Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Facebook’s Unknowable Megascale

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

John Gruber comments on a recent article in The Atlantic, Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine, with which he largely agrees. What makes Facebook worse than other social networks (like say 8kun) is inherent in its design. "Facebook's addictiveness and toxicity are directly correlated," he writes, "This isn't conjecture or speculation, we have proof." More, its addictiveness is based on an algorithm that tailors content to each one of its billion users. "This is the problem we, collectively, have not grasped. How do we regulate - via the law and/or social norms - a form of mass media with amorphous content?" Image: OneZero, The Modern World Has Finally Become Too Complex for Any of Us to Understand.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Nov 21, 2024 3:31 p.m.

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