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Meta got slapped with $17B+ in fines for the addictive, negative ramifications of its UX. People (me included) cheered like a human finally scored a punch to the face of the robot.
The “fixes” however aren’t sufficient remedy to cure the ills born of social media, and as Alan Wolk opines in his Week in Review, this penalty was elaborate theater that is questionable in so many ways.
Fact is, we live in an algorithmic world, where our consumption behaviors drive our experiences. That toothpaste isn’t going back in the tube.
On social, it’s annoying that the expressions of our friends are mostly obscured behind hyper-aware advertisements, topical rabbit holes. And worse, the news and information about the world around us is decided by a robot engine whose job is to drive “engagement”. FML.
But another fact is, entertainment is a business, where the drive for profits and “progress” supersedes the greater good of personal privacy and mental/emotional health. That stuff gets traded in for “entertainment value” aka, shareholder value and runs right up against another important force: free choice.
No politician or government body has the will or financial backing to meaningfully stop the algo train in its tracks, no matter how dystopian this AI-driven reality gets. Especially when penalizing one platform only drives a surge to another, it’s hard to see how the Meta ruling is anything more than a single blow in a somewhat hopeless fight.
So, for the kids, we have no choice but to rely on the social media-addicted parents to manage screen time, in between doom scrolls: while we all ironically hope at least some of this personalization technology can finally make it to streaming so we don’t have to spend so much time on the couch arguing over what to watch.
This week on TVREV’s Hot List we have other heady issues on tap as well: the regulatory house of mirrors in local broadcasting, the irony of YouTube’s TV position, the changing nature of CTV and FAST with Wurl’s CEO Dave Bernath and a deep dive with Evan Shapiro and iSpot’s Sean Muller on the outcomes revolution happening in our space and all the news you may have missed.
Thanks for being here! If you’re at IBC, Advertising Week, or Jupiter Miami in the coming weeks and want to say hi, let us know.
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