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Facebook Is Slowly Boiling Us Frogs [1]

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Date: 2022-07-02

Facebook growth since 2008

#Facebook didn't suddenly engage nearly half the world's population overnight. It's been a slow but steady frog boil over the years. Slow enough that we haven't yet noticed that today's extreme left-right tribalism correlates with that growth.

Facebook's #algorithm maximizes its ad revenue by maximizing outrage, rewarding outrageous posts (whether true or false) with virality (which is also why mis- and disinformation spreads rampantly). It's a vicious circle that drives everyone to their respective extreme left or right echo chamber. Outrageous posts and memes buzz unchallenged within those echo chambers, keeping users engaged, and ad revenue pouring in to Facebook.

Too bad that extremist phenomenon, together with the Senate filibuster rule, renders Congress completely impotent, utterly incapable of the compromises that worked well pre-Facebook. And too bad the 6-3 Supreme Court now insists that only our impotent Congress is allowed to solve problems, rather than expert federal agencies or enlightened courts. The net result is that problems, no matter how large, even world-threatening like climate change, are now completely insoluble.

Mark #Zuckerberg laughs all the way to the bank while we frogs slowly boil. And now, we frogs are too weakened by the boiling heat to jump out. #DeleteFacebook

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/2/2108126/-Facebook-Is-Slowly-Boiling-Us-Frogs

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