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Thread: Facebook's social experiment

  1. #1
    Veteran Member domina's Avatar
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    Default Facebook's social experiment

    http://www.avclub.com/article/facebo...%3A1%3ADefault

    This week we found out that Facebook played with our news feeds to see how they could affect our own emotions.

    (The answer is: they do! People tend to post more positively or negatively based on what they see more of in their news feeds.)

    What did you guys think of this? I thought it was funny... I almost never post myself, but I do like to check my newsfeed daily.

  2. #2
    Veteran Member domina's Avatar
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    Default Re: Facebook's social experiment

    There are alot of interesting response articles out there... ranging from "this is so fucked up" to "i think its a good idea, please do it some more."

    Here's one that connects it to government surveillance... (I'm under the assumption that I'm not supposed to talk politics on the forums but this is not party-specific, and i also couldn't find anything about it under 'Forum Rules,' so I'm not sure? If mods would prefer I not post this I dont have a problem with removing it).

    http://scgnews.com/facebooks-psychol...n-civil-unrest

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Facebook's social experiment

    I think it's idiotic. I've been checking my newsfeed but nothing looks weird.

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    God/dess simone87's Avatar
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    Default Re: Facebook's social experiment

    facebook has been supplying the govt with info for a long time, its just one big social experiment..doesn't surprise me, i don't take fb too seriously..doesn't really piss me off

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  6. #5
    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Facebook's social experiment

    Domina, this obviously ties directly back to an observation which you made in the 'Those Who Own Almost Everything' thread ...

    Generally speaking, people react to 'news items' as presented to them by mainstream news sources. And also, with some obvious exceptions, people do not make much of a personal effort to seek out additional / independent info regarding those 'news items'. Nor do people make much of a personal effort to seek out additional 'news items' which mainstream news sources choose not to report ( or choose to report on the 'back page' ).

    The result of this 'human nature' based news absorption is that a relative handful of mainstream media corporations, via editorial policy which is able to decide which news stories will or will not be covered, and to also decide HOW the news stories which are to be covered will be presented, are able to shape the perceptions of a whole lot of people. Facebook's 'experiment' is yet one more step in this direction, i.e. Facebook 'selecting' which published news stories will or will NOT be presented in their user specific newsfeeds, and noting the resulting changes in the perceptions of said users.

    As to 'gov't involvement' with mainstream media corporations providing ( editorially filtered ) news, as well as 'gov't involvement' with ( also potentially filtered ) delivery services for news i.e. Facebook, Google, Bing, etc., who the hell really knows. Logically speaking, however, there is something disturbing about a single US multinational corporation having a broadcast news division, multiple cable news divisions etc., while at the same time having other divisions involved in ( gov't funded ) defense industries, ( gov't subsidized ) green energy industries, ( gov't guaranteed ) financial industries, etc.
    Last edited by Melonie; 07-05-2014 at 04:39 AM.

  7. #6
    Featured Member minnow's Avatar
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    Default Re: Facebook's social experiment

    This being the information age, there are alternative/opposing viewpoints out there. Finding them can be the challenging part. So, if you do a search, the items that pop up first are the ones with the most hits (or "sponsored" ad, search engine company related.)
    Which brings us back to who pays for ads, and who made the certain search engine ?
    I'm right 96% of the time. I don't sweat the other 5% .......................

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  9. #7
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    Default Re: Facebook's social experiment

    Reminds me of subliminal message studies for movie goers whereby quick images of soda/popcorn increasing their likelihood of purchasing said items. It's all ways corporations use human psychology to make an extra buck off of us.

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    God/dess Jay12's Avatar
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    Default Re: Facebook's social experiment

    I'm so happy that Facebook decided to close my account before I ever knew about this study. I am so much happy since I stopped caring about Facebook.





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    Veteran Member The Six's Avatar
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    Default Re: Facebook's social experiment

    I say we perform an experiment on Facebook where we all stop using it and see what happens.

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  13. #10
    Featured Member MarvelGirl's Avatar
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    Default Re: Facebook's social experiment

    I genuinely don't care what they do. I don't put anything on facebook that I don't want public anyways.

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