The Social Dilemma and Confirmation Bias

A really good documentary on the problems created by social media. There wasn't much in there myself and most people don't already know--it's the way it pulled those pieces together to show the inevitable result that I found most informative and most frightening.

The concept that when we are searching for news we will exclude the things we already know is intuitive. That these platforms maximize profits by displaying the links you are both likely to click on and likely to share with your friends is also easy to understand. That there are algorithms that track your history to acquire a sense of what types of things you are interested in is also something most people know about. I also think most people understand that what those algorithms do is a form of confirmation bias. They show us things that are in line with what our browsing history indicates we like and believe in.

So we have a system that is looking for things that you did not know, conform to your own existing political biases, and are likely to share with your friends. The unintended result: fake news spreads six times faster than real news and is what makes companies the most money. I had read that statistic that fake news spreads faster than real news, but what I hadn't realized was why it happens and how it is inevitable and deeply embedded in how these systems work.

Most importantly, I realized that it affects ALL of us--not just the "other" side.


[link:https://www.netflix.com/title/81254224|