Fake News, False Information, and Stupid Polls
AS I noted in the comment section, polls satisfy the public’s insatiable desire to reduce every complicated issue to a number and to use those numbers to rank and sort… her reference to US News and World Report’s college rankings is exhibit A… with either the ridiculous insistence of State legislators to assign schools a “letter grade” OR the “reform” movement’s insistence that standardized tests be used to measure all kinds of school performance a close second…
Fake News
Facebook uses an algorithm to decide what you see. It’s proprietary but my guess it’s optimized to keep you on Facebook for as long as possible.
This wouldn’t be a problem but becomes one when we realize that people get their news from Facebook.
When you optimize to something, and when you ignore something else, that other thing can be expected to balloon beyond recognition. We’ve seen that with ballooning tuition for colleges because of the US News & World Report, for example.
In this example, the thing Facebook has ignored is “truth.” The result is a proliferation of fake news:
False Information
Beyond simply fake news, there’s tons of hyper partisan articles that make use of false information. These pseudo-news sites have popped up simply to exist on Facebook and to game the Facebook algorithm.
When Facebook started 12 years ago, there was a much…
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Vote even if you think it doesn’t matter…. and be grateful you still can!
