• Ephera@lemmy.ml
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    11 days ago

    Problem is that none of the algorithms actually care about showing you things you like.

    Ads try to sell you on things that you wouldn’t otherwise buy. Occasionally, they may just inform you about a good product that you simply didn’t know about, but there’s more money behind manipulating you into buying bad products, because it’s got a brand symbol.

    And content recommendation algorithms don’t care about you either. They care about keeping you on the platform for longer, to look at more ads.
    To some degree, that may mean showing you things you like. But it also means showing you things that aggravate you, that shock you. And the latter is considered more effective at keeping users engaged.