Something weird is happening on Facebook (politicalorphans.com)

Article summary

The article appears to discuss a phenomenon on Facebook where users are sharing and responding to posts that may be collecting demographic information, potentially for targeted advertising or other purposes. The posts in question often ask seemingly innocuous questions, such as 'What's your perfect fall day?' or 'How old were you when you got your first job?'. The article's exact claims and findings are unclear, but the discussion suggests that these posts may be part of a larger effort to gather user data. The purpose and implications of this data collection are debated in the comments.

Main themes

• Facebook data collection
• social media manipulation
• user engagement
• demographic information
• targeted advertising
• national social media policy

What commenters say

• Some commenters believe that these posts are intended to gather security question information, while others think they are meant to infer socioeconomic indicators or build affiliate pages with high engagement numbers.
• The effectiveness of these posts in collecting useful data is questioned, with some arguing that only a small percentage of users respond with relevant information.
• Commenters disagree on the best way to discourage interaction with these posts, with some suggesting that commenting on the posts to say they are datamining or blocking the originators of the posts could be effective, while others believe that these approaches are not scalable or effective.
• Some argue that Facebook's business model is designed to manipulate users and increase engagement, making it difficult for individual users to avoid or block unwanted content.
• The idea of a national social media policy is proposed as a potential solution to address the issues surrounding Facebook and other social media platforms.
• Others believe that people respond to these posts because they are lonely and bored, and that blocking or unfollowing accounts is not a viable solution to the problems of social media.
• There is also a discussion about the potential for machine learning and NLP to be used to develop tools that can help users avoid or block unwanted content on social media platforms.
• The scalability and effectiveness of individual actions, such as blocking or commenting on posts, are questioned in the context of Facebook's large user base and sophisticated algorithms.