but as a company I hold their stock; I realize 3 billion > my personal preference.

Company is Meta and post is not talking about Meta as a company but Facebook.

Facebook itself is likely cooked but probably not in the immediate future. for younger generation Facebook is like AOL for us ;)

Re: Facebook is cooked

#797

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's worse, cigarettes never threatened democracy the solution is real easy, section 230 should not apply if there's an recommendation algorithm involved treat the company as a traditional publisher because they are, they're editorialising by selecting the content vs, say, the old style facebook wall (a raw feed from user's friends), which should qualify for section 230

> cigarettes never threatened democracy Off topic, but I bet a book on tobacco cultivation/history would be fascinating. Tobacco cultivation relied on the slave labor of millions and the global tobacco market influenced Jefferson and other American revolutionaries (who were seeing their wealth threatened). I've also read that Spain treated sharing seeds as punishable by death? The rare contrast that makes Monsanto lo…

Something like The Prize for the tobacco industry could be very interesting!

Re: Facebook is cooked

#798

This is not unique to Facebook. Reddit has seen a large uptick in AI-generated posts, or repeated posts from the past. I think we need to recognize that social media of 2026 is not the same as what we had in 2006. AI generated content, regardless of if it is image, video, or text, is here to stay. And it will only get better and more convincing as the technology improves. What people really need to ask is this - what…

Reddit is so insufferably political now it's insane. Like why do 3d printing subreddits need to stand with (insert leftist outrage of Gaza / Israel / Ice / Canada / on and on)

Reddit runs on unpaid labor in the form of moderation, in exchange for this unpaid labor mods want to have cultural influence.

Re: Facebook is cooked

#799
post #384
post #336

The algorithm has been given a job todo. First priority on any platform is engagement and a well functioning, complete human being is not going to be engaged by rage bait and hate. They are rare, precious jewels. The shit gets dumped on people who are lonely, have a grudge, feel left out. It is relentless and escalates until their brains cook. Algorithmic social media is a massive social harm. The people who are in d…

My wife was complaining about far right knuckle draggers turning up in her feed. I assume the algorithm was shovelling more of them at her because she was rubbernecking. I told her to try a "block every time" approach. It took about two weeks until her feed was (mostly) free of them but it still throws one at her now and again. I offer this as a data point about how hard it is to turn a polluted feed around. But I'm…

They offer controls in the three-dots menu that say:

+ Interested Show more this like this in my feed

and

- Not Interested Show less things like this in my feed

They even allow clicking those repeatedly on the same post.

Re: Facebook is cooked

#800
post #601

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.” Having the right to choose what you see doesn't mean you should choose to build yourself an ideological bubble.

I avoid hateful people and pub bores in real life, too. If you use the web without an ad blocker, more power to you, I guess.

Assuming that everyone in the other tribe is "hateful people and pub bores" is kind of the problem.
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