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The Anti-SNARF Manifesto
A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the majority of respondents would prefer to live in a world where TikTok and Instagram did not exist!
Jonah Peretti • The Anti-SNARF Manifesto
TikTok was successful launching in countries where the team building the apps did not even speak the local language or have any understanding of the content that was getting distributed.
Jonah Peretti • The Anti-SNARF Manifesto
Most anxieties about the future are really about the present.
Jonah Peretti • The Anti-SNARF Manifesto
This is at the core of my beliefs regarding the fear of AGI. It’s a reflected fear of current economic trends
But the bigger loss of human agency comes from the billions of people that use these apps. These deep learning AIs are designed to maximize the time we all spend on these apps. While you are reading this memo, you are probably jonesing to switch over to Instagram or TikTok. It turns out when an app company doesn't care about content and asks an AI ... See more
Jonah Peretti • The Anti-SNARF Manifesto
The news stories and journalism that break through aren’t the most important stories, but rather the stories that can be shaped into SNARF.
Every major platform is capitulating to Trump, saying they will end “censorship” which is an euphemistic way of saying they will let politically charged bullshit and conspiracy theories run wild on their platforms.
Jonah Peretti • The Anti-SNARF Manifesto
In the US, this began with the launch of TikTok.
Jonah Peretti • The Anti-SNARF Manifesto
this began well before TikTok.
It was always there from the time we networked the first computers together, because it’s the flaw with the economy first and foremost.
It turns out when an app company doesn't care about content and asks an AI to maximize usage the result is a service that incentivizes content that maximizes addictiveness. The type of content that gets created and recommended is not the best content, but the content that elicits the most compulsive and predictable response from the human brain.
Jonah Peretti • The Anti-SNARF Manifesto
Back in 2018, I explained this dynamic to Facebook’s head of NewsFeed, warning him that when BuzzFeed creates “meaningful content, it doesn’t get rewarded...the content that is working isn’t our best content” and I explained that the “entire digital media industry is faced with this dilemma. Do you make negative and polarizing content to win on Fac... See more
Jonah Peretti • The Anti-SNARF Manifesto
If the early internet was serving beer and wine that brought people together, today’s internet is dealing crack and fentanyl that tears people apart.