Tag Archives: facebook

How to Deal with Fake News: Let the Bots Do It

Is Facebook a purveyor of journalism or fake news?

If you have read any of my posts over time, you will have realized a number of things about me, here are three which are key for the understanding of this particular post. I am:

  1. A Big Star Trek Fan
  2. A Libertarian
  3. A Geek

Lately, Facebook has been in the news for the supposed censoring (or let’s call it suppressing) of conservative speech during this election cycle. Does it happen? Of course, it does. Why does it happen? Well, simply put, the content filtering people at Facebook consider themselves “journalists” and not “reporters”  Everyone is a journalist now. Plus, they use too many humans when they should be leaving it all to the algorithms, and they seem to forget the Prime Directive. read more

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You Are Your Social Network

Your Social Network Is Now You

I was talking to a guy the other who said that he wasn’t on Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter. In fact, he had no social network accounts at all, preferring to talk to people face-to-face, or on the phone. He used email to set up these calls, but he never connected with anyone on any social network. read more

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Happy Facebook Day: Why Is There No “Unlike” Button?

A little something for Facebook Day…

Will YOU be buying the stock today, hoping for a Google like win?

Soon after the Like button was launched, calls for an Unlike button began to resound. I was even one of those calling for it – I joined the chorus, asking some of my friends who had left Yahoo! for Facebook. Though I got nothing useful in response, there have been many writings on this topic. I tend to favor (and like 😉 ) the thinking that most of the “mainstream internet” just like the mainstream media, likes to be nice. To treat each other well. To be positive in most things. Saying to “like” something is a positive statement, where saying that you “unlike” or “don’t like” (which is of course more grammatically correct) is such a negative thing. This kind of thing just pisses me off. It’s like when you always use postivie reinforcement on children or pets to influence behavior – not only does it not work, it usually backfires. Every one knows – or at least should know – that learning requires both positive and negative reinforcement. read more

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