[timehastoldme]

Ethically, it's absolutely unconscionable to show people only what they want to see, enabling our worst features to simply fester unchallenged.

From a Machiavellian standpoint (read: Thiel or Zuckerberg), this isn't an intelligent long-term strategy, unless your view of how dumb and malleable people are is such that by playing your cards right, so few people would catch on that it would not hurt the bottom line.

EDIT: could you explain why you want to delete this post?

[hueving]

>so few people would catch on that it would not hurt the bottom line.

People already know about the filter bubble, but they don't actually care. Most people aren't going to Facebook for an unbiased stream of news and they don't like to feel uncomfortable (i.e. be barraged by things that challenge their core beliefs).

[timehastoldme]

They don't, but they also don't like going to the gym, waking up early for work, or taking out the trash. I think it'll be interesting to see who do and who don't

Willpower and motivation fascinate me. I've been living with depression for a while, but I've been able to conceptually reorient myself to embrace my circumstances and find willpower to do the 'I don't want to, but I should' things whenever they come around. But just as I don't think everyone is capable of advanced systems programming, for example, I'm not certain that everyone is capable of strong willpower.

[794CD01]

The great thing about freedom is that it means other people finding your actions unconscionable doesn't necessarily mean you have to stop doing them. Some people would find it unconscionable that my wife drives and that I "allow her" to do so. The particularly zealous among them might even say that this kind of moral decadence enables our worst features. Although they'd probably find other sins to say that about first before they got to the driving.

[timehastoldme]

I agree, up to the point where we are so certain about a freedom that we decide it is not worth having. Say, the freedom to drive on the wrong side of the freeway.

You make a good point: regulation is a clumsy tool, and I don't think it needs to be applied here. However, I'm disappointed in what seem to be the fundamental motivations of Facebook and its board. I'm not sure that anything could come in the way of Mark Zuckerberg's pursuit of maximizing the world's dependence on his product.