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by alphagrep12345 2069 days ago
Build a more personalized news experience? Hide publishers you're not interested in?

Don't people from facebook see this'd increase the already existing polarization and information bubbles?

4 comments

> Don't people from facebook see this'd increase the already existing polarization and information bubbles?

Facebook isn't optimizing for the preservation of democratic norms or decrease of polarization; they're optimizing for eyeballs, time, and attention (which obviously translates to money).

To answer your question, they may not see it because they don't care, and if they do see it, they still don't care as that's not their KPI.

(Disclaimer: I'm not talking about specific employees but rather the company as an organization)

To be fair, this is a standard feature of most news apps. Like Apple's.
I get the idealism of wanting to expose people to a more diverse set of news sources but I also don't think I would ever use a news app that didn't let me filter out the chaff. Irrespective of your political beliefs there's still a lot of low-quality journalism out there that simply isn't worth your time.

I do think it's funny that "news" has become hard synonymous with "politics" despite the fact that columns like the arts, lifestyle, product reviews, food, local events, human interest, short fiction, non-political opinions, and sports are just as much news and are, arguably, the good bits.

Literally the first thought which popped in my head.
Agreed - first thought that popped into my head. Second thought: Wait, don't I do that already? I mean - there are certain news sources that I explicitly avoid (or at least, don't trust at all). Others that I check all the time and trust a lot. Then there's a slew in between that I check periodically and somewhat trust.

As much as my knee jerk reaction is against this, I also am asking myself: how's it really different from my own behavior? (and should I re-evaluate my own behavior).

Edit: Spelling/grammar.