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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. The consumer isn’t winning when they are addicted to a product that makes them unhappy, and when they are spending hours each day using products they would pay money to make disappear.
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
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
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.
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
use AI to give users agency instead of stealing their agency.
Jonah Peretti • The Anti-SNARF Manifesto
The Rise of SNARF
SNARF stands for Stakes/Novelty/Anger/Retention/Fear. SNARF is the kind of content that evolves when a platform asks an AI to maximize usage. Content creators need to please the AI algorithms or they become irrelevant. Millions of creators make SNARF content to stay in the feed and earn a living.
SNARF stands for Stakes/Novelty/Anger/Retention/Fear. SNARF is the kind of content that evolves when a platform asks an AI to maximize usage. Content creators need to please the AI algorithms or they become irrelevant. Millions of creators make SNARF content to stay in the feed and earn a living.
Jonah Peretti • The Anti-SNARF Manifesto
This is one of the battles we are fighting. Kill SNARF with fire.
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.
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!