Facebook's News Feed mood manipulation study

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by MrBrian, Jun 29, 2014.

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  1. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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  2. guest

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    Sigh, finally done reading it. :D

    Mind controlling device anyone?
     
  3. Veeshush

    Veeshush Registered Member

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    Never trust anything that starts out with "study" in its opening statement anyway- there's almost always a counter study that'll find the exact opposite. The fact that they did a "study" based on the findings of a mood status a person uses on the internet, and manipulation of said status, is embarrassingly stupid.

    The fact that people in advertising view this sort of stuff as a science is sickening to me.
     
  4. Nebulus

    Nebulus Registered Member

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    Umm, no, not really. The study seems to prove that emotions/mood manipulation doesn't really work (or that it does work for a very small percent of the people).
     
  5. safeguy

    safeguy Registered Member

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    Let's put Facebook aside here. It's merely used as a platform to conduct the study. Similar results can be observed if you look up on how smell influences a patron of a shop to become a potential customer.

    The focus should not be on the manipulation. The focus should be on finding out the correlation between external factors and how much it influences our behavior, be it consciously or subconsciously. The more a person is aware of how his/her surrounding affects himself/herself, the more likely the person is able to put control over the outcome.
     
  6. Veeshush

    Veeshush Registered Member

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    It's not that mood manipulation doesn't work- it works. Advertising is the king at how to play that game. The problem with this study is that they assume people even read whatever it was that they changed. External factors influenced the status change to start with (issues at work, relationship problems, or just genuinely a bad day). Outside forces are going to play into the change too. Basically, the whole study is worthless.
     
  7. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    So much drama about nothing. Transmission of anger. Oh no!

    Moreover, the conclusion is moronic.

    If you show people negative info and they are supposed to respond, how should they?
    A plane crashed, people killed. Here's a link to a unicorn and rainbows!

    Nope. Ergo, stupid.

    Mrk
     
  8. Nebulus

    Nebulus Registered Member

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    I was referring to mood manipulation like the one used in the study (by altering Facebook status). Of course it works in other situations...

    But overall, I agree with you that the study has very little or no value.
     
  9. guest

    guest Guest

    Works or doesn't work, who conducted the experiment and who were being the test subjects are not where I really put my attention at. It's still an attempt to control how people should think and behave. As a comparison, censorship is still censorship which is meant to filter informations to make everyone blind and deaf, regardless if you can easily bypass it just by masking your IP address.
     
  10. Pinga

    Pinga Registered Member

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    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/30/facebook-evil-emotional-study-charlie-brooker
     
  11. Pinga

    Pinga Registered Member

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  12. Nebulus

    Nebulus Registered Member

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    Excellent choice of words, because the study doesn't prove this at all; instead the scientists "decided" that such contagion exists.
     
  13. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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    From Making (a Huge Number of) Facebook Users (Very Slightly) Sadder:
     
  14. allizomeniz

    allizomeniz Registered Member

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    I'm so glad I've never had anything to do with Facebook. Who knows what they're doing we just haven't heard about.
     
  15. CloneRanger

    CloneRanger Registered Member

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    Just because it's from AJ etc, don't auto dismiss it ! Not everything on his www's is sensationalist etc. If it was, i wouldn't go there.
     
  16. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    .

    It's NOT about nothing !!!!

    Certain Facebook users were,in effect, chosen as victims to be shown ONLY bad news and this had real life consequences on their emotional and physical states. What if one of The Chosen was a seriously depressed person with strong suicidal ideations and watching this selected stream of bad news pushed him/her over the edge? This is totally reprehensible behavior by Facebook's employees and if in fact my hypothetical example had occurred Facebook through it's psychopathic employees would have committed criminal manslaughter, at least in the second degree. What a thoughtless, psychopathic thing to do!

    We always knew that Facebook's product were it's users. We didn't know they were it's lab rats too !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I am soooooooo angered and disgusted by this report!

    Endless greed without mindful consideration of its effects on others has set our Nation on a course of ruination.
     
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2014
  17. siljaline

    siljaline Registered Member

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    Sheryl Sandberg apologizes for Facebook's News Feed experiment: 'we never meant to upset you'
    http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/2/58...apologizes-for-facebooks-news-feed-experiment

     
  18. Compu KTed

    Compu KTed Registered Member

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    Facebook faces investigation by UK regulator over its controversial emotion experiment.

    thenextweb
     
  19. Mrkvonic

    Mrkvonic Linux Systems Expert

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    @hawki, you choose the info you want. That's the point.
    You see a news feed - okay, do you have to read it?
    When will people stop being sheep? Oh wait.
    Mrk
     
  20. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    She DID NOT APOLOGIZE for the experiment.


    "Sheryl Sandberg Stops Short Of Apology For Facebook Mood Study

    Facebook’s chief operating officer said Wednesday she was sorry a controversial study that manipulated nearly 700,000 people's Facebook accounts was “poorly communicated."

    But she stopped short of actually apologizing for the study itself."

    She only apologized for the way the the experiment was communicated and not for the experiment itself:

    "“This was part of ongoing research companies do to test different products, and that was what it was; it was poorly communicated.“And for that communication we apologize. We never meant to upset you.””

    "A Facebook spokesman told The Huffington Post Wednesday that Sandberg was not apologizing for the study itself, and that she was simply acknowledging that the company is investigating its internal review process for research following the public outcry.'

    "Facebook originally defended the research, saying it was part of the company’s ongoing effort to improve its website. But news of the study prompted a flurry of outraged comments on social media. Critics have raised questions about the study's ethics, blasting Facebook for not getting the informed consent of its participants. Facebook also admitted Monday that the study may have included minors, another ethical red flag."

    All they are doing are trying to put the best Facebook face they can on it. It is what it is. They can't explain it away. Their intent is irrelevant. The effect on the 700,000 is the same: "Here look at this horrible news, post. We don't intend to upset you by showing you this. But does it?"

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/02/sheryl-sandberg-facebook-study_n_5551828.html
     
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2014
  21. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    Mrk :) I don't use Facebook. I don't look at Facebook. I wouldn't touch the site with a ten foot pole, so I do not know what control the user has over what they see and what opportunity they have to turn it off before they are exposed to it.
     
  22. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

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    As long as FB is bending over backwards for *** nothing will happen of any consequence to multi-billion dollar FB.
     
  23. CloneRanger

    CloneRanger Registered Member

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    Further to my previous post.

     
  24. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

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    Nothing the non-ostrich's already didn't know. Of course the ostrich's are in the vast majority.
     
  25. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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