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The switch from the age of confronting an empty browser search box - which forced you to identify your own desires - to the age of auto-playing content social media platforms has harmed our psyches: discuss.

Absolutely. How many times have you opened your phone/tablet/computer to do something and got drawn into a social media feed that made you forget what you meant to do in the first place?

I think this is a different problem. You go to an app you don't actually need for whatever it is, you're only going to look at it for a minute, then whoops it's 20 min later & you forgot the original thing. This isn't because you didn't know what you wanted but because the feed was more appealing.

Agreed - and also insulting I severely dislike the banal assumptions on which the rec algos run - life as seen thru marketing focus groups and never accurate

Counterpoint: making a game of tuning the algorithm until it only serves things you find strangely satisfying is in itself a strangely satisfying pastime

So what you're saying is skinner box feels better when you build it yourself, like ikea furniture or a gundam kit

So actually yes, we have studies showing that eg you can clicker train yourself even though you are fully aware of what you're doing. Eating a piece of a favorite candy after completing a task (or a step of it) makes you more likely to do the task in the future even though you know what's going on.