[e_i_pi_2]

I'd argue that the "rampant cynicism and nihilism" and more a result of the environment than algorithms manipulating people, the content is also made by other people, and it just serves up what people want. Your feed is often just a reflection of what you're feeling since everyone has their own feed instead of the reddit or HN approach with a shared feed. Also the phrase is that a few bad apples spoil the batch, nobody cares about the rest of the batch until you can get rid of the bad ones

I'm much more a descriptivist than prescriptivist so if there's a pattern among people I'm inclined to think it's a true issue instead of people just thinking "wrong" en-masse

[pj_mukh]

"Your feed is often just a reflection of what you're feeling"

No it is not. The feed is optimized for what will increase the intensity of feelings, and bad feelings are more easily optimized than good. Meta (patient zero for this nonsense) has pretty much said so, multiple times.

" more a result of the environment than algorithms"

What environment? People are sitting on their algorithms for 100x more time than any physical environment.

[johnnyanmac]

>What environment

The one seeing themselves or co-workers laid off while companies report record earnings.

The ones seeing a CEO tank a company then move on to the next company next week with a huge pay package.

The one seeing their little sibling or kid graduate with honors and multiple internships, and having the complete inability to get a job in their field.

Do I need to explain more? Media reflects reality at the end of the day. You acn talk about doomscrolling, but part of it only works because exaggeration always starts by exploiting some truth you've seen first hand.

[mikert89]

i dont think hating on ivy league types is that common, and 90% of people have no real life experience with this kind of thing, or are even aware of how corporate hiring/funding works at the higher level.