[wael] without facebook, twitter, google, youtube, appe ned. how big an impact has social networking had on our lives, it s huge. we have of the dogs on it. without facebook, twitter, google, u2, this revolution could never have happened. you guys end up spending 45 minutes or an hour instead of just going to sleep? yeah. managing my brand placements, it s a full-time job. your news fr om? before i get out of bed every morning, i m always on twitter. fake news can have real-world consequences. the pandemic wasn t real and we re here to take the country back. [music] the web is incredibly exciting because it is the fulfillment of a lot of our dreams that the computer would ultimately not be primarily a device for computation, but metamorphosize into a device for communication. [stephen] the promise of the internet from the 90s and the 2000s is that we were all going to share a big, digital community. you know, be part of the global network. and with the rise of
[wael] without facebook, twitter, google, youtube, this revolution would have never happened. do you guys end up spending 45 minutes or an hour scrolling through your phone instead of just going to sleep? [girls] yeah. managing my followers, my brand placements, it s a full-time job. your being observed constantly and algorithms are taking that information and changing what you see next until they ve changed your behavior. we didn t take a broad enough view of our responsibility and that was a big mistake. where are you getting your news from? before i get out of bed every morning, i m always on twitter. fake news can have real-world consequences. the pandemic wasn t real and we re here to take the country back. [music] the web is incredibly exciting because it is the fulfillment of a lot of our dreams that the computer would ultimately not be primarily a device for computation, but metamorphosize into a device for communication. [stephen] the promise of the internet from the
all of a sudden, because of the newsfeed engagement shot up by like 6 or 700%, which is what companies like facebook want because it means you re spending more time on the platform, so it means they can sell more ads. and that is now basically the defining principle of how all the platforms work. twitter announcing a move away from its chronological timeline to show tweets that each user s most likely to care about based on followers and interactions. [renee] over time, facebook s news feed and the timeline on twitter began to use algorithms for curation. and the platforms also began to create tools by which you could convey an appreciation for the content. gradually, you had the ability to like it, to share it on facebook, to retweet it on twitter. but you re also, of course, communicating something back to the algorithm that has just curated that content for you. [yael] so the core part of the business model becomes gathering up as much data as it can about every user,
so it means they can sell more ads. and that is now basically the defining principle of how all the platforms work. twitter announcing a move away from its chronological timeline to show tweets that each user s most likely to care about based on followers and interactions. [renee] over time, facebook s news feed and the timeline on twitter began to use algorithms for curation. and the platforms also began to create tools by which you could convey an appreciation for the content. gradually, you had the ability to like it, to share it on facebook, to retweet it on twitter. but you re also, of course, communicating something back to the algorithm that has just curated that content for you. [yael] so the core part of the business model becomes gathering up as much data as it can about every user, whether that be while you are on facebook or whether that be following you around the internet so that it can build a profile about you to then sell this idea to advertisers that