Yup, before computer algorithms it was advertising and suveys promoting what they wanted to sell and finding out how effective it was. The algorithm is a faster and more efficent version of that process, which does make it even easier for a single person to abuse. Honestly the main problem is that the social media sites are basically a monopoly under meta at this point since it keeps buying up competitors.
The business and political worlds use psychological techniques to read, create and fulfill the desires of the public, and to make their products and speeches as pleasing as possible to consumers and voters. Curtis questions the intentions and origins of this relatively new approach to engaging the public.
Yup, before computer algorithms it was advertising and suveys promoting what they wanted to sell and finding out how effective it was. The algorithm is a faster and more efficent version of that process, which does make it even easier for a single person to abuse. Honestly the main problem is that the social media sites are basically a monopoly under meta at this point since it keeps buying up competitors.
The Century of the Self by Adam Curtis
Exactly! This book from an ad exec in the 70s opened my eyes to all of this in the early 90s when I first came across it in my late teens: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Arguments_for_the_Elimination_of_Television