www/proprietary proprietary.html

[Therese Godefroy]

CVSROOT:        /webcvs/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Therese Godefroy <th_g> 19/11/16 07:54:42

Modified files:
        proprietary    : proprietary.html 

Log message:
        Addictiveness of social networks (www-discuss 2019-11-13).

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/proprietary/proprietary.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.189&r2=1.190

Patches:
Index: proprietary.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /webcvs/www/www/proprietary/proprietary.html,v
retrieving revision 1.189
retrieving revision 1.190
diff -u -b -r1.189 -r1.190
--- proprietary.html    31 Oct 2019 11:55:07 -0000      1.189
+++ proprietary.html    16 Nov 2019 12:54:42 -0000      1.190
@@ -149,6 +149,59 @@
 <h3 id="latest">Latest additions</h3>
 
 <ul class="blurbs">
+  <li id="M201803210">
+    <p>Some <span>social networking</span> apps are <a
+    href="https://www.jeffbullas.com/facebook-creates-addiction/";>
+    designed to get users addicted</a>. These try to merge into your daily
+    routine by exploiting social pressure and your natural desire for
+    socialization, converting habitual gestures into thorough addiction. As
+    already noted for games, addictiveness is essentially based on random
+    rewards. In the present case, the rewards are messages from friends
+    and followers, &ldquo;likes,&rdquo; news, interesting videos, etc. The
+    software is designed to trigger users' desire for these rewards,
+    and keep this desire alive as long as possible.</p>
+
+    <ul>
+      <li>By default, notifications are sent every time a new item comes
+      in, instead of, say, once a day. They are associated with sounds or
+      vibrations which make them even more compelling. (Remember Pavlov's
+      experiments with rats.) These triggers are often opt-out, and many
+      users don't try to turn them off. They are most effective when the
+      app is installed on a mobile device which is always on and never
+      leaves the user. As a side effect, they may contribute to the <a
+      
href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/reading-between-the-headlines/201307/smartphone-addiction";>
+      addictiveness of &ldquo;smart&rdquo; phones</a>.</li>
+
+      <li>Users are served selected material
+      that is likely to interest   them, based on <a
+      
href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-is-killing-democracy-with-its-personality-profiling-data-93611";>
+      profiling</a>. (This paves the way to <a
+      href="/proprietary/proprietary-manipulation.html">manipulation</a>,
+      by the way.)</li>
+
+      <li>The app interface is designed to make   users
+      stay on the site as long as possible, using <a
+      
href="https://uxplanet.org/ux-infinite-scrolling-vs-pagination-1030d29376f1";>
+      infinite scrolling</a> for example.</li>
+
+      <li>The company that owns the social network tries
+      to cover   users' needs as extensively as possible, by <a
+      
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Facebook";>
+      acquiring other companies</a> if needed. Once users
+      have concentrated   most of their online activities and
+      a lot of their personal data on   a single platform (or
+      a set of platforms that belong to the same   group), they find it <a
+      
href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/01/antisocial-media-why-decided-cut-back-facebook-instagram";>
+      almost impossible to leave</a>. And even if they wanted to, they
+      would have a hard time digging out the relevant options, and the
+      app would aggressively nag them to stay.</li>
+    </ul>
+
+    <p>A good way to minimize the risk of addiction, short of avoiding
+    social media altogether, is to turn off notifications and leave as
+    little as possible of your own data on the platform.</p>
+  </li>
+
   <li id="M201910131">
     <p>Safari occasionally <a
     
href="https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2019/10/13/dear-apple-safe-browsing-might-not-be-that-safe/";>
@@ -213,15 +266,6 @@
     of censorship, it also uses the iThing operating system for that
     purpose.</p>
   </li>
-
-  <li id="M201910100">
-    <p>Apple has <a
-    
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/10/hong-kong-protests-apple-pulls-tracking-app-after-china-criticism";>
-    banned the app that Hong Kong protesters use to communicate</a>.</p>
-
-    <p>Obeying the &ldquo;local laws&rdquo; about what people can do with
-    software is no excuse for censoring what software people can use.</p>
-  </li>
 </ul>
 
 
@@ -282,7 +326,7 @@
 
 <p class="unprintable">Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2019/10/31 11:55:07 $
+$Date: 2019/11/16 12:54:42 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>