Social Media Algorithms that try to radicalize you is real

[burntorangebongos 10681]

I don't really visit a lot of social media sites, reddit and twitter a bit but usually if I get directed from here and go down a rabbit hole of seeing other videos. But lately, to kill time, I watch You Tube shorts. Mostly to see cute animal stories and the like. I noticed that the shorts started trying to show me Trump rally videos but I kept by passing them for more animal ones and such.... but the things it kept trying to feed me were bad Karen behavior on planes and shit like that. I had to keep by passing. Finally, it fed me videos of Democrat speakers and I would watch one or two maybe. Mostly, I kept by passing for the funny and cute. But once you watch one or two....it keeps feeding you similar. Then this guy come on....it was a shorter version of this speech but I watched intrigued. Thanks I guess, weird social media algorithms, for putting him on my radar but this shit is creepy. I just want to watch cooking vids and cute animals, but now I know this guy and his opinion about Christian Nationals. I can no longer find the You Tube short of him, but I found his speech and agree with most of what he says. Now I'm worried if I keep watching shorts, I'll get radical Buddhist vids, but oh well.

 

[atomheartbevo 89457]

7 minutes ago, burntorangebongos said:

but I found his speech and agree with most of what he says.

He was born in raised in Round Rock/Williamson County, came through Round Rock ISD, and is a UT Austin grad.

And a Democrat and a state representative here in Texas.

[LCHorn 2585]

I’m a little non-plussed by Talarico simply because every time there’s a mention of him here a couple members of his fan club are overly quick to name him the new messiah of Texas Democrats, but the last thing I would be worried about is a sensible and decent person promoting sensible and decent political positions is somehow radicalizing your video feed.  
 

I’d expect him to be perfectly complementary to your cute animal videos.  

[burntorangebongos 10681]

Why are they showing me Christian videos and shit though? Why did I watch it? I want puppies sliding across the floor!  Also, the Karens on planes being bitchy videos make me mad. Are they trying to make me mad and then slip in a political or Jesus video in for some reason?  I think it knows I won't watch the Trump ones now but we'll see. 

[immamac 42531]

Your search history. Everything you've ever done in any Google product etc etc. 

[Kel Varnsen 8430]

Even incognito mode? ... 

[Vegas64 665]

13 minutes ago, Kel Varnsen said:

Even incognito mode? ... 

ESPECIALLY incognito mode!!

[Biff Tannen 45500]

36 minutes ago, burntorangebongos said:

Are they trying to make me mad

Yes. You’ve pinpointed it. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13416]

36 minutes ago, burntorangebongos said:

Why are they showing me Christian videos and shit though? Why did I watch it? I want puppies sliding across the floor!  Also, the Karens on planes being bitchy videos make me mad. Are they trying to make me mad and then slip in a political or Jesus video in for some reason?  I think it knows I won't watch the Trump ones now but we'll see. 

They look at the history of other people who like the same videos and attempt to learn what you like. I imagine they eventually determine you are similar to 100,000 other people. When those 100,000 people start to like a video, they will show it to you as well even if you've never indicated any interest.. These sites most likely know you better than anyone, including yourself.

This is also why people cannot believe that others are not seeing the same videos/posts they are. It's like they're on a completely different TikTok, Instagram, X, Youtube, etc.

[Mo Horn 8807]

Search engines are bad enough, but talk about a random product, or something with someone, and within minutes an ad or video about it will show up. It's crazy. The algorithm listens to us. I love the people who say their privacy is totally locked down. Nope, not even close. 

[TexArcher 37530]

1 hour ago, immamac said:

Your search history. Everything you've ever done in any Google product etc etc. 

So how come Google hasn't partnered with Amazon to sell me a big natural tits MILF yet?

I have the money.

 

Edited August 7 by TexArcher

[Beantown Express 2.0 6555]

Is this why I keep getting midget clown porn ads all the time?

[mdmost 42866]

The Prong Horn Effect

[atomheartbevo 89457]

6 hours ago, LCHorn said:

I’m a little non-plussed by Talarico simply because every time there’s a mention of him here a couple members of his fan club are overly quick to name him the new messiah of Texas Democrats, 

I’m in his fan club, but I’ve honestly never thought of him as an important or influential Democrat - I feel like he’s in his own little world, and gets a lot of notice from a lot of Christians who are not comfortable with the “in your face” evangelicals, but not much attention outside of that. I’ve seem him tangle in the legislature with MAGA, but that’s about it.

[atomheartbevo 89457]

 

2 hours ago, burntorangebongos said:

 Also, the Karens on planes being bitchy videos make me mad. Are they trying to make me mad and then slip in a political or Jesus video in for some reason? 

It slips in videos that it not only thinks you might click on, but if you get mad, you might share those videos with friend and family, aka “HOLY SHIT DID YOU SEE THIS DUMBASS?”

2 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

This is also why people cannot believe that others are not seeing the same videos/posts they are. It's like they're on a completely different TikTok, Instagram, X, Youtube, etc.

Yup.  When a relative posts something batshit, I wish I could glimpse their Facebook or Twitter feed on their own laptop or phone and see where it’s coming from, because I can look at their stuff from my laptop or phone with my social media logged in and I’m seeing different things because it’s bubbling my interests up to the top alongside their rants.

[Hank Kingsley 20716]

I got on TikTok about a year ago and stopped after a couple of weeks because the algorithim was fucking insane. If you watched any of a clip that is "recommended" on your feed, then they just inundate you with similar vids. There's no balance. It's just non-stop with the same shit. I got off TikTok quickly. 

Twitter started doing the same thing a year or two ago. I would get some fight video on my "For You" page, watch a few seconds, then the algorithm starts spamming you with more fight videos. When I start blocking those type of accounts, they actually ramped up sending those vids from similar accounts. 

Basically the only way to you can successfully and healthily use social media for personal benefit is to focus on one subject. If you only watch golf swing/tip videos, then you'll get that fed to you. But if you are interested in multiple things, it just becomes a shitshow of circus freaks. 

 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13416]

1 hour ago, Mo Horn said:

Search engines are bad enough, but talk about a random product, or something with someone, and within minutes an ad or video about it will show up. It's crazy. The algorithm listens to us. I love the people who say their privacy is totally locked down. Nope, not even close. 

There is a phenomenon that when something comes to your attention you see it everywhere. In your scenario that ad or video was going to be shown to you anyway. You wouldn't have paid attention to it except it was recently mentioned. We have 100s (1000s?) of ads in our line of sight throughout the day that we ignore.

[Mo Horn 8807]

15 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

There is a phenomenon that when something comes to your attention you see it everywhere. In your scenario that ad or video was going to be shown to you anyway. You wouldn't have paid attention to it except it was recently mentioned. We have 100s (1000s?) of ads in our line of sight throughout the day that we ignore.

Yea no. No way a specific thing we just talked about just randomly shows up as an ad within minutes, and was going to do that anyway. It's happened too many times. 

[jimmyjazz 45565]

Yeah, sometimes it's a little too coincidental.  I called a vendor about some machining services I needed, and in the chit chat I found out he was an OU grad.  (He connected the dots about my UT history given my Austin location.)  We did a little shit talking and then wrapped up business.  This was on my cell phone.

Within a few minutes I was fed an ad to buy a licensed OU football helmet.  Never before, never again.  Just that one time.  Coincidence?

[atomheartbevo 89457]

1 hour ago, Hank Kingsley said:

Basically the only way to you can successfully and healthily use social media for personal benefit is to focus on one subject. If you only watch golf swing/tip videos, then you'll get that fed to you. But if you are interested in multiple things, it just becomes a shitshow of circus freaks. 

There is nothing like spending weeks being careful about what you watch on YouTube, to the point where you can set down in the evening and get a nice set of recommendations for some WWII documentaries, some British archaeology videos, some sci-fi book discussions, and some Nancy Wilson/Heart, Susanna Hoffs, Kelly Willis, or Mark Knopflee videos, only to have one of your kids watch a Bluey or Minecraft video on your account and completely wreck what was a good set of recommendations to where you’re now getting unwrapping videos from that little shit Ryan or Cocomelon (although Ms. Appleberry could get it).

[YChang 3431]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

I’m in his fan club, but I’ve honestly never thought of him as an important or influential Democrat - I feel like he’s in his own little world, and gets a lot of notice from a lot of Christians who are not comfortable with the “in your face” evangelicals, but not much attention outside of that. I’ve seem him tangle in the legislature with MAGA, but that’s about it.

He's still early in his political career no? I wish/hope he has higher aspirations. 

[bolverk 29413]

59 minutes ago, Mo Horn said:

Yea no. No way a specific thing we just talked about just randomly shows up as an ad within minutes, and was going to do that anyway. It's happened too many times. 

 

53 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Yeah, sometimes it's a little too coincidental.  I called a vendor about some machining services I needed, and in the chit chat I found out he was an OU grad.  (He connected the dots about my UT history given my Austin location.)  We did a little shit talking and then wrapped up business.  This was on my cell phone.

Within a few minutes I was fed an ad to buy a licensed OU football helmet.  Never before, never again.  Just that one time.  Coincidence?

I can think of a few instances like that. One specific example was me saying something out loud about my grocery shopping list, including the name brand of a specific kind of cereal that I'd never had before. A couple of hours later (and before going shopping), I saw an ad on my FB newsfeed for the exact same cereal. I'd never seen that ad before or since.

After that happened a few times, I deleted the FB app from my phone because I was certain it had been listening. I'm not aware of ads like that ever appearing on any other app that I've suspected of "listening" in on a conversation. Sure, I've seen ads that could easily be tied to content come across while browsing, which we've all come to expect, but never from hearing verbal speech.

[AnTiM 1659]

Youtube has gotten to the point where I suspect they are the cause of most of the spam emails I receive, including 34 in the past two days.

[Rex Kramer 1302]

2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Yeah, sometimes it's a little too coincidental.  I called a vendor about some machining services I needed, and in the chit chat I found out he was an OU grad.  (He connected the dots about my UT history given my Austin location.)  We did a little shit talking and then wrapped up business.  This was on my cell phone.

Within a few minutes I was fed an ad to buy a licensed OU football helmet.  Never before, never again.  Just that one time.  Coincidence?

Not at all a coincidence. This is exactly why I leave my phone in office or car during meetings, and openly talk about ball gags and anal beads. I do the same with my wife’s phone. It’s one of my greatest pleasures. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13416]

2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Yeah, sometimes it's a little too coincidental.  I called a vendor about some machining services I needed, and in the chit chat I found out he was an OU grad.  (He connected the dots about my UT history given my Austin location.)  We did a little shit talking and then wrapped up business.  This was on my cell phone.

Within a few minutes I was fed an ad to buy a licensed OU football helmet.  Never before, never again.  Just that one time.  Coincidence?

yes. and you have had ads that included an OU helmet before and after.