Posted on 06/29/2014 9:41:07 AM PDT by don-o
Website publishes details of experiment in which users can be made to feel better or worse through 'emotional contagion'
It already knows whether you are single or dating, the first school you went to and whether you like Justin Bieber or loathe David Cameron. But now Facebook, the world's biggest social networking site, is facing a storm of protest after it revealed it has discovered how to systematically control users' emotions making them feel happier or more sad at the stroke of a few computer keys.
The Californian internet giant has published details of a massive experiment in which it manipulated information posted on 689,000 users' home pages and discovered that through a process known as "emotional contagion", it had the ability to make users feel either more positively or more negatively about things without them knowing it.
In an study with academics from Cornell and the University of California, it filtered users' "news feeds" – the constant flow of comments, videos, pictures and web links that are prompted by other users in their social network. In one test, exposure to friends' "positive emotional content" was reduced, resulting in less subsequent positive posts of their own, and in another exposure to "negative emotional content" was reduced and the opposite happened. It concluded: "Emotions expressed by friends, via online social networks, influence our own moods, constituting, to our knowledge, the first experimental evidence for massive-scale emotional contagion via social networks."
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
“it had the ability to make users feel either more positively or more negatively about things without them knowing it”
Pretty good computin to read my feelings over the interweb. Especially when I dont even know that I am feeling that way.
I feel so used and dirty now.
GOOGLE still won't respect you in the morning so you're on your own.
People still go to facebook?
I have a facebook account. I haven’t been there in months.
I don’t use Facebook and reading this makes me feel better.
I’m sure there is an un-named intel agency behind this.
Maybe they just didn't like you and drove you away subliminally.
Publish your self on the Internet and expect people to use that data, and as they are not “Yo Mama” they won’t be concerned with your welfare.
Grow up, Man up, and remember that American culture is based on four documents, the Bible, The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, the Bill of Rights.
Only the informed have any hope of remaining free - those addicted to the internet “Bread & Circuses” of sites such as Facebook get what they deserve, manipulated and eventually mastered.
Enjoy your “edgy, cool” chain necklace, ‘specially when your masters attach the matching chain leash.
HEEL!
This is about the next election.
Wasn’t this the intro to “The Outer Limits?”
Maybe they just didn’t like you and drove you away subliminally.
I believe they did it by making me feel very bored.
Those of us who are aware of the media and how they work aren’t terribly susceptible to such manipulation.
faceblob screwing around with the newsfeeds is a pia, makes me angry so that I want to avoid using the stupid site.
at least that is what I tell the Missus...
I hate facebook but I do like seeing what people I care about are doing and seeing their kids.
This news doesn’t surprise me because I always request “recent news” in my feed but facebook always changes it to “top stories” as if Facebook knows what my priorities are... And there are more and more ads. It’s pretty gross.
A lot of young people pretty much spend their lives at Facebook, using their “smart phones” to make dumb information available to anyone in the world. They post waaaaay TMI.
This makes me sad. Wait a minute! They did it again!!!
I’ve never facebooked, and I learned here on FR this AM to switch from the Bill of Rights-hating Googledy googledy to the duckduckgo search engine.
It was bound to happen. When a companies learn how to manipulate human emotions solely to make a profit, they become far worse than any lowlife drug dealer out there. When politicians find out about this, the potential for total manipulation of the masses will be a complete and total disaster, and will make the third reich look like a bunch of rank amateurs.
I’m a grandmother on Facebook.
My teen aged grandchildren virtually ignore it now,but it full of middle aged parents bragging about their kids and keeping us informed about their oh-so-interesting social life.
It is a complete,utter waste of time.
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.