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by vinay_ys 1709 days ago
Mobile App Social Media like FB is more like a micro-reality-tv channel in the form of text/image/short-video posts which are co-"produced" (like a tv show producer) by AI algorithms (in ranking) and yourself (in who you friend/follow) and others in your "network" (what everyone comment/like on more vs less).

Just like tv channels optimize their content for TRP ratings and for ad sales, FB does the same – except its engagement optimization cycle is super-micro and super-fast and super-scalable and its ads are super-cheap and super-granular and super-micro.

Its the same business model followed by newspapers/magazines, other forms of content based attention grabbing and holding mechanism which make money through ads. The older business models are more coarse-grain in everything (cost, price, target size, targeting precision, time-cycles etc) and newer tech-enabled business-models are fine-grain everything.

Obviously, the same old social/behavioral/moral rules that worked (or didn't work, but didn't matter) at coarse-grain/slow-cycle/less-massive/more-local won't work (or needs to work better because it matters at scale!) at fine-grain/fast-cycle/huge/global levels. And the answer isn't obvious.

It is obvious same notions/rules/mechanisms won't scale (like content editorialship/moderation etc).