[ExI] Facebook 2018 changes made users more divisive and angry

[spike at rainier66.com]

...> On Behalf Of BillK via extropy-chat
...


>...A change Facebook made to its social media platform intended to strengthen the bonds between users and “improve their well-being,”


>...They concluded that the new algorithm’s heavy weighting of reshared material in its News Feed made the angry voices louder.
“Misinformation, toxicity, and violent content are inordinately prevalent among reshares,” researchers noted in internal memos.
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BillK

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BillK, 

Zuckerberg knows exactly what he is doing, and it makes perfect sense.  The quoted sentence is misunderstood because of its slightly ambiguous wording.  FaceBook intended to strengthen the bonds between users and improve their [FaceBook's] well-being.

It worked.  FaceBook doesn't exist to create well-being.  FaceBook exists to create wealth.  It rewards outrage because outrage sells.

Note that in the USA, the mainstream cable news source which is filled with outrage (mostly political (crime stories big sellers too)) now has more viewers than its two major competitors combined, and is still growing, at their competitor's expense.  FaceBook and Twitter can see what is happening and they want their piece of that pie.

What I am finding even more interesting is that even with his trillions (British trillions (or is it million and billion the British lads switch?)) Zuck's neighbors in Palo Alto won't let him buy all the houses on the street and build a compound.  That really surprised me, but they have managed to somehow stop a particular rich guy from buying his own neighbor's homes.

spike