this post was submitted on 07 May 2025
79 points (90.7% liked)
Technology
69867 readers
2854 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
"Extra Verification steps"
I know how large social media companies operate. This is all about increasing the value of Reddit users to advertisers. The goal is to have a more accurate user database to sell them.
Zuckerberg literally brags to corporations about how good their data is on users:
https://www.facebook.com/business/ads/performance-marketing
Here, Zuck tells companies that Instagram can easily manipulate users into purchasing shit:
https://www.facebook.com/business/instagram/instagram-reels
Always be wary of anything available for free.
There are some quality exceptions (CBC, VLC, The Guardian, Linux, PBS, Wikipedia, Lemmy, ProPublica) but, by and large, "free" means they don't care about you. You are just a commodity that they sell.
Facebook, Google, X, Reddit, Instagram... Their goal is keep people hooked to their smartphone. The recipe is very simple. You give them small dopamine hits (likes, upvotes) followed by a small break with outrageous content/emotional content. Then another dopamine hit.
Keep them hooked, gather their data, and sell them ads.
The people who know that best are former top executives :
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/business/addictive-technology.html
https://www.today.com/parents/teens/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-rcna15256