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this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
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Riiight blame youtube and reddit. First music then videogames now youtube and reddit?
The difference between reddit/youtube and a video game is that a video game doesn't have an algorithm that creates an echo chamber.
Social Medias want clicks, so they create echo chambers. Go watch one alt right video on YouTube and you will see them pop in your feeds
How far do you go, do you blame what he ate that day or lack of and was hangery? Just cause you get served videos from whatever source that doesn't change it from just being what it is, information. If a psycho decides to do something with that information, he's a psycho criminal. This is perfect to continue further censorship. Getting rid of echo chambers is impossible unless they get rid of the algos all together and people go back to building their own rss feeds but thats not gonna happen and even if all you craft is the same echo chamber what changes, nothing still a psycho. Hard to rationalize the irrational.
If it was simply serving videos, that would be fine.
The problem here is that the platform is trying to give you certain types of videos.
Even more than that: even though you try to avoid certain types of contents, youtube for example, will still give you that content.
And thats where the problem is. Because that content is often alt right speaking points that get served to you even though you don't want it.
That's the difference between a video game and a social media.
I'm torn, on one hand, you are right. On the other, I will say that while we disagreed, my extended family used to get along. Enough time with social media and there's basically people that can't stand to talk to each other at all, let alone be in the same room. Folks that grew up together, spent decades hanging out. Same thing for a friend of mine that had been a friend for over a decade. Went down a rabbit hole and frothing at the mouth rage with all sorts of extremist talking points.
While direct responsibility is certainly tricky, social networks have allowed people's worst inclinations to fester. The neat tendency for them to group "like-minded" folks together while guarding them from "unlike-minded" has really caused deep societal problems.
Don't blame youtube and reddit directly.
But do blame their algorithms that fuel the fires for engagement.
I blame the shooter. Motives are motives but he still pulls the trigger.
I think no one holds the shooter blameless, but that's of more limited value. It's straightforward to keep the shooter from doing further harm. More complicated is the task of mitigating the chances of radicalization leading to more spree shootings.
It doesn't even necessarily have to involve limiting speech, but it does suggest that a social media feed really needs to mix it up and avoid a feedback loop of one sided thought and rage.
What if someone had repeatedly told him to do it? Wouldn't that person also be to blame?
Algorithms show you what you want. That's literally what they're designed to do. There is no difference between your algorithm and the shooter's, or mine and the shooter's, and I see 0 of the content he saw.
They are designed to filter out everything but what you interact with the most, and what you interact with the most is going to become skewed as it becomes a closed feedback loop, or a spiral if you will. Over many iterations, what it thinks you want shapes what you think you want.
It will also see what others who want what you want want, and serve you suggestions based on that. Likewise, it will serve what you want to others who want what you want.
At some point it becomes a self-feeding echo chamber, and that is exactly what we see happening.
What if I told you that you can search for and watch videos that aren't part of your current algorithm, and also that's how most people interact with the service