Social media platforms basically gerrymander attention.
Gerrymandering flips democracies around so politicians choose their voters rather than the other way around.
Gerrymandering attention allows publishers to choose their audiences rather than the other way around.
Conversation
Replying to
A poetic metaphor but it might be more accurate to admit social media is just targeted marketing, only the medium and rapid pace differ from historical efforts.
1
3
Replying to
I think that’s actually *less* accurate. Targeted advertising is fairly weak traditionally.
“I know 50% of my advertising world, I just don’t know which 50%” — John Wanamaker
Now we can know to arbitrary precision. Takes us far beyond advertising mindsets.
1
1
Show replies
Replying to
social media is user centric and content agnostic; in contrast, traditional publishers (vogue, nytimes, etc.) are content centric.
1
Replying to
great example of gerrymandering is fox news; pick the audience and make up the content, than report the news as it is.
1
Replying to
Agreed that it's an *enormous* problem. It's quite different from the usual meaning of gerrymandering, though.
1
Replying to
Gerrymander: Yes, Person A chooses voters so that Politician B gets elected. But also they make it hard for Politician C to get elected. If everyone can do the positive part of gerrymander, that's more or less proportional representation. Problem is discrimination.
Replying to
Do you think this is the result of the discord resulting from new network effects from these social networks? Will the impacts of this gerrymandering taper off as we better understand these social networks and their impacts?
1
1
I actually don't mind social media platforms gerrymandering my attention. If I'm looking to challenge my cognitive dissonance or biases I can make a conscious decision to do so. Otherwise, I appreciate the efficiency.
1
And knows this (intuitively or otherwise)...if he tweeted (or distracted) even 1/4 of what he spews today, he'd be in a much tougher position - but tweet 8-10 times a day? All the wrong people disengage, and all the wrong people re-engage...








