this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2026
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Algorithms that are specifically designed to addict you are pretty wrong technology in my eyes. Wouldn’t matter who is running it, that tech is harmful.
They are deployed to addict, there is some benefit to them, Google used one back before they dropped "Don't be evil" to enhance the relevance of search results.
Now they use it to censor, and sell shit, but it was not a bad technology before it was corrupted.
There is a reason I specified algorithms that are designed to addict. Algorithms in general are not bad technology, but these specific ones are.
Okay, but booze, nicotine, and crack were also pretty addictive.
Idk if I'd trade The Algorithm epidemic of the 2020s for wood grain alcohol from the 1920s
And heavily controlled, regulated and legislated. Algorithms aren't
Only took a century or ten
Yeah, those are also harmful technologies that harmed societies more or less depending on the historical and geopolitical context.
Right now, the algorithm is more harmful than those because everyone is addicted to them. The sheer amount of time waste and collective brainpower that is being degraded or never even being developed is staggering and will stunt our society for decades to come.
Even fentanyl, while incurring a much more dramatic and tragic cost on individuals, has a fraction of the impact on society that the algorithm will have due to the scale of our collective addiction.
It’s like how wage theft has a relatively low impact on individuals but combined represents significantly more money stolen than all other crime nationwide.
The effects are spread out over many individual people, but it has an overall dampening effect on the growth and development of communities.
Again, I don't think you're acknowledging the difference between chemical addiction and social habit.
If you spend a week without cell phone reception, you don't die from withdrawal symptoms.
The distinction is not really worth considering except in the context of managing withdrawal symptoms during recovery. Any substance/behavior addiction can be devastating, and trying to say that someone's addiction is less valid than someone else's just prevents them from seeking help.
Seems like one hell of a caveat
People have commuted suicide, though.
Just because it's not a physical addiction does not men it can't be as extreme, and generally a physical addiction will end up with nausea, exhaustion, and mood swings rather than death. It takes deep or long-term addiction to be fatal.