(1) The difference between preferences and information seems like a thin line to me. When groups are divided about abortion, for example, which cluster would that fall into?
It feels fairly clear to me that the media facilitates political differences, as I’m not sure how else these could be relayed to the extent they are (direct friends/family is another option, but wouldn’t explain quick and correlated changes in political parties).
(2) The specific issue of prolonged involvement doesn’t seem hard to be believe. People spend lots of time on Youtube. I’ve definitely gotten lots of recommendations to the same clusters of videos. There are only so many clusters out there.
All that said, my story above is fairly different from Stuart’s. I think his is more of “these algorithms are a fundamentally new force with novel mechanisms of preference changes”. My claim is that media sources naturally change the preferences of individuals, so of course if algorithms have control in directing people to media sources, this will be influential in preference modification. This is where “preference modification” basically means, “I didn’t used to be an intense anarcho-capitalist, but then I watched a bunch of the videos, and now tie in strongly to the movement”
However, the issue of “how much do news organizations actively optimize preference modification for the purposes of increasing engagement, either intentionally or non intentionally?” is more vague.
(1) The difference between preferences and information seems like a thin line to me. When groups are divided about abortion, for example, which cluster would that fall into?
It feels fairly clear to me that the media facilitates political differences, as I’m not sure how else these could be relayed to the extent they are (direct friends/family is another option, but wouldn’t explain quick and correlated changes in political parties).
(2) The specific issue of prolonged involvement doesn’t seem hard to be believe. People spend lots of time on Youtube. I’ve definitely gotten lots of recommendations to the same clusters of videos. There are only so many clusters out there.
All that said, my story above is fairly different from Stuart’s. I think his is more of “these algorithms are a fundamentally new force with novel mechanisms of preference changes”. My claim is that media sources naturally change the preferences of individuals, so of course if algorithms have control in directing people to media sources, this will be influential in preference modification. This is where “preference modification” basically means, “I didn’t used to be an intense anarcho-capitalist, but then I watched a bunch of the videos, and now tie in strongly to the movement”
However, the issue of “how much do news organizations actively optimize preference modification for the purposes of increasing engagement, either intentionally or non intentionally?” is more vague.