From Hacker News to TikTok - How Algorithms Learned to Hook Us

About this episode

The episode explores how social media algorithms, particularly those of Facebook and TikTok, influence user behavior and engagement.

Corey told me about his AI cat reel problem. He found these AI-genearted cat videos hilarious. Who makes these? He kept sending them to his wife. Then he tried to stop watching and he couldn't. So I went down the rabbit hole of how social media algorithms actually work. It starts simple. Upvote, downvote, sort by time. But by 2017 Facebook has a metric that quietly reshapes what two billion people see. Then a leaked playbook lands, and a CEO takes the stand in Los Angeles. Today is an investigation into what happens when the algorithm knows you better than you know yourself. Episode Page Support The Show Subscribe To The Podcast Join The Newsletter

People in this episode

Host: Adam Gordon Bell

Guest: Corey

Topics covered

• social media algorithms
• AI-generated content
• user engagement
• Hacker News
• TikTok
• Facebook
• algorithmic influence

Keywords

• algorithms
• social media
• AI
• Hacker News
• TikTok
• Facebook
• user behavior
• engagement
• content creation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Facebook, Hacker News, TikTok

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