Feb 6, 2019

Roger McNamee criticizes Facebook's business model as "addictive"

I'm convinced that the business model is the problem.  It's the problem at Facebook.  It's the problem at Google.  They essentially have this advertising business model that depends on monopolizing the attention and manipulating the attention of the user, and in order to do that, the algorithms are tuned to focus on emotional things that trigger outrage, that trigger fear, or tickle people with rewards of some kind.  When you're doing that for long enough, people first develop a habit, then you develop an addiction.  And once they're in an addiction, they're vulnerable to manipulation by bad actors on the outside.  And until you change the business model, that's there.

~ Roger McNamee, "Former Zuckerberg Mentor McNamee Criticizes Facebook's Business Model," Bloomberg TV, February 5, 2017, 7:23 PM EST

No comments: