If you’ve seen the Social Dilemma you’d know that your Facebook feed and other feeds, are or were dictated by what would either get you to stay online the longest, or perhaps what what get you to think a particular way. There was also a section that showed the republicans and democrats in the states parting ways to the point where we are today, in which one has completely lost trust in the other.

Is it just more obvious in the states because there are basically only two parties? Is bipartisanship making this effect worse for them overall?

In New Zealand we have a system called MMP (which I recommend by the way, take the hint US), which has given more power to the smaller parties, some would say unproportionally. I’m wondering whether this split in more than two directions has meant the effect isn’t as bad as what we see in the US.

I guess we should probably thank the US for helping us realise just how manipulative Facebook and the like are, sometimes with zero intention of being that way (forgetting for a second that they made Facebook etc.).

I’ve started using DuckDuckGo instead of google for searching, but with gmail, youtube, and Facebook having such a hold on everything, it’s hard to see how much of an impact I can have. Maybe I need to find alternatives for these too.