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Facebook makes me sad.Follow

#1 Jun 30 2014 at 12:47 PM Rating: Excellent
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Literally.

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For one week in early 2012, Facebook (FB, Tech30) changed the content mix in the News Feeds of almost 690,000 users. Some people were shown a higher number of positive posts, while others were shown more negative posts.


"What?" You might be asking. Why did they do that?

Quote:
The results of the experiment, conducted by researchers from Cornell, the University of California, San Francisco and Facebook, were published this month in the prestigious academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. It's not that prestigious, don't let them fool you.

The study found that users that were shown more negative content were slightly more likely to produce negative posts. Users in the positive group responded with more upbeat posts.
So if you had any doubts that you were simply mimicking those around you, this should alleviate those fairly well. It's gets better though, one of the authors at least has some misgivings in hindsight.

Quote:
"I can understand why some people have concerns about it, and my coauthors and I are very sorry for the way the paper described the research and any anxiety it caused," Kramer wrote. "In hindsight, the research benefits of the paper may not have justified all of this anxiety."


And how did the editors feel about publishing this?

Quote:
"I was concerned," she told The Atlantic, "until I queried the authors and they said their local institutional review board had approved it -- and apparently on the grounds that Facebook apparently manipulates people's News Feeds all the time... I understand why people have concerns. I think their beef is with Facebook, really, not the research."


So it's okay to manipulate your mood for this experiment, because Facebook does it all the time anyway.

Comforting. Smiley: rolleyes

What say you?
Facebook is evil and must be exterminated.:7 (33.3%)
Facebook is a good company getting thrown under the wagon by alarmists.:1 (4.8%)
Meh.:9 (42.9%)
Face-what? Smiley: confused:4 (19.0%)
Total:21
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#2 Jun 30 2014 at 12:50 PM Rating: Good
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someproteinguy wrote:
Facebook is evil and must be exterminated.
This is the plot of the next Superman movie. I'm not even joking.
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#3 Jun 30 2014 at 12:54 PM Rating: Good
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Facebook is better than that Face movie that starred Nicholas Cage. That was bad.

I think it's cool that fb is willing to share their resources with institutes of higher learning. You know, The More We Know......

I've tried similar experiments here. Rate peeps down for no reason and they'll start getting snarky.




Edited, Jun 30th 2014 8:54pm by Elinda
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#4 Jun 30 2014 at 1:03 PM Rating: Excellent
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I said "Meh" but mainly because I rarely use and don't much care about Facebook. Although I'll say it was a dumb thing to do just because so many people take Facebook way too seriously and, you know, that's how the Facebook people get paid.

Yes, yes, technically they get paid by the bajillion advertisers but fewer people means less ad money

Edited, Jun 30th 2014 2:03pm by Jophiel
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#5 Jun 30 2014 at 1:08 PM Rating: Excellent
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I'm not really surprised, I try to avoid the news feed, and just use facebook as an event planning website.

Also I'm always furious.

Edited, Jun 30th 2014 2:08pm by Xsarus
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#6 Jun 30 2014 at 1:34 PM Rating: Good
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Elinda wrote:
Facebook is better than that Face movie that starred Nicholas Cage. That was bad.


"I want to take his FACE... OFF!"

Classic Nic Cage.
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#7 Jun 30 2014 at 4:23 PM Rating: Excellent
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I thought making people sad was the whole point of Facebook.

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#8 Jun 30 2014 at 4:27 PM Rating: Decent
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I thought making people sad was the whole point of Facebook.

Jealous, it's about making them jealous. Jealous of your sun dappled smiling children and your happy life. I assume.
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Disclaimer:

To make a long story short, I don't take any responsibility for anything I post here. It's not news, it's not truth, it's not serious. It's parody. It's satire. It's bitter. It's angsty. Your mother's a *****. You like to jack off dogs. That's right, you heard me. You like to grab that dog by the bone and rub it like a ski pole. Your dad? Gay. Your priest? Straight. **** off and let me post. It's not true, it's all in good fun. Now go away.

#9 Jun 30 2014 at 5:28 PM Rating: Good
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Smasharoo wrote:
I thought making people sad was the whole point of Facebook.

Jealous, it's about making them jealous. Jealous of your sun dappled smiling children and your happy life. I assume.


Or seeing how much ****, or close to ****, you can post before your page gets taken down.
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#10 Jun 30 2014 at 7:47 PM Rating: Good
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How's this different from any other marketing scheme or marketing study?

I fault the universities that conducted it, if it was indeed an unethical study. But I don't expect anything different from Facebook itself.

(And I say this as someone who uses it daily, while also realizing that I am constantly being manipulated and advertised to in ways I won't notice.)

Edited, Jun 30th 2014 8:47pm by trickybeck
#11 Jun 30 2014 at 10:07 PM Rating: Good
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trickybeck wrote:

How's this different from any other marketing scheme or marketing study?

I fault the universities that conducted it, if it was indeed an unethical study. But I don't expect anything different from Facebook itself.

(And I say this as someone who uses it daily, while also realizing that I am constantly being manipulated and advertised to in ways I won't notice.)

Edited, Jun 30th 2014 8:47pm by trickybeck


I dunno, ever since Milgram they ( universities ) really tried to make sure they didn't really do too crazy an experiment -- and this one is hardly crazy, comparitively speaking.

To be honest, I am glad. Maybe at least now I can say that fb is actually doing something that may benefit entire human race and not just Zuckerberg ( though I guess, science-wise, finding out whether pictures of sandwiches make people sad is not that much of an achievement ).
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#12 Jul 01 2014 at 7:24 AM Rating: Excellent
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trickybeck wrote:
How's this different from any other marketing scheme or marketing study?
People believe there's some kind of privacy involved with Facebook.
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#13 Jul 01 2014 at 7:54 AM Rating: Good
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lolgaxe wrote:
trickybeck wrote:
How's this different from any other marketing scheme or marketing study?
People believe there's some kind of privacy involved with Facebook.

They believe in Big Foot, ghosts and God too. I mean, really, believe.

What ya gonna do???


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#14 Jul 01 2014 at 9:09 AM Rating: Excellent
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Elinda wrote:
lolgaxe wrote:
trickybeck wrote:
How's this different from any other marketing scheme or marketing study?
People believe there's some kind of privacy involved with Facebook.

They believe in Big Foot, ghosts and God too. I mean, really, believe.

What ya gonna do???


Shotgun and a fancy hat, solves all problems.

Smiley: tinfoilhat
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