So... could you run Facebook better than Zuckerberg? Also, I can't believe this is the last episode of Attention Wars!! 👀😢Whether you've watched one episode or all six, I *really* hope you've gained some insight to how technology influences your everyday choices (and life!) and that, hopefully, you've thought about the relationship that you have with technology. And if you haven't seen all six episodes lol plz watch sometime

"When i'm not actively doing something to try not to be online, by default, i'm online." This kid is going places, wow, best quote of 2018

If I was the CEO of Facebook, I'd earn myself a bunch of money and quit immediately afterwards. Facebook is a publicly traded company. The CEO of Facebook *cannot* do anything to make Facebook less addictive, because it'll be less profitable. His shareholders won't allow anything he could possibly try to make Facebook more ethical. The best way to understand why if you were the CEO of Facebook, you'd be unable to make it more ethical, is by watching CGP Grey's Rules for Rulers. This does not mean that there aren't any ways to improve Facebook. There are. They're available to governments though, not the CEO of Facebook.

Do these three kids have a youtube channel or something? They're more articulate than half the adults I know

Wow, that 13 yo girl! “I’m 13 years old, it shouldn’t be my responsibility wholeheartedly.” Bam!

Thank you Vanessa for attention wars series, enjoyed each one of them!

My water and power lines don't come with targeted political ads. Sometimes my phone does, but I'm not happy about it. I like this public utility angle, it really clarifies how much skullduggery we put up with just using basic tools.

Those are some self aware kids!

One of the scariest things about this is the personal information bubble, but not in the way that most people think. The thing about large powerful corporations or large governments is their disconnection from the public as a whole, so they don’t really have their finger on the pulse of culture even though, now, they can be deceived into thinking so, which is insanely ironic. You can extrapolate this to the dismissal of the public to your own end, as in, corporations and governments not realizing they actually NEED us to operate. They have a vested interest in the mental health of the public, and although I would think this would be obvious, I’m not sure people in those bubbles realize the extent and context of it. Those kids are smart though, and they give me hope, as do the people deleting their accounts, which I have also done. If this perspective gains traction we actually wouldn’t need the regulation.

I have not used fb for 1.8 years and it feels great.

This series is mind opening ...but i dont get why the views are so less (maybe KZfaq is not recommending it bcz u know ....) Anyways ..great work !

Best thing I have ever done is to unfollow everyone, so I get a blank news feed. This allows me to still have messenger but not fall into the black hole when I log on.

This series was fantastic, Vanessa!

So more government policies? I wouldn't trust Zuckerburg to hold my place in line, let alone my personal information, but shouldn't we trust our own willpower over politicians?

Thank you for making this amazing series! There's definitely been a ton of food for thought and excellent points made about our attention and how tech companies are interacting with it! I do hope tech companies keep in mind that as a business their jobs are to meet some unmet needs rather than throw ads our way. After all I wonder how many people left facebook since every other post you see on it is now an ad, rather than due to the encroachments on privacy? Anyways thanks again for the great series! Will there be a season 2?

It's absolutely amazing to watch the lengths people would go to avoid taking responsibility for their own actions. Like trying to compare a private company to a public utility like electricity...

Publically controlled social media. So like China then? Jokes aside, some competition in the market would be nice.

This series deserves millions of views. People should be aware of these issues.

Thanks Vanessa, I'm not off social media but I definitely don't spend nearly as much time on there as I use to. Can't wait to see the next series you work on

I find it interesting that some people can't leave their phones off. As to FOMO, put your bloody phone away and go out and do the stuff you feel like you are missing out on.

Seeing these kids gives me some faith In humanity.Hope they stay that way.

do more and more and more plz never stop. i decresed my time on social media after this serie. now i realized was too much, and im doing things that contribute to myself quality knowledge

The problem is that I use social media to give me motivation to generate many works and also work out xD

Thank you, Vanessa. I have been paying attention. And I saw that commercial you stuck in this video. To paraphrase: "the world is bad so watch my channel and it will be better" (from 9:20 to 9:35). It would have been nice if you had someone in a gorilla suit walk by while we were reading those notes in that rooftop garden.

The series was great! Really great. And happy holidays to the BrainCraft team.

I actively use Facebook and KZfaq as a way to connect with people, since my profession (Over The Road truck driver) keeps me isolated for months at a time.

Watched the whole series. Episode 1 and 5 were eye-openers. This series and the earlier 'Mutant Menu' documentary are by far your best works so far. The production quality is amazing and the amount of research into the topic is massive. I'm just worried about the amount of views these episodes are getting despite your high subscriber count (& even after splitting the documentary into 6 episodes). I hope this channel survives long enough so that we can see more of these great documentaries.

I think this series really opened my eyes and made me realise how manipulative these things can be, and also how many people around me still use it without thinking about the patterns or realise what it’s actually doingto us. I want to thank you for that, and now that this series is finished, I will share it with my friends and hopefully enlighten them. :)

this is exactly what i hope to do. i live in palo alto california i just graduated from stanford last year and i am working on an app. my app will be the next facebook-integral to society in much the same way-but i will be on the side of the people i will never forget my roots, i am a social scientist not a techy. i want to help i want to be a part of the change for a better future. thank you so much for this video-those youths give me so much hope!!-and this whole series, it is very important information

Now I have to watch the rest of this series. Awesome stuff!

The biggest dilemma is the issue of monopoly. Being a monopoly is by far the most important feature that a social network can offer to the general public. We're not on Facebook because it provides a satisfying user experience (its operation is usually quite frustrating, notwithstanding the content), but because everyone is using it. That's why the superior Google+ failed, for example. Maybe the solution is for the humanity to become the shareholders, funders and the board of its social network.

Like that the one guy has a The Thing action figure to his left on the desk.

Kudos. This series was amazing. I can't stop watching it.

You have very informative videos and they all are very interesting . Keep up the good work and merry Christmas to you and everyone.

We live in an era of blamelessness and a lack of responsibility on a personal level. In the immortal words of Eric Kartman: you rack self-disahprin.

Nice article in your newspaper "KZfaqr creates online content encouraging offline habits". On a serious note: Do you think to a certain extent you are trying to aim for your own professional obsolescence? Or can there be a healthy balance - even in a world where YTs algos work for watch time maximization across all channels?

excellent series! thank you!

Wow! I think this is one of the best videos you've put out. Thank you.

Top marks! I seem to recall a soupçon of Mutant Menu on the Colbert show.

Thanks for this awesome series!

Great video, great points.

Thank you for this video!

I don’t understand how you could “break up” Facebook like a traditional monopoly. How would one go about doing that?

PBS: thanks for making this series, I enjoyed it enormously, I am very looking forward for Crash Course Web Browsing. Mr. Rogers would be proud!

A company's sole responsibility is to make money for the people who work at said company. The only right way to take power away from one of these companies is to make it easier to create competing companies.

My potato phone started crashing every time I opened FB and IG. So out they went because meh. It's weird how little contact I have with my "friends" and family outside of that. But really, all I ever did was hit like on their pictures. I enjoyed seeing it, but not all the other BS that filled up the apps. 43 years old and I'm joining the youngens. ... Oh another KZfaq video!!!

A stranger cannot use someone else to get attention or monetization. That’s invasion of privacy. All four torts

I tried to use Facebook when I was younger, but its interface seemed weird, and so I abandoned it. Now, with Attention Wars series always speaking exclusively about FB, I thought "maybe it actually has something interesting in there, should I give it another try?..." Turns out FB blocked my account long ago. And I'm kinda lazy enough not to create another one)

Loving this series. Thanks!

I saw this Facebook manipulation a while ago. Facebook forced me to auto-update its apps with no opt-out option. I rarely used the app so it bugged me with notifications 24/7. That's when I decided to delete the app and say goodbye to my relationship with Facebook.

A great series :)

I would shut down Facebook and laugh maniacly as people have to actually talk to each other in real life

Also those kids are so intelligent and well-spoken.. I was a total idiot at their age.

the kids are great!

2:07 activated my Google Home assistant

yeah... I made all the way through. Was a little worried I would drop off, luckily the youtube recommended algo had my back ;)

Moments of wisdom from middle school kids

Good series. Facebook has been dezactivated for 1 month now. Not going back.

Take away protections for lenders of high risk loans. You'd be amazed at the domino effect it would have.

I mostly go on Facebook to wish happy birthday, and barely use FB messenger because I don't trust it, but that's where everybody is, so...

What do I want Silicone Valley to look like in 10 years time??? A big HOLE IN THE GROUND.

Thank you for the wonderful series. What would an ideal running of Facebook be? What if machine learning was used to seek out only the good of those using it, how would it balance the issues instead of a human source?

I can't plug off fron Facebook entirely, I have friends there, well, maybe even MOST of my friends is there, coz I don't havr much IRL. However, I got distracted a lot by it that I became extremely unproductive.

There is nothing we can do, once a company becomes public, it becomes nothing but "the money". It stop caring about it's users, employees, community, etc. Everything is just money, money, money, once a company becomes public, and it goes to great extents to get more money. There is only one part of this whole series that I totally disagree, WE ARE RESPONSIBLE. Don't blame others, ever, for what happens in your life, Facebook doesn't force you to lose your time on the platform at point gun, and even if they did, the choice is still yours, nothing and nobody can take that power away from you. When you say, "if you can" when you are addicted, you made the decision that made you addicted in the first place. Social media has only the power we give them, and the platforms are not to blame but us, only each one of us.

So wait are you Australian in San Francisco right now for this project (that’s SF at the end isn’t it?) or you’ve just moved completely?

I have never felt much social connection via facebook. The most I used it was in high school. Otherwise I have used facebook intermittently/rarely and I might as well not have an account. It does not help me connect with old friends. Maybe my true friends feel the same way, because I never see them posting there either.

Just one little thing... 2:10 "never in our history have we encountered companies as large as facebook..." VOC or Dutch East India company had a net worth of more than Google, Microsoft, Facebook and apple combined...

Right now there's no appetite in the U.S. Congress for the kinds of changes we need to see in terms of regulation. But there really should be. The reason most watchers give, is because the public outcry, while loud in and of itself, isn't widespread enough, i.e., geographically as well as age demographically. To me, this signals a need for much greater awareness, e.g., BrainCraft, and also civil activism like calling Congress, emails, in person interviews, etc. That includes at the state level. There are the beginnings of legislation aimed at it. But, for reasons both endemic to the stumbling blocks of the legislative system/process, read as 'the nature of the beast', as well as specific to factors like basic ideological precepts, commercial interests, and many influential members' generational ignorance of the tech itself, it will be slow in coming. I fear that when it does, it might already need a legislative day 1 patch.

If I was in charge of Facebook I would sell it and finish developing Oculus Dash. Also remember how we split up AT&T?

Fantastic video.

Hello. I love your videos!!

Vanessa! You're awesome!

This is a tough question, since I'm not using facebook and I can't relate to the issues there... but I would probably start a campaign, try to lecture people in topics like: how to identify addictive elements and stay in control with time management and/or a strong will! I would also definitely spend more money on funding charities and scientific experiments (but only those that could have a huge benefit for us all)... hope that's enough to become Mr. KZfaq 2019 :D

First, my sympathy and ❤️🐈 for suggesting we socialize the likes. An approach outside the box were to change economy, not rewarding maximizing monetary gain, but rewarding how much sth. reduces stress and improves human condition generally. Obviously we'd need a translation layer for improvement to whatever form of reward.

I remember life w/o internet... I only use fb for groups so for me it's more like a forum...

I would turn my business to help everyone improving their intelligence and mental health! Create better human beings! Make social media really "social"

An ad-free, secure, and well-balanced social media platform, perhaps on subscription basis, would be an excellent replacement for FB. I'd pay $10 per month to ensure data security, quality content, and especially freedom from the incredibly sophisticated algorithms designed to keep me mindlessly scrolling, insulating me in an ideological echo-chamber from competing points of view, polarizing the electorate I rely on for sound political decisions. However, a fee would be a barrier to entry for many around the world that cannot afford to pay $10 per month for social media. This would a real problem because far from a being place of benign entertainment, social media is a venue for commerce, education, diplomacy, friendship, public outreach, and even health care. Those unable to join due to financial constraints would be severely disadvantaged. With such board applications in many aspects of modern life, perhaps this digital venue would be more ethically and equitably operated under a socialized regime, rather than the reigning capitalist system. . But idk, government-operated social media sounds like an express train to Orwell's 1984. Idk what the answer is, but somethings gotta change.

In the US there is a law that prevents government interference whit tech companies. Originally it was made to prevent these Social Media companies from being held lieble for what was posted on them to ensure freedom of speech, except now the companies censor them-self and act as a publisher without having any of the responsibilities. An argument is made because of privat enterprises, however in the US all internet platforms are only possible because of government funded and build infrastructure and the law protects them so they can monopolize to the point where competitors can't arise because their results in google-search are obscured and hosts won't carry their websites. The latest example is Patreon, who banned a person inspite of their terms of service as they were then, not being broken. Then coincidentally when people began to complain and leave towards SubscribeStar , Paypal banned the platform from using it's Services, hindering their in participation in the free market.

9:40 So, maybe we need to find a solution for mass bystander effect?

I watch a lot of KZfaq but very little TV, but the last few days have been busy so it's taken me 3 days to get around to this video, and it's one of my favourite series at the moment. I could never be the CEO of Faecebook because I actually have morals. Zuck will continue to pay the fines, apologise and keep doing what he does regardless. I've already given my views on this, and how I handle their agendas. I'm highly cynical, and get more so with age :)

I think I support the utility model a regulated monopoly for Amazon, Google and Facebook.

Some times think that is it twenty first century way of colonization.

Well, like I agree with your point of view, that perhaps we have gone too far in one direction. And you suggest making social media a service managed by the state, but that’s whats happening in China and it just increases citizen suppression. We need to find the balance between this two extremes. Web 3.0, we are waiting for you.

Ads are not bad. I believe if privacy concerns are addressed, ads are the best way to provide and consume services. Think about it. Do you hate ads or do you hate the ads that don't care about your privacy? Most of us convert our privacy concerns into a hatred for ads. But really, if it was *you* who chose the ads, will you be concerned of privacy? If you had total control of the ads you will see, will you oppose ads? If you ask me, that's great. You support creators as well as can enjoy their services for free. And if that's the case, what better economy can we have? You also don't need an algorithm that will 'track' user activities and figure out their interests. Recommendation systems can still be used, but not for advertising as the topics are solely based on user choice. Recently, Google has come up with features that allow you to select the topics you are okay with seeing the ads about, just like you select your topics of interest in reddit. I don't trust personalization because to me it's like their detective algorithm is following me and noting down every single reaction I have and predicting my next move. I disapprove that. But instead, if I tell them what ads I am okay watching and they only show me those category ads, it is great for me. I recommend everyone to check out your Google settings and choose what ads you would approve. Sensitive ads are disabled by default. It's only getting better and I believe Google has taken great steps to address privacy concerns. Why can't we have an attention economy where the engagement is not forced or addictive, but based on *positive* influence of content?

Is it just me that thinks you are responsible of how you spend your time. No one if forcing you to go on Facebook, but it can be very tempting.

I have a question: How could this be possible for an international or global company to be transformed into a local/ national public service? It sounds very complicated and a very bureaucratic process... I am not sure if this is the right path to follow. Nevertheless I don't have the revolutionary answer to this issue...anyway...Merry Xmas!

i never saw the appeal of facebook and all the other social media sites. beyond the purpose of communication and sharing of useful/interesting information, there is nothing they offer that is, well, useful or interesting to me.

Breaking up Facebook would just create more echo chambers. All we need is more direct access to the algorithms. I shouldn't have to train my algorithm because ultimately the feedback loops will over shoot.

4:44 She's spot on but I believe for the wrong reason. Kids don't want to be seen on the same platforms as their parents (first-hand experience tells me this). So they will be a slow generational roll. Which, of course, is why Facebook bought Instagram to try and solve that problem :)

obviously there is always things that can be improved, but i see so many people acting like this is something that is easy to fix and just because of the ceos greed etc. - that kid talking about how facebook is making so much profit it doesnt need ads... - global tech companies being controlled by governments - some things could probably be regulated (eg gdpr in europe), but the main problem imo is which government? most of the big stories that have drawn attention to this are various (russia/usa/uk) governments abusing facebook. even if there was some government that could be trusted there are none who understand technology - imo the problem is people, if people stopped going on facebook, advertisers would stop paying for ads and facebook would no longer make money.

Pretty spot on about Facebook 🤔

Can we get a link to the interview with those teens? I want to hear what else that have to say.

One video on Milgram experiment pleas.

Figure out how to run social media on a distributed ledger system

I'd like to see most silicon valley tech companies go out of business or at least loose some power because more people used libre software.

Oh cool, I’m not the only one who left Facebook

Who uses the internet without an adblocker?

I still can't find InstaHam in the play store. :(

Facebook and Alphabet need to be broken up or turned into a public utility. I'd rather the latter - competition is good for society - but either one would be fine.

i reliazed this n deleted my fb account 4 years ago!