“Never theorize before you have data. Invariably, you end up twisting facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” – Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Mark Zuckerberg has been banning bots from Facebook™ before the election. Trump has made Mark turn on his own kind.
As I’ve mentioned before, The Mrs. used to be in radio. On one of her jobs, she did the news, sports, and weather for a collection of stations. The thing that fascinated me was that The Mrs. was the one that selected which news stories and which sports stories to put on the air, even to the point where she interviewed Senators and Congresscritters as part of the press pool. The Mrs. might be a wizard, but she couldn’t really select the weather, so the weather was what the weather was.
The Mrs. didn’t like the NBA®, so during basketball season she refused to cover it. At all. If you would have listened to her broadcast, you wouldn’t have known that basketball was a sport. Despite that the NHL® didn’t have a “local” team, The Mrs. covered hockey, even though after a storm the farmers care more about grain wetzky than Wayne Gretzky.
I’ve told that story before, but it’s been some time since I mentioned it so I know it’s new to some of you. I think now is the perfect place to mention it again.
I used to tell radio jokes, but the reception was poor.
Why? That will become clear.
But let’s start with this idea – you’re a product. Almost six years ago I heard a quote in a Wired® article (LINK) about the predictive power of social media interactions:
In the end, the researchers found that with information on just ten Facebook© “Likes,” the algorithm was more accurate than the average person’s colleague. With 150 “Likes,” it could outsmart people’s families, and with 300 “Likes,” it could best a person’s spouse.
Imagine the power. With enough data, Facebook® could sell data to companies with complete certainty that they’d be able to understand your income level, age, health problems, fears, and what it takes to sell you a product. By knowing when you went to bed, they’d be able to predict if you were a night owl, though I didn’t predict The Mrs. reaction when I replaced our bed with a trampoline. She hit the ceiling.
It’s not just Facebook™, and in my mind they’re not even the worst. I make it a point to never use my work computer for personal “stuff” – I don’t log in for email, social media, or any other site where I log in. Heck, I made it a point to minimize my surfing to the point where most of my Internet use at work was work related. I learned that they really don’t like you surfing YouTube™ videos at work during the six hours I spent at a job as an air traffic controller.
I’ve never been an air traffic controller, but I hear that their motto is: “If the pilot screws up, the pilot dies. If the air traffic controller screws up, the pilot dies.”
But one day I went to a weather site, and saw ads about something I’d searched for at home – something I was thinking of buying.
If it were a normal thing, that would make sense. In this case, it was a fairly obscure outdoor product. Boom. Right there on the weather page. It wasn’t just one product, which would have been a coincidence. People who are interested in the weather might be outdoorsy, right?
Nope. It happened again and again. Somehow, Google® (my guess) had figured out that John at home was the same guy who was using that work computer. I had noticed years earlier that Google™ gave one set of results on a search at work, and a completely different set on my home computer. That almost made sense – people at work are usually not looking for the same results as people at home. For instance, always make sure when you Google™ the actor Gary Oldman that you type in an “r”.
But look at all of the sources of data that exist on you, primarily (but not always) generated via social media. Just your search history tells the companies serving the Internet a lot about you. The Mrs. is a writer and was looking for ways people die for a book. She joked that the FBI® probably would arrest her if anything ever happened to me. But I don’t trust the FBI™, since the last time I was at the dentist they wanted to do a cavity search.
I guess if Google® made Lucky Charms©, they’d be tragically malicious?
Facebook’s™ statement that with 300 likes they would know a person better than their spouse is nearly six years old. How much better than that are their computer systems now? I would imagine much, much better. Now they have data stretching across years that would likely predict a lot about a person’s outcomes.
Several years ago YouTube® used to suggest me content that was much edgier than I had initially searched for. It was as if I watched a video about the Right and got fed another that was six steps farther Right than the previous video. YouTube™ was giving me more and more “extreme” content. Why? Because more extreme content drives emotions. It pops chemicals into my brain and stimulates more viewing time.
YouTube™ was optimizing based on getting more viewing minutes. The best way to do that? Show me videos it predicted would increase emotion, especially outrage. And, as we all know, it’s easier to get strong emotion with anger rather than happiness.
I watch chemistry videos periodically.
For a while, I was on Twitter® – there is still a John Wilder account, but I had some fun with a parody account that was since deleted. But I noticed the same pattern at Twitter™ – keeping eyeballs through generating emotion.
What happens when you aggregate all of that data?
You can be told a story that’s unique to you. Immersed in information that is designed to drive your economic behavior – understanding what you’re most likely to spend money on, what time of day to best provide an ad, what phrases cause you to click, and which ones you ignore.
I’ve cut back on social media. Facebook® is only used on a single browser, and I haven’t opened it in months. Since I never understood what was fascinating about Facebook™, that’s super easy. It doesn’t need a replacement. Likewise, it’s been months since I was on Twitter©, although I do spend some time on Gab®.
I’m cutting back on YouTube™ and moving towards BitChute© – YouTube™ in the last year has been on a tear of censorship and herding – trying to move people farther Left. Some things are harder to find on BitChute™ – it has the worst search I’ve seen. But when I can find the people I listen to normally on BitChute®, I go there.
Dracula got caught uploading illegal content to YouTube™. He’s got the problem – a count suspended.
And browsers? Have you tried Brave™?
Understand that Google©, YouTube™, Twitter®, and Facebook® (among many!) are creating a product based on you, and attempting to sell you to whoever they can. Heck, if YouTube™, Twitter®, and Facebook® merged, they would have an amazing amount of data, but they’d be stuck calling themselves YouTwitFace®.
If it were just that, we’ve been facing less sophisticated versions of advertising for years. As even the Romans said: “Buyer beware.”
But with this immense power, what are the odds that they are consciously attempting to craft a narrative to change what you believe? Is there an agenda behind the stories that are presented to you, the way the headlines are written? Is there an agenda behind the stories that you’re not allowed to see?
I wanted to buy a skating rink, but my realtor only gave me a ballpark estimate.
Most people coming to this blog are pretty good at making up their own minds. But this fall’s election might be based on the votes of perhaps a 20,000 people or less, who have no idea who they’re voting for right now – elections are won by convincing the undecided.
I wonder what narrative Facebook™, Google©, Twitter®, and YouTube™ will try to spin for them?
I’m betting it has nothing to do with hockey.
John –
You may wish to check the spelling in your Bert and Ernie meme very carefully, make a one letter change, and delete my comment here. 🙂
https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/19/17879916/bert-ernie-gay-sesame-street-mark-saltzman-controversy
Or maybe you are trying to join the trend? 🙂
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/15/us/disney-bisexual-trnd/index.html
On to reading the rest of your post….
Ha! I’ll fix it tonight!
LOL. After reading the rest of your column, particularly your Gary Oldman joke, I was starting to wonder if ***I*** was the one missing some joke you were trying to, er, ram home. 🙂
Nope, just tired as heck. I think I might have fallen asleep for zzzzzzzzzzz
What, another meme?
(hits paste)
“Queer children”
Sigh. How in Hell can you possibly know that a *child* is queer unless you are up to no good?
A queer child is like a vegan cat.
We all know who is really to blame.
(may use the same line next week)
Are you saying my spelling sucks?
John – Your website has a very smart filter. It not only checks my words, it checks my links!!! I have a comment in moderation…
Personally, I have been moving away from Gmail to Proton Mail. Also, Scott Adams has drawn me back to Twitter…damn him! LOL
I like Scott. Plus? He has liked several of my Tweets.
I’m still on gmail. Proton good?
Yes, Proton works great for me and is very easy to use. I use the free version app on my phone and my desktop as well. I really like the fact that they are based in Switzerland and use end to end encryption. I’ve noticed that more and more conservative writers seem to be using the service.
The only problem I’ve had is when I tried to notify my friends and family of the change I was making. I attempted to send one email notification to too many people at once and Proton tagged me as a potential spammer, so I couldn’t send emails for about an hour. I just took that experience as proof of their commitment to having a great service. Try them out and see what you think.
Thanks! I’ll give it a look!
There are steps you can take to reduce the spying. I use Opera for my browser, except Twitter where I use Tor so they don’t know it is the same guy they keep banning. I use Protonmail for new email accounts. DuckDuckGo for searching and never Google unless I am searching something just to mess with the algorithm. None of them are foolproof. The simple fact is that when you use the internet, you give implied consent to be spied on.
On the other hand, I have a Facebook account with a fake name, having deleted my old account after remembering why I never kept in touch with people from high school. I don’t get many ads thanks to the ad blocker in Opera but the ones I do I always report as scams or spam, no matter what it is. I end up getting some pretty wacky ads once I flag enough.
Here is an example of the relevant ads the algorithim shows me, a fund raiser for a political dissident in Belarus. Please, take my money!
https://imgur.com/a/H9xuPpL
Odds are 3:1 that money goes to Biden?
Twitter banned The Boy the other day. I would check up on him, and didn’t see anything controversial.
Consider using the Brave browser, a more private alternative to Chrome.
https://helpdeskgeek.com/reviews/a-brave-browser-review-is-it-the-next-great-browser/
https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/4/18249623/brave-browser-choice-chrome-vivaldi-replacement-chromium
Of course, Brave has its own agenda – promoting use of the BAT cryptocurrency.
https://basicattentiontoken.org/
I like Brave. And haven’t cared about Crypto. Three precious metals are better: gold, silver, and lead.
But this fall’s election might be based on the votes of perhaps a 20,000 people or less, who have no idea who they’re voting for right now – elections are won by convincing the undecided.
Who is convincing the undecided? Did you vote for them?
Why do you support the “legitimacy” of this system, despite it having no resemblance to the Norman Rockwell memes which you claim are how the system works?
Why do you support the “legitimacy” of the system which loads the Norman Rockwell fantasy into defenseless childrens’ heads?
20,000 out of 350M is statistical error. That small of a difference is a tie. Ties are decided by judges voting along party lines.
Love it! Seriously! I need to do a post on that. Me? I’d have three legislative houses, the two we have, plus one that removes laws at 20% majority. Yup, that’s right. If 20% of America is against it? Pitch it out.
Why do you think I’m supporting the legitimacy of the system? Are you psychic?
Point to where I said this is what the world should be in my writing. I’ve got 750,000 words out there – have at it. I never said that – I merely reported what is.
Regardless, I like your style.
I subscribe to several political YouTube channels (Conservative Resurgence, Mark Dice, Tim Pool, etc.). Every day I get emails whenever a new video is loaded on these subscribed channels. As of last week, YouTube has stopped sending me any upload notification emails. It’s not a problem to find them otherwise, but I see it as just another subtle attempt to make those channels less visible.
Makes me wonder what other tactics they’re using that I don’t know about.
I wish I could dump Facebook, but I occasionally get a new pet portrait customer there, and I need every bit of work I can find.
I actually get a kick out of Twitter because there are lots of cute dog videos, smart asses, and nutcases. And of course I also enjoy Scott Adams.
If I could, I’d make all social media platforms disappear — POOF! — and go back to the good old days of blogs and forums. Those times were simpler.
Tim Pool has completely disappeared from my feed. So has Dice, Crowder, etc.
Social media has a time limit, regardless of who wins.
Ha! I have had items I searched for on my system show up on my wife’s system as ads… she always knows what I am researching for her next gift! they keep ruining the surprise!
NSA = No Secrets Advertising
Do what I did . . . stop buying her stuff. That will surprise her.
Seriously – try Brave browser for searches and use DuckDuckGo as the engine. It might not work, but it’s a start.
The scary (annoying) part is that my wife and I can be talking about something, and then it comes up in the ads. The danger of voice-activated devices.
I’m looking for a motorcycle. Advertisements showed up on my wifes facebook account on her phone. She’s never accessed her facebook on our desk top and has never ever not even once looked at anything motorcycle related nor visited motorcycle dealers.
That’s awful. Make sure you don’t search for embalming kits.
Ditto – has happened to me several times. But at least I know how to clean blood out of a chainsaw blade.
Ya know what’s REALLY weird? On Wednesday morning, my wife and I were hiking in rural Maryland, and saw a couple of stray cows blocking the trail (in a State Park). We warned other hikers about them as we returned to the parking lot. “Really?!” They were amazed. And then, Thursday morning… a big article in the Washington Post about hikers being injured and killed by stray cows in the Swiss Alps. I guess they must have been holding that story back for just the right moment, and maybe my wife shouldn’t have Facebook’d our story immediately after it happened. Somewhere in the Post headquarters, an alarm went off and someone started shouting “Run the cow story! Run the cow story!”
First:
That’s hilarious. I laughed when I read it.
Second:
Okay, in the early 1990’s there was a comic book about a Man Eating Cow. Your post took me back there.
Imagine: Man-Eating Swiss Cows.
Puts the Swiss Miss to shame.
Search Milk Pasteurizer or Grain Bin. I think it was close to 3 months before they stopped populating the side bars.
Howe, Howe, Howe. You ARE so funny. (Is that how it feels to be you?).
Do you have Pepsi?
No, Coke.
Ok, I’ll have water.
Luckily, I can avoid ads. Very good at looking for the close “x”. Please tell me they have not monetized the close X.
I’m still wondering exactly how the Russians got me to vote for Trump.
The other comment I saw today “Trump IS Obama (&Hillary’s) PRESIDENT!
You had your chance to fix it as President. Now STFU.
Hmmm, will try that. It’s better than the “Russian Brides Who Have Welding Certifications” ads I get now.
It’s all in the smooth scalp. Reject hair.
AESOP??? are you out there somewhere? Carolina Turtle requests “proof of life” please!!!
…and more appropriate for the original topic, if you haven’t heard of “Millenial Millie’s” documentary “shadowgate” i highly recommend it… but facebook censored my first attempt to direct link to it…so if you want to see it, you will need click on the link to the blog where i found it, then you have to scroll down, look for the link posted by “boogie” at a brighteon website (suprisingly, only the direct link was censored?) https://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2020/08/millie-weaver-faces-her-first-court.html
on the otherhand (because THIS is not facebook) lemme try and post the ACTUAL direct link?
https://www.brighteon.com/ec03f3a4-af39-47fd-9d52-fe0f29e54887
I asked Aesop to fog a mirror for us. We’ll see. I think he’s fine.
I’ll give Millie’s vid a look. Something going on there – and it might not be good.
There’s a behavioral researcher named Dr. Robert Epstein who has been researching how the algorithms influence voters. His work has shown that by simply shifting the results presented to voters, Google can determine who those people will vote for up to 80% of the time.
I assume most people have seen that leaked video from Google HQ right after the ’16 election with one of the executives saying how upset they were Trump won and “we won’t let that happen again.”
“Dr. Robert Epstein is a Democrat and ever since the fishy reports surfaced the last election of interference of “Big Tech”, he’s made it his mission to research everything and anything he could. Google execs have said they WON’T let 2016 happen all over again and whistleblowers have confirmed this philosophy within the company. Dr. Epstein claims big tech can shift 15 million votes with unbelievable techniques, favorable search results and hidden bias. ” From:
https://www.glennbeck.com/radio/dr-robert-epstein-big-tech-is-pulling-out-all-the-stops-to-ensure-trump-ousted-in-november
He’s trying to run an experiment during the election but is having some funding issues. He’s at:
https://aibrt.org/index.php/support
Should I donate to the cause?
Dang, forgot I just picked up a can of M2 Ball, I should be able to fund him on the next cycle….
Buy more ammo.
He’s a genius. It’s not good what’s going on. It’s not just Google, it’s Facebook, Twitter, and the rest of them. Twitter banned Babylon Bee on the same day as The Boy.
Error? I don’t think so.