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The thing that’s scary is this has gone beyond what we do for ads and been applied to content, news, and psychology. And that’s where the story changes. The use case is less about “you need this product because xyz.” and more “Think like this.” The frame of people are the product is an interesting construction. Even while broadcast audience targeting has been using that model for generations it’s new application is quite terrifying.
Our brains are under constant ‘mob mentality’ pressure. That’s the biggest issue I gleaned from it. Layer The Social Dilemma with The Great Hack and is no wonder our democracy is crumbling.
Finally, someone gets it.
Honestly I watched 30 min of it and was like “..........And?” That’s what advertising has done for decades, find the right audiences and sell stuff to them. Also I’m really happy I finally get targeted ads. I dgaf about cleaning products, beer and cars. I hate TV ads. Finally finding products I dig.
But maybe I should’ve stuck around for the next hour and half or so, maybe becomes more interesting.
Sure, but most of the time, the product you’re being sold is by traditional advertising is toothpaste, not genocide, fascism or some insane conspiracy theory about human trafficking guaranteed to keep you upset and uninformed 24/7. And it’s delivered in a format that looks like an ad, not disguised as a credible news source or coming from a person.
Think that tooth whitening ad made you feel insecure as a teen with the imagined idea that people might judge you? How about the feeling when you can confirm that with likes on your posts vs friends’ posts?
I thought someone in the doc put it well when they compared it to advertising on steroids.
The methods aren’t new but the tech and effectiveness is terrifying.
It made sense of some things I’ve only sensed, like ‘how have people become so indoctrinated into nonsense conspiracy theories and disputing scientific facts? Why are people so dug into to their positions? Where’s the discourse?’
Fox News or the liberal media are easy to point a finger at There’s something far more foul afoot, we just don’t want to admit it.
If you watch the whole documentary I think they uncover things that at least gave me some answers. They’re truly terrifying answers that reveal the larger game being played by social media giants, (“attention extraction” wthf!?) but answers never-the-less.
After watching it I felt like i just was able to finally grasp the scale of influence social media can have not only on people, but countries, democracies and civilization.
To the person who bailed after 30 minutes, watch it in it’s entirety. It’s a revelation and, for me at least, a necessary eye opening experience.
Thanks this helps! Will def have a 2nd look then. This podcast series Rabbit Hole by NYT also speaks about the crazy influence of social media on the world today (YouTube political rabbit holes, influences, QAnon...). It starts with this standard dem leaning guy who ended up becoming alt right due to YouTube recommendations and his journey going there and getting out of it.
It’s in 8 parts and so enlightening as well, you might appreciate.
https://www.nytimes.com/column/rabbit-hole
Rising Star
Pointed out the issues we already know about: addiction, privacy issues, biased tech due to poor diversity etc but offered no solutions. Tristan is cute. That’s all I got.
LMAO THIS.
Pro
I think the scarier part is the addiction of social media and how it fucks with everyone psychologically faster and more often than advertising ever has.
Or the lack of discipline people have to not put the Skinner box down and go live their lives.
These docs aren’t targeted to ad folks who actually utilize and reference consumer data to design campaigns to sell products. The film is for the lay person who didn’t listen to Radio Lab’s episode about dopamine and don’t realize they are being  monetized and manipulated.
My wife was inspired. I told her.. there's nothing wrong. People have been doing this for centuries!
3 Product folks looking and testing for better engagement with their product? What so bad? Let's say you own a coffee shop and you know of a way to make more customers walk in, wouldn't you exploit it?
Or... Let's say you have an offer from an Ivy league vs a state university, and you can afford both. Isn't it a no-brainer decision?
It's nothing wrong to exploit for more engagement and revenue.
The show did go on to describe how different feeds in an era of isolation (COVID19) could lead to more civil unrest, though... that part I do agree, but I'm of the opinion parents need to do better. This is the reality we're in, don't blame outdated/bad parenting on an app... or the people behind the app.
https://youtu.be/vkUfX9b7ZIk
https://usedopamine.com > https://boundless.ai > acquired by https://thriveglobal.com