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Comment by vinceguidry | Hacker News Reader

It's got approximately the mass reach and appeal that television did. It doesn't have nearly the impact that TV did. I wonder what makes you think that Facebook is in any way the same league as TV. TV transformed society. Facebook just makes it easier for people to argue with each other.

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Your gross simplification of the issue is unfortunate. TV has never been able to track you and change its programming to the extent Facebook can.

Who cares? Would TV have been that worse if it did the same thing?

Yes.

How? You spend less time channel surfing trying to find what you're into?

You spend more time watching the TV because the extra information provided tells them exactly how to extract that extra attention.

I think the best example are little kids with no self control watching endless amount of dopamine hitting videos like kinder eggs. People realized little kids loved these simple toy opening videos and the algorithm was more than happy enough to increase engagement by feeding kids these videos.

>You spend more time watching the TV because the extra information provided tells them exactly how to extract that extra attention.

What's wrong with this? Lots of people like television. I like television. My life isn't that great and I'll take the distraction, thanks.

It is extraordinarily disingenuous to employ the "who cares" response against someone who, quite clearly, cares.

Moreover, "who cares" now includes numerous former (and current) Facebook employees, executives, and investors.

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