Yes. I doubt it. I think traditional media deserves a lot (most?) of the blame. It is easy for us to blame the internet because we are on the internet. As a generation we've practically forgotten that TV and radio exists and as a result massively undervalue its influence. In our head we all know the stereotype of the fox news addicted older person, yet for some reason we assign more blame to whatever the FB algorithm shows on accident than to the things that network shows on purpose.
After all we want people to have good media literacy even when you like the source.
People who rely on staying in the good graces of their employer to maintain their visa sponsorship status, for instance.
They’re a nice scapegoat, but I haven’t seen enough to suggest that they are anywhere near the root cause.
1. The US mass media's race to the bottom as previous/traditional revenue models and funding mechanisms fall away
2. Rising economic hardship and income inequality causing greater widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo
3. App-based "free" social media in general where engagement time is prioritized above all else (Facebook didn't invent this)
4. The growing influence of big tech and financialization (SV and Wall Street) and the waning influence of the american worker
5. Demagogues
6. The death throes of the US political parties as they thrash about in a desperate push to try to stay relevant, resorting to simple and effective scapegoating and tribalism
I'm sure you can probably toss out a few more plausible ones, too.
What an absolutely incredibly privileged life you must live.
FWIW, I have quit a job for moral reasons, when I was poor and unskilled and not at all sure whether it would end up with me in the street. (Cold-calling people to sell worthless coupons.) I'll bet I could count on one hand the number of HNers more qualified to make a claim about what they would or would not do in the face of such moral qualms. And I still wouldn't generalize my experience to those who had a criminal record, less evidence of future employability, or even a different skin color.
Listen, guys, all of you have an external locus of control. Facebook is doing things to you that you are unable to control. You have a paternalistic view of people. Grandpa is too dumb to evaluate on his own. Facebook made him a Nazi.
Gonna be honest with you. It’s the people. Facebook didn’t exist when Nixon was elected. No one made grandpa a Nazi but grandpa and no one is doing things to you but you.
It's not Facebook that needs to be fixed, it's humanity.
Speaking as a Software Developer, there's no inducement on Earth you could offer me to work for the shitfactory that is Facebook. The company is evil through and through, and that starts at the top.
Microsoft is more deserving of a slot than Netflix, and Google is just a subsidiary of a company called Alphabet now, however weird and arbitrary that division is in practice.