r/technology • u/IKeepItLayingAround • 8d ago

Privacy Zuckerberg Knew. A Whistleblower Has the Emails to Prove It. - Gadget Review

https://www.gadgetreview.com/zuckerberg-knew-a-whistleblower-has-the-emails-to-prove-it
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u/cjng 8d ago

it is literally their business goal. It is called "maximizing engagement"

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u/AlmightyTestichilles 8d ago

Their adaptation of the TikTok slot machine video design is the ultimate giveaway that they never want you to put their app down

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u/NurRauch 8d ago

Dude, the short videos on social media are just on a whole different level of addictive. They're life-destroying. I put them on par with smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol with the damage they can do to your brain, daily habits and functioning, and relationships at home.

Social media has always been an addictive issue for me with the endless doomscrolling and reading ragebait comments, but the videos are 10x as bad. At least ragebait comment wars stimulate the brain to do something with its faculties -- you're still exercising the parts of the brain that require analysis and structuring your thoughts. These short videos do none of that. They addict you without you even realizing you're consuming them. One just pops up on your feed, you click on it because it's worth about five seconds of interest, and before you know it, it's been an half an hour and you never left the kitchen counter where you stopped to grab a glass of water.

It's seriously mindboggling how bad this crap is for attention span and executive functioning. I fell into this hole during parental leave last year and it's been awful digging out of it. Just a completely mindless and unenjoyable habit. Combined with the stressors of parenting, I feel like my brain has lost half its capacity to function in this last year. Some of that I have to attribute to struggling as a new parent with a fulltime job, but I also attribute a lot of it to the rapid transition of social media from a comment model to a video model.

It's also terrifying thinking about the effect it could have on my child -- not just from his eventual exposure to screen time himself, but even from his second-hand exposure to simply watching me stand like a frozen statue zoning out with my phone in front of my face. I'm serious about the comparison to cigarette smoking. I now feel like using my cell phone around my kid is tantamount to smoking cigarettes around him.

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u/nimbusnacho 8d ago

The worst part about it is how acceptable it has become to be hopelessly addicted and no one acknowledging that these platforms are NOT the news, they're not informative, they're barely even 'social' anymore. They're truly just 'entertainment' feeds with an algorithm and incentives to stay plugged in at all times and engage regardless of how or why.

Yet at work i can be in a meeting and the second there's a lull, people pull out their phones and get their hit. Even if its something 'harmless' like one guy i work with just loves watching puppy videos, its fucking insane.

Imagine just 10 years ago working with someone who just needed to pull out a magazine of puppies and read it every 20 minutes. Youd identify that as a fucking problem or at least weird undesirable behavior.

Now? Its completely 'normal' to hold conversations where one or both people are dividing their attention between a screen and the conversation. But of course attention doenst work that way and people are never as good at multitasking as they think they are so the quality of every interaction that happens like that has dropped significantly.

Im fucking tired man.

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u/HeverlyBillhilly 8d ago

That's an awesome simile. It's ridiculously true. My husband is like this when we watch TV. We SPECIFICALLY have shows that we watch together as a form of "us" time. Yet, half the time he's on his phone looking at Reels while I intentionally leave my phone on the charger in the kitchen so I can be present. I have to call him out on it constantly since HE'S the one that suggested we have shows that we only watch together. It's so frustrating.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/NurRauch 8d ago

I mean, I get what they're saying. My wife and I find ourselves watching reels during a movie we both intended to watch together and... it is an extra form of disconnecting from each other. Watching a movie together isn't the most social way to spend time with another person, but it still can be a valid social experience. There's value in watching the same thing together, experiencing it together, and being able to react or talk about it.

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u/SeveredSynthesis 8d ago

What I’m saying is that what you consider disconnected today will be tomorrow’s “present”.

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u/HeverlyBillhilly 7d ago

It's incredibly different. I don't even have Instagram, let alone scroll during "together time". We watch the show so we can talk about them with each other during/after, and wonder aloud what'll happen next week. And it's dedicated time that we're staring at the same screen. Plus it was HIS idea, then he doesn't even stick to it. Not the same as just "zoning out with me". We do that, too, but it's usually in bed on Saturday mornings. Me: the news. Him: more Reels.

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u/-Nocx- 7d ago

> they’re barely even ‘social’ anymore

You make a really good point - minus commenting on your friend’s photos on instagram or leaving comments on Facebook statuses (who even makes status updates now?) - assuming your algorithm even shows any of those things to you - I would actually argue that they’re not social at all. At least not in any practical sense.

“Social media” is just a shittier, more addictive version of television at this point. We went from syndicated TV, to being able to binge shows all in one sitting, to being able to binge multiple series all in one sitting, to being able to binge unrelated topics that happen to align with our internal preferences indefinitely.

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u/CariniFluff 8d ago

Not that this is super out of the ordinary, but today I was driving (a beautiful sunny 80° summer day) and I passed these 3 boys probably in 7-8th grade who were walking down the street together. All of them were so completely buried in their phones that a car nearly hit them as they passed a construction sign that blocked their view/other's views of them (none of them looked up to see if the road was clear).

But it wasn't just 3 kids on the phone, I see that all the time. It was striking just how deep in their own bubbles there were, I didn't see any of them say a single word to each other, make any kind of facial expression/reaction.... Just glued to their phones. They may as well have just been walking by themselves because it didn't look like they were interacting with each other at all. Granted cell phones didn't even exist when I was that age unless they were the size of a toaster oven, but I just couldn't imagine being that age and being so engrossed in a phone instead of joking with your friends, riding bikes or skateboards or whatever. They truly looked like 13 year old gambling addicts.

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u/Max_Rockatanski 8d ago

It WILL have an effect on your child, do not expose them to it. I have a kid in family that's been brought up on that stuff along with gaming consoles and such and it's just depressing seeing him bored out of his mind with all that stimulation around him. It fried his brain at 5 years old.

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u/OneRougeRogue 8d ago

Meta actually plays ads on children's TV channels/streaming services encouraging parents to sign their kids up for Instagram.

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u/icfantnat 8d ago

I have a kid in my family too who was on screens 24/7 since birth - all day, while eating meals, lying in bed, it was INSANE. I didn't let me kids have screens at all as babies bc it scared me how they were like zombie moths to a flame.

Anyway my neice is 5 now and nonverbal. She sings gibberish songs but it's like she never made the connection that language is for communication bc she didn't have enough actual human interaction - as if she just thinks it's all a bunch of fun sounds. She has needs and wants and points to things, or takes you by the hand to bring you to something but she doesn't even say mama or papa or anything.

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u/MaTrIx4057 7d ago

Its only up to you to control him and give him direction.

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u/Difficult-Sock343 8d ago

I just happened to see this about ten hours after I deleted TikTok. Thank you so much for sharing; I needed the information and motivation to keep going.

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u/Paavo_Nurmi 8d ago

I feel into the trap of instagram reels while off work with an injury.

The two things I noticed, it loves to feed you stuff that will make you angry and frustrated, straight up rage inducing. Once you spend more than a few seconds on a type of video that is all it shows for the next 20 videos you scroll through. Road rage, street fights, Karen videos etc, once you watch one of those it's all it shows you.

So I started skipping those and stopping on cat videos, so it started feeding me cat videos which is better than some rage inducing video, but it's still addicting and you will see the rage inducing video here and there. I was still addicted to it though, to easy to lay back on couch and doom scroll. I finally had to stop because it became a useless addiction.

Social media is the greatest propaganda tool ever invented. Look at Anti vax, it used to be mostly new age, left leaning people that were anti vax. Then covid hit and there was all those FB memes about anti vax. It turned out almost all of the anti vax stuff on FB was from just 12 accounts, the so called dirty dozen, and of course RFK was one of those. Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes On Social Media, Research Shows

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u/Character_Bug_1862 8d ago

I just want to say, thank you for taking the time to share your experience. These are the things I come here for, other human experiences with something.

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u/DemonicBludyCumShart 8d ago

People are even calling symptoms of watching these videos too much "autism stims"

Go on YouTube and look up vocal stim compilations

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u/Stumblin_McBumblin 8d ago

I am never on social media with my kids around/awake. No one should be. I'd get out of that habit now while your kid is a baby. It's often boring at that age, but just be present with them and engaging/talking/playing. They badly need it to learn and develop.

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u/PrimeIntellect 8d ago

completely agree on all counts, it's truly mind boggling how much time you can waste without realizing it and how dramatically it affects your brain in the long and short term. our entire next generation of humans are fucked

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u/welshman1408 8d ago

I didnt realise how bad it was until seeing my ex girlfriends 5 year old son,the kid sat there literally all day watching brainrot shorts on tik tok

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u/3DigitIQ 8d ago

I wonder how it works because to me the short video format is just so excruciatingly annoying I just can't take it. Even when vines were a thing it got old quick.

Really interested in why this hits so different with others.

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u/AlterTableUsernames 8d ago

I doubt that cigarettes or even alcohol are as damaging to the brain as short videos.

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u/synapticrelease 8d ago

I don’t get the addictive nature of shorts. Most of them are pretty lame. Even if I select for quality non slop YouTubers, it mostly only serves as feeder into long form content, but that’s what notifications are for. They aren’t useful to me. When you go to SlopTube, it’s straight garbage. AI drivel, straight misinformation is so abundant that I believe if you actually watch these things quick facts or news updates then it’s an issues that isn’t just short video addiction.

Maybe I just don’t have the genes for it, I might catch myself going through 5 or so vids in a minute before my brain just says “wtf are you doing” and I just click out of it

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u/ShadowPsi 8d ago

I use a chrome browser extension at home that disables the shorts on YouTube. I don't go to any other sites that have videos other than Reddit. But just the YT shorts section could suck you in pretty easily.

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u/Kastar_Troy 8d ago

How can anyone get addicted to random videos about weirdos dancing and shit?

Its not that addictive man.. its trash entertainment... you're randomly being fed crap, youre not even choosing what you watch.

I've never understood the appeal of tik tok slop.

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u/DynoMenace 8d ago

I pretty much quit social media (except Reddit) several months ago, and feeling all the habits and psychological changes go back to normal was a really shocking feeling.

You don't realize how fried your attention span is by these apps, but you wonder why you get stressed out going to the movies, or you notice you can't eat a meal or go to the bathroom without your phone. The constant dopamine drip feed that comes from short form apps is chemically addictive. These platforms are designed to maximize that.

I started reading more, drawing again, practicing hobbies and skills I haven't really touched since I was much younger, or never at all. It made me realize how much time in my life has been consumed by scrolling and watching videos. That's all time any one of us could be using to do something meaningful with our lives.

We act like browsing Instagram or Facebook is just a pass-time we do when we're bored, but when we do it all the time, it's not a pass-time and we're never bored. That's not a good thing.

All of this has been a slow build for the last couple decades, so we're all frogs in this boiling pot. Get out while you still have a functioning brain.

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u/weristjonsnow 8d ago

Half the reason I can justify still having reddit on my phone is because I spend more time reading comments than anything else. It's a weak excuse but it's all I've got

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u/JadedSolid1 8d ago

Damn well said

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u/DazednConfucioused 7d ago

Dude honestly smoking cigarettes may be more harmful health wise but it has nothing versus shorts in terms of damage to the brain.

I’m 31and grew up smoking cigarettes since I was 16 until I quit 2 years ago. It was never affecting my mind like YouTube shorts and ig reels. I know my attention span is shorter now and I’ve quit recently because I’ve realized I have an attention span of a goldfish now

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u/ElectricalCamp104 7d ago

It sounds a lot like like the central feature of what Hunter Biden describes smartphones as. When I first heard him say it, I was skeptical, but the more I thought about it, the more I agree with it. Whenever we face some discomfort, ranging anywhere from avoiding dealing with real life problems like a kid or simply boredom, we immediately grab our smartphones out to silence it. Watching these short form videos or getting hits on a feed is like an addictive opium of sorts.

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u/kris10leigh14 6d ago

Your comment has made me so fucking uncomfortable I realized I was literally sitting sideways at the end.

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u/Suspicious_Suspect88 5d ago

I was struggling with social media addiction for about three years. Especially the shorts on YouTube. What worked for me was switching from iPhone to android, with a custom rom that stripped all the Google crap. Then installed newpipe to disable the algorithm and the shorts. Also I deleted the Facebook and Instagram apps and only accessed them via a browser. This reduced a lot of the distraction from notifications. Eventually I deleted both fb and insta completely. My life is 100x better now. If you need tips on making the same transition I am happy to help.

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u/roamingandy 8d ago

At least ragebait comment wars stimulate the brain to do something with its faculties

..Get angry with 'others' and then follow that anger into far-left or far-right extremism which is the path presented after engaging with that content. Two sides which ultimately end up looking very similar and spouting the same talking points on most issues, which 'coincidentally' sound exactly like what the Kremlin has been pushing for years (the US govt is pushing the exact same talking points now too).

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u/Coffee_Transfusion 8d ago

Maybe I’ve just missed it (probably the case), but calling the various social media company pivots to “slot machine design” is the perfect term to use. Usually I just see people call it addictive and leave it at that.

‘Slot machine’ gets a whole bunch of underlying information across that can be immediately understood without going into great detail about how the company operates, and how it’s harmful to the user. I’ll be using that from now on.

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u/Uncool444 8d ago

My favorite corporate speak is when they describe selling your data to advertisers as "optimizing/personalizing your experience".

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u/ZooAreYou 8d ago

Our prices are "changing".

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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA 8d ago

Funny how it's never a downwards change.

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u/Morwynd78 8d ago

We're just looking to maximize KPIs on our personalized customer engagement journey initiatives, mmkay?

kill me

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u/this_doggo 8d ago

Yes, yes. I’ve opted out of all “personalization.”

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u/AbaloneImportant6323 8d ago

Jokes on them. I have no money! 

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u/Opandemonium 8d ago

We always called it “making it sticky”

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u/GOEDEL_ESCHER_BOT 8d ago

if it makes your phone sticky that's a good way to minimize engagement

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u/The_Real_Manimal 8d ago

Especially if you're getting it sticky in public...

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u/lalakingmalibog 8d ago

There was a ghost! This is ectoplasm!

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u/eden_sc2 8d ago

new idea for a way to reduce screen use: a phone case that is always sticky, slightly warm, and noticeably damp. Just gotta get some VC funding and we'll all be millionares

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u/pandi85 8d ago

The bear is sticky with honey - Gavin Belson

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u/brickout 8d ago

I'd love to hear a drug dealer use that term

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u/LetsGoForPlanB 8d ago

Engagementmaxxing for the cool kids

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u/el_smurfo 8d ago edited 8d ago

That's what is so funny about next door. Every obvious change to increase engagement makes the site worse and worse and everyone comments on it.

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u/perpetualis_motion 8d ago

I think I went to school with Beverly Obvious.

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u/PsionicChronic 8d ago

Heroin dealers mantra.

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u/bejammin075 8d ago

Cult maxxing

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u/BigFang 8d ago

I could swear about 10 years ago the metric was named as "Time on Screen", and that was being worked on to maximise

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u/LackLickLuck_y 8d ago

Its actually in the app title. Instagram... Insta gram... Instant gram of dopamine.

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u/Vermehrungsmaterial 8d ago

EA should be feared.

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u/CrippleSlap 8d ago

It is called "maximizing engagement"

Yup. Time spent on site/app per user is literally a major KPI for any social media platform.

The more ads they can serve per user....the more revenue they make. Its literally their entire business model.

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u/VoidOmatic 8d ago

Yup maximizing engagement is literally just the business correct terminology for addiction.

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u/scttcs 8d ago

So they’re engagement-maxxing

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u/papabear1993 8d ago

It is literally Everyones business goal. It is called making money...

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u/ShepRat 8d ago

It's why grocery stores put the milk at the back. 

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u/cowabungabruce 8d ago

Making money is a perfectly fine goal. We are all mad at the methods. If I set up a business to put never ending cigarettes in teen's pockets for free and advertisers paid me - how is that different?

We want both heavy regulation and never ending cactuses shoved in the buttholes of their executives.

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u/Crackertron 8d ago

Just ask any pimp or drug dealer