Carcinogens

If Edward Snowden was injected with a megadose of Super Soldier Serum, he’d look something like Frances Haugen. Perhaps Haugen’s disclosures — that among so many other evils, Zuckerberg knew Facebook’s products “harm children” — means that Facebook has crossed the wrong cowboys, specifically … cowgirls who are moms. MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) finally galvanized the nation against the scourge of drunk driving in the 1980s — will MAMS (Mothers Against Mark and Sheryl) bring down the Zuck and his merry band of mendacious fucks?

But that is not what this post is about.

Facebook — all social media, really — is the nicotine, the dopa drip of outrage and baby pictures that keeps us coming back for more. But the carcinogen, the thing that should have warning labels slapped all over it and congressional hearings devoted to it, is … an algorithm-driven advertising model.

Ad-supported media has a long history, and it’s not all bad. Alcoa paid for Edward R. Murrow’s airtime, Woodward and Bernstein’s Washington Post relied on advertisers, and on Sunday night, Frances Haugen waited patiently for a Jack in the Box ad to run before she stepped out of the 60 Minutes phone booth in her superhero cape.

Even in traditional media, advertising has always been a problem — what stories did Murrow avoid while Alcoa was paying the bills? But on digital media, advertising has more potential and more power, and it corrupts the media businesses that rely on it. Digital advertising has exploded; even after a Covid-19 dip, it accounts for nearly half of all U.S. advertising spend.

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Πηγή: profgalloway.com