Netflix Documentaries
#106
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Joined: Oct 2003
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Re: Netflix Documentaries
Better late than never - just over a year since you posted this, I started "Murder Mountain" last night - absolutely fascinating! And what scenery! I've spent a small amount of time in Mendocino and Humboldt counties on 'long weekend getaways' and it is beautiful up there. Now I"m glad I didn't drive off on too many 'back roads'! I'm only part-way into it but it's fascinating to see how legalization of marijuana completely messed up the growers. Highly recommended, with a good dose of 'unintended consequences'.
Ha! Glad you finally started watching. Some very interesting characters!
#109
Re: Netflix Documentaries
I posted this over on a more obscure thread. I think this is the more appropriate spot. I encourage everyone to watch it. I found their use of 'dramatic reconstructions' a bit hokey, but I guess it made the point. Also not sure if everyone will appreciate what they were trying to convey when they showed the three guys manipulating the 'boy' (their attempt to convey what AI was doing). Anyway, here's what I wrote elsewhere ...
The whole documentary focuses on the engineers who developed Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc and they explain how the motivation for everything they do is 'engagement' - causing you to spend more and more time on their site - in order that you will see more and more ads. They are dynamically building ever-more-refined 'profiles' of the users, and using those profiles to deliver targeted content. So if their algorithms determine you are right-leaning, and are interested in conspiracy theories, they will deliver to you more conspiracy theory articles in the hope you will spend more time reading/viewing them.
The show focuses entirely on 'ex' employees of the platforms, who have all left due to ethical concerns. Many have formed new companies trying to combat the effect of the big guys.
None of these platforms are explicitly trying to promote fake news or conspiracy theories; rather, they are singularly focused on promoting 'engagement', and it just so happens that fake news and conspiracy theories generate tremendous engagement. They would promote pictures of pussycats if that created the most engagement. The developers are all naive tech-heads who simply wanted to achieve a goal, without realizing where it was going. The people in charge of the platforms - Zuckerberg, and such - are so committed to the financial goals of ever-increasing revenue that they have no incentive to stop what they have started. They probably are incapable of stopping it even if they wanted to, without seriously ripping into their business revenues.
My take-away is that this is an extremely serious issue. And note - the 'target' of these efforts is not 'you and I' as much as it is teenagers, millennials, etc (I'm assuming the BE readership is rather older than the target). We aren't the ones staring at our phones every 10 seconds. There's an interesting common theme in what all the participants say you should do - turn off notifications. The general idea is, notifications are the 'drug' that keeps you looking at your phone. If you've ever observed a collection of teenagers gathered together in a cafe, with every single one of them glued to their phones and not each other, you get the idea.
Here's an article that includes Facebook's initial reaction - https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-s...istorted-view/
The whole documentary focuses on the engineers who developed Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc and they explain how the motivation for everything they do is 'engagement' - causing you to spend more and more time on their site - in order that you will see more and more ads. They are dynamically building ever-more-refined 'profiles' of the users, and using those profiles to deliver targeted content. So if their algorithms determine you are right-leaning, and are interested in conspiracy theories, they will deliver to you more conspiracy theory articles in the hope you will spend more time reading/viewing them.
The show focuses entirely on 'ex' employees of the platforms, who have all left due to ethical concerns. Many have formed new companies trying to combat the effect of the big guys.
None of these platforms are explicitly trying to promote fake news or conspiracy theories; rather, they are singularly focused on promoting 'engagement', and it just so happens that fake news and conspiracy theories generate tremendous engagement. They would promote pictures of pussycats if that created the most engagement. The developers are all naive tech-heads who simply wanted to achieve a goal, without realizing where it was going. The people in charge of the platforms - Zuckerberg, and such - are so committed to the financial goals of ever-increasing revenue that they have no incentive to stop what they have started. They probably are incapable of stopping it even if they wanted to, without seriously ripping into their business revenues.
My take-away is that this is an extremely serious issue. And note - the 'target' of these efforts is not 'you and I' as much as it is teenagers, millennials, etc (I'm assuming the BE readership is rather older than the target). We aren't the ones staring at our phones every 10 seconds. There's an interesting common theme in what all the participants say you should do - turn off notifications. The general idea is, notifications are the 'drug' that keeps you looking at your phone. If you've ever observed a collection of teenagers gathered together in a cafe, with every single one of them glued to their phones and not each other, you get the idea.
Here's an article that includes Facebook's initial reaction - https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-s...istorted-view/
#110
Re: Netflix Documentaries
#111
Re: Netflix Documentaries
If anyone one has the streaming app for PBS, there is a four part program called Hacking the Mind. Watched the first part last night. It went into detail about how Trump used Facebook to target ads at people, opposed to him, to rubbish Clinton.
#112
Re: Netflix Documentaries
Amazing that, after all these years, and with all these new channels, PBS still puts out some of the very best documentaries. "Frontline" for example, is wonderful. "The American Experience" is also great.
#113
Re: Netflix Documentaries
Maybe they'll do a 'season 2' to cover the same area 5 years down the road. Fascinating that the Sherriff ran unopposed! Not one person wanted the job! That tells you something. I used to drive up to the area and stay in cheap motels in Garberville, which seems like one of the main towns involved in the 'trade'. I probably haven't been since the early 90s; it was a great base to explore the redwoods.
Of tangential relevance - Arizona again votes on legalization of marijuana this November (failed in 2016 - the only one of 5 states to do so). I'm so glad I'm a resident and will be voting for legalization.
#114
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 0
Re: Netflix Documentaries
A small go nowhere county in Texas has indicted netflix over the Cuties movie.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/08/enter...rnd/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/08/enter...rnd/index.html
#116
Re: Netflix Documentaries
My kids watched the Blackpink documentary so I just kind of had to watch too. To be fair, these girls really went through some really hard years of training to get where they are now. Was kind of interesting.
Then I found a new series called Young Wallander and deep dove into that.
Then I found a new series called Young Wallander and deep dove into that.
#117
Re: Netflix Documentaries
Not Netflix, but an HBO documentary -
https://www.hbo.com/hbo-news/nxivm-documentary
Only 1 episode so far, but I found it extremely interesting. Can't wait for the next one!
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/23/a...vow-nxivm.html
As dangerous conspiracy theories rise to shocking prominence in American life, “The Vow” examines why people are so primed to fall for the kind of tempting but perilous psychological traps that skilled manipulators use to lure and catch their idealistic prey.
“The Vow” illustrates how seemingly bright, capable people ended up enmeshed in the organization. As Mark Vicente, one of many appealing, complicated Nxivm refugees who appear in the series, put it: “We’re not [expletive], strange monsters that made bad choices our whole life. We didn’t join a cult. Nobody joins a cult! Nobody. They join a good thing — and then they realize they were [expletive].”
https://www.hbo.com/hbo-news/nxivm-documentary
Only 1 episode so far, but I found it extremely interesting. Can't wait for the next one!
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/23/a...vow-nxivm.html
As dangerous conspiracy theories rise to shocking prominence in American life, “The Vow” examines why people are so primed to fall for the kind of tempting but perilous psychological traps that skilled manipulators use to lure and catch their idealistic prey.
“The Vow” illustrates how seemingly bright, capable people ended up enmeshed in the organization. As Mark Vicente, one of many appealing, complicated Nxivm refugees who appear in the series, put it: “We’re not [expletive], strange monsters that made bad choices our whole life. We didn’t join a cult. Nobody joins a cult! Nobody. They join a good thing — and then they realize they were [expletive].”
#118
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 0
Re: Netflix Documentaries
Watched the Challenger mini series on Netflix, interesting look into it.
I was too young at the time to really know what happened beyond the very obvious and I did know it had something to do with O rings, but wasn't fully aware of the inside workings at NASA.
I was too young at the time to really know what happened beyond the very obvious and I did know it had something to do with O rings, but wasn't fully aware of the inside workings at NASA.
#119
Re: Netflix Documentaries
Not really a documentary, but First Man was very good. It still amazes that we were able to make it to the moon on 1969 tech. Mind you, if they had given it another 20 years, the video would have been so much better.
#120
Re: Netflix Documentaries
Not a documentary, but a valuable history lesson that will remind you of the abuses that are going on today against peaceful protesters. The trial of the Chicago 7....on Netflix. A harsh reminder of what happens when the freedom to protest is trampled on.