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Comment by jwilber | Hacker News Reader

I really like this documentary/film, but if I’m being honest, it does leave a taste of typical SV virtue signaling in my mouth.

The website explicitly states that their site allows cookies "set through our site by our advertising partners and may be used to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant ads on other sites."

Since visiting I received two ads for “Moment” in instagram, and one for Asana on YouTube.

Crazy hypocritical, opt-in or not.

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After reading your comment I immediately got reminded of : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XebyM7mU0A (Rick and Morty - Simple Rick Wafer Shattering the Grand Illusion)

Not to mention the film is funded and owned by Netflix itself.

yea but the difference is you pay for a netflix subscription. Their main purpose is to keep you paying for a subscription, social media's purpose is to keep you engaged so they can advertise to you.

Yes, but: - They're trying to do the same thing by keeping you engaged by shoving up as much content as they can to you, by making recommender systems that "know you". - They polarize you in just the same way as advertisements do. Once I started watching documentaries on meat, that's all I was suggested further. The only thing I'd say is Netflix's content is regulated and less opinionated, whereas YouTube is a free market and every opinion has its own library of rabbit holes to dig into.

Well, netflix's product is the content they serve and one logs on netflix to consume its content. FB or google are supposed to offer other "services" for "free" and end up abusing that in order to shove ads down your throat. Am I the only who sees a difference there ?

I was actually baffled by this move. Is Netflix going to war with FB and Google? I mean, Netflix itself collects a tonne of data... The film called out FB, Google and Twitter numerous times while Netflix was conveniently missed.

Not saying I'd expect them to damage their own brand, but it's still very, very close to shooting yourself in your own foot.

Either Apple, Microsoft, nor Amazon were mentioned. All of which collect data.

The difference being neither run a social network. Well, LinkedIn is one, I suppose.

Does Google run a social network? There was plus, but that's gone. Youtube is kind of a social network I guess? But I don't know anyone that uses it as anything other than a one way means of communication.

For Google they talk about how the same search can give you different results depending on the user, so for instance they mention search about "climate change" it can return you first neagtionism or confirmation news, based on what Google estimates that will make you to engage more, not by which one is the most relevant / accurate / true

It doesn't have to be a social network. They track how you use their apps and software and construct them with the goal of keeping you in their ecosystem as much as possible. Tristan Harris, one of the main people in the movie, worked on GMail when he started wondering why they weren't focusing on helping people use their apps in a more responsible, less addictive manner.

as Bill Hicks warned us against, it's like the anti-advertising dollar the advertisers are marketing to.

And the top of the website has a wiggling bell notification icon, so you can sign up for some dopamine fixes.

I agree. These guys want to sell you another technical solution. When Netflix finds one they like they will let you know.

This actually enforces the point of the movie.

We don’t live in a world that can break free of these atrocities.

The point of the movie (per the website as well) is literally a call to, “rebuild the system.”

That’s not what it’s about, that’s what they tell you it’s about.

Every anti-war movie ends up being a pro-war movie. I stoped watching it halfway through because I couldn't get past the cheap narrative device of begging a question and interrupting the answer with cheap drama. Sort of like cable television or youtube, "How did they build this big thing, find out after a word of our sponsor". The infamous 1 in 3 success rate to keep the user engaged with little dopamine hits. I think I'll become aware before the machine ever will.

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