"More importantly, we need to find another word to describe this sluice of inanity and hate that isn’t the banal “recommendations,” or “suggested content,” because they’re based on a lie." Strongly agree with this point - most of the time when I "recommend" something it's because I think it's good or that someone will like it, not because it (directly or indirectly) makes me money. Technically (as I understand it) Facebook doesn't make money directly off of you seeing/interacting with a post like the wedding picture one discussed here unless it was sponsored onto your feed, but they absolutely do make money off of it indirectly by that reaction prompting you to continue scrolling your feed and seeing more ads otherwise. In another sense, though, you can pretty much think of non-sponsored algorithmically chosen content (like the post in question) as identical to a sponsored post, as just as much of an advertisement - it's just an ad that Facebook is paying for themselves. Thinking of this article in those terms really drove home exactly how depraved this behavior by Facebook is. If you could somehow make a standard video ad out of the wedding post and comments, no reasonable company would pay to air it on TV, but that's basically equivalent to what Facebook did.
"...What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?
Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars! Children screaming under the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in the parks!
Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men!
Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the crossbone soulless jailhouse and Congress of sorrows! Moloch whose buildings are judgment! Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stunned governments!
Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb!
"More importantly, we need to find another word to describe this sluice of inanity and hate that isn’t the banal “recommendations,” or “suggested content,” because they’re based on a lie." Strongly agree with this point - most of the time when I "recommend" something it's because I think it's good or that someone will like it, not because it (directly or indirectly) makes me money. Technically (as I understand it) Facebook doesn't make money directly off of you seeing/interacting with a post like the wedding picture one discussed here unless it was sponsored onto your feed, but they absolutely do make money off of it indirectly by that reaction prompting you to continue scrolling your feed and seeing more ads otherwise. In another sense, though, you can pretty much think of non-sponsored algorithmically chosen content (like the post in question) as identical to a sponsored post, as just as much of an advertisement - it's just an ad that Facebook is paying for themselves. Thinking of this article in those terms really drove home exactly how depraved this behavior by Facebook is. If you could somehow make a standard video ad out of the wedding post and comments, no reasonable company would pay to air it on TV, but that's basically equivalent to what Facebook did.
Yep. I’m still looking for that word.
I can't remember how I came to be here, but I'm glad I am.
Thank you! Stick around. I write long reads about of tech is ruining our lives.
Love it. Shared it on Linkedin.
Thank you!
"...What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?
Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars! Children screaming under the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in the parks!
Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men!
Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the crossbone soulless jailhouse and Congress of sorrows! Moloch whose buildings are judgment! Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stunned governments!
Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb!
...."
Allen Ginsberg "Moloch"