• SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    Social media algorithms present different things to different people. So if you fall for a grift, the algorithm will just show you things that support the grift and never show anything that debunks it.

    Someone going down a weird rabbit hole will stay on that for a long time, watching many ads along the way. Someone that starts to think “hey maybe there’s something to this thing” then immediately sees something debunking it may conclude “well that last video was a waste of time” and may decide to go do something else that’s a more worthwhile use of their time. End result, they watch fewer ads. Less revenue for the social media companies.

    Weird internet rabbit holes are more profitable than seeing contradicting opinions. So the algorithms are tuned to send people down rabbit holes and not offer information contradicting them.

    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net
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      2 months ago

      I just confronted a guy I know who told me with a straight face that poor people struggle with budgeting and that’s why they’re poor.

      I asked him where he got that info. He then sent me a bunch of YouTubers.

        • OCATMBBL@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Payday loans don’t suggest this. Those are predatory businesses aimed at the poor and desperate.

          When you’re one month from disaster and you break a leg, it’s a payday loan or your family doesn’t have a home/food when you work a job without paid leave. And good luck with the disability approval, because even if it eventually comes through, you are on the hook until it does.

          Being poor has very little to do with budgeting. I’m sure a substantial portion, if not the majority of them, could figure out how to budget with a $100k income instead of a $30k income.

          • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I agree. My point was that rich people don’t take payday loans, but i recognise that not being able to afford a safetly cushion doesn’t necessarily imply bad planning.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              rich people don’t take payday loans

              Some do, depending on their circumstances. But when you’ve got a big income it’s easier to get out from under the debt.

              Most rich people just use credit cards, though. They’re arguably worse than payday lenders, since the credit limits are much higher. But they’re also very risk averse, so they don’t extend credit to the lower income groups.

              Payday lenders and other loan sharks have to spend more on collections and run tighter margins as a result. Far easier to be a credit card company and simply wage a finger at someone’s credit rating to extort payment than to actually execute a repo.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Those are predatory businesses aimed at the poor and desperate.

            society is biased to keep poor people poor.

            Seems like you agree

    • CitizenKong@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Yes, but it’s important to note that confirmation bias is always present in our views of the world because our brain tends to keep things simple by prefering confirming to contradicting information. It just has been amplified by recommendation algorithms meant to increase engagement by showing you “more of the stuff you like”, thus trapping you in a filter bubble you might not even be aware of.