Geek Stuff category archive

“Social” media isn’t.

For example.

Aside:

As I have said before, the landscape of the internet has changed drastically since the Communications Decency Act was passed almost three decades ago. I agree with Dan Romer in the article at the link. “Social” media outfits that manipulate content so as to attract “eyeballs” and increase “engagement” are not impartial platforms for their users’ statements, unlike, for example, my most excellent hosting provider, which provides me a platform, but does not manipulate my content in any way.

Section 230 of that act sorely needs updating to reflect the reality of today’s internet.

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Writing at the Tampa Bay Times, University of South Florida professor Murad Antia writes that he has little trust in crypto-currency. A snippet; follow the link for the full explanation of his reasoning.

So why do some people believe in cryptocurrencies? Why invent a currency outside the purview of the government and the Federal Reserve Bank? It is a horrible idea. There needs to be a central control of the money supply to prevent and control speculative excesses. It is reminiscent of the shadow banking system collapsing during the 2008 financial crisis, which worsened the economic downturn.

At Psychology Today Blogs, Amanda L. Giordano explores ten techniques that “social” media companies (remember, they are companies who desiring profits from our “engagement”) use to keep us “engaged.” Here’s what she says about the algorithm:

Personalization of content via algorithms: Social media platforms have been transparent about their collection of users’ data (just visit the terms of the site). They collect information about what we click on, how long we view a post, who we message, what groups we join, and even information from other websites that have connections to the social media platform. Once the data is collected, algorithms are employed to customize users’ experiences to match their preferences (Montag, et al., 2019). We are much more drawn to apps in which everything interests us—and the personalization of content, newsfeeds, videos, pictures, stories, reels, and recommendations keeps users engaged for longer durations of time.

Follow the link for the other nine items she identifies.

Aside:

I would argue that, in most cases, there’s nothing “transparent” about the “terms of service.” They are often, purposefully in my opinion, dense piles of impenetrable legalese designed to discourage persons from reading them all the way through.

The one exception in my experience is Google, whose terms are written in generally plain language. Yet persons, including on occasion myself, use them anyway.

Another psychologist takes a look at crypto-currency. I find Nigel Barber’s take particularly interesting–he seems to think it may be an “investment mania.” Here’s a bit (emphasis added):

All investment manias have common features. Even the brightest people can succumb to the lure of quick gains with minimal effort. This was apparent in the Madoff Ponzi scheme that mostly targeted wealthy elite investors.

Like the cryptocurrencies of today, buyers had little knowledge of the true value of the investment and were guided mainly by the fact that the market price was rising.

That sort of irrationality leads to some bizarre equivalences. At the height of the tulip mania in Holland from 1636 to 1637, a rare type of bulb was used to purchase a home. In the dot-com boom of 1999, companies with revenues smaller than a corner store had market valuations of billions of dollars.

Follow the link for the rest, especially if you are thinking about “mining” some crypto con.