[harshreality]

If you see ads, they have subconscious effects even if your conscious mind ignores them.

Then there's the curation problem of sites like reddit and facebook. People curating information streams, or developing algorithms to curate information, think they're doing the right thing by eliminating bad content, but by doing so they introduce bias into the information stream, and that bias might be just as pernicious.

[TeMPOraL]

Curation bias is the flip side of the very low signal to noise ratio and general information overload we face today. I don't see how you can solve one without hurting the other. Picking stories at random isn't a solution either, because those stories serve another important purpose (sometimes more important than the actual content) - they are social objects, shared things people can talk about. Culture is lots of people experiencing the same stuff, so that they can relate to it in conversations.

[ams6110]

If you see ads, they have subconscious effects even if your conscious mind ignores them.

Yes, so what? This has been the nature of advertising since long before the internet was involved.

[FussyZeus]

As have intellectual echo chambers. Everyone says they're open to opposing views but very few people want their opinions challenged. Everyone really wants a hugbox, Facebook just figured out how to give everyone on the planet a hugbox.