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posted by janrinok on Monday December 11 2017, @08:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the we-saw-it-coming dept.

Chamath Palihapitiya, a former vice president for user growth at Facebook, feels (some) guilt about his role in expanding the social media giant:

Palihapitiya's criticisms were aimed not only at Facebook, but the wider online ecosystem. "The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we've created are destroying how society works," he said, referring to online interactions driven by "hearts, likes, thumbs-up." "No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. And it's not an American problem — this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem."

He went on to describe an incident in India where hoax messages about kidnappings shared on WhatsApp led to the lynching of seven innocent people. "That's what we're dealing with," said Palihapitiya. "And imagine taking that to the extreme, where bad actors can now manipulate large swathes of people to do anything you want. It's just a really, really bad state of affairs." He says he tries to use Facebook as little as possible, and that his children "aren't allowed to use that shit." He later adds, though, that he believes the company "overwhelmingly does good in the world."

[...] In his talk, Palihapitiya criticized not only Facebook, but Silicon Valley's entire system of venture capital funding. He said that investors pump money into "shitty, useless, idiotic companies," rather than addressing real problems like climate change and disease. Palihapitiya currently runs his own VC firm, Social Capital, which focuses on funding companies in sectors like healthcare and education.

From a partial transcript:

You don't realize it, but you are being programmed. It was unintentional, but now you gotta decide how much you're willing to give up. How much of your intellectual independence, and don't think, yeah, not me, I'm a genius, I'm at Stanford. You're probably the most likely to fall for it. Because you are check-boxing your whole damn life. No offense, guys.

Previously: Facebook Founding President Sounds Alarm, Criticizes Facebook


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by arslan on Tuesday December 12 2017, @06:11AM (1 child)

    by arslan (3462) on Tuesday December 12 2017, @06:11AM (#608660)

    You're just redefining the label from your perspective. Others view it as an addiction, so yea fine if you view it as stupidity. That's yer opinion.

    I used to a smoker too and yes I stopped because I just willed it. There was a struggle much like you put it. It was only stupid in so far as I knew the consequences but still smoked, but in terms of quitting its not like stupidity where I educated myself out of the habit. I had to fight it mentally like an addiction. Not buying fags or alcohol or deleting your social media account is just a simple act, the hard part is the mental and at times physiological (I don't know if the cold sweats and hunger pangs were real or just in my head) battle.

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  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday December 12 2017, @11:46AM

    by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday December 12 2017, @11:46AM (#608696) Journal

    Yeah, it can be hard: I just hate all the "it's a disease, I am helpless, I need GOD!!" bullshit.

    You just need to want it and do it. Don't hide and say you're helpless.

    Congrats on quitting smoking! :)

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---