Twitter and The Musk & Facebook and The Zuck

[cuervo72]

I'm maybe using FB differently? At this point its kind of a news aggregator with a few local sources/groups, friends/relatives thrown in, plus ads. So I might get NPR, then Rolling Stone, then the local school system, then a cartoonist, then a friend, then People, then the slightly wacky county recycling account, then Gail Simone, then the Philly Inquirer, then my cousin, then Awful Announcing, then an ad for Boston scally caps, etc.

For videos...well, that's a mixed bag. There was a run on painted girls jumping up and down a while ago. Then hydraulic press and super hot metal ball vids. Now I'm getting a lot of cat videos (well, and still an occasional OF model).

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I stay on Facebook b/c it is the only way I can keep in touch with my older relatives.

But the other day, I found myself scrolling it, and it is *all* AI slop. Not even political propaganda stuff. Just fake videos of animals being cute and the like. Or a picture of "unbreakable MLB records" where the names and faces of the players are all wrong. I'm not even sure what the business model is supposed to be anymore.

Curious: how active are you on IG?

What you describe here sounds like a case where there's not enough interaction with you/FB for it to draw your interests from there and instead is relying on input from the IG algorithm.

[albionmoonlight]

Not very on IG. But I don't think that it is a coincidence that it hits me with a lot of sports content. I am sure that my cookies make it very clear that I'm a sports guy.

And, thinking about sharing a computer with Mrs. A., the cute animal videos make a lot of sense, too :-)

I think that FB is doing the best it can with what it can find.

[Ksyrup]

My wife's feed is flooded with stuff from our vacations. She's still getting videos and ads and stuff about Iceland, where we went in August. And now it's all Hawaii, all the time.

[NobodyHere]

I've been noticing an increase in AI slop the past few days as well. I'm not a heavy user, I usually just follow local businesses for event notifications.

[Lathum]

I get flooded with whatever I’ve been searching for. Lately it’s been softball equipment because I just got my daughter a new bat.

[Mota]

re: the AI slop. I do love cute animal videos, but they're less and less real and more AI. The one where a little girl is holding a cougar to bring in the house. Sorry, that's not happening. Or babies and pets. If you've seen enough AI videos, you can tell from looking at them immediately. I'm not sure if it's the color scheme or what, but there is some sort of identifier that I can't describe but my brain immediately knows.

[Kodos]

Facebook is pretty unbearable with all the AI slop and ads and posts I never asked to see. I try to never scroll and just go to notifications about posts from friends.

[Fidatelo]

The internet in general is just hot garbage compared to 10 years ago. I hope we get an 'internet 2' or some kind of do-over at some point.

[GrantDawg]

Bot, bot, troll, racist, racist, troll ,bot. That's the average comment section on every post on X. The AI created post everywhere. It is fustrating that it still has some of the most informed people posting, but the then the responses are all garbage. Oh, also "is this true @grok?".

[Lathum]

When I was younger there was this amazing tavern we used to go to. Amazing bar pies, cold beer, great staff, always sports on the TV, etc...The place was always packed. They printed money.

For whatever reason the owners sold and withing 6 months the new owners had driven the place in to the ground and it eventually closed. Broke my heart, to this day I an still taste their bar pies.

I never understood how or why the new owners didn't just keep the place running as it was when they bought it. I guess I was naive because if billionairs can do that I guess some dumb ass wanna be restranture can.

[flere-imsaho]

The biggest thing I learned from reading Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential is exactly how hard it is to keep a restaurant afloat, much less thriving. It's incredibly easy to get into it, make one of two decisions that don't work out, and go out of business.

[Mota]

I think the problem is when the restaurant was serving quality food one day, and then after the new owners took over, were just serving you microwaved leftovers, and giving you the food that they want you to consume, as opposed to what you asked for.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

The biggest thing I learned from reading Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential is exactly how hard it is to keep a restaurant afloat, much less thriving. It's incredibly easy to get into it, make one of two decisions that don't work out, and go out of business.

Or a cook leaves. That happened to a place in Tacoma that was featured on Guy Fieri's show. The first time we went the food was absolutely amazing with some of the best bread pudding I've ever had. We went back a few months later and found out the cook responsible for a lot of their dishes had left and the food was below average at best.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Or a cook leaves. That happened to a place in Tacoma that was featured on Guy Fieri's show. The first time we went the food was absolutely amazing with some of the best bread pudding I've ever had. We went back a few months later and found out the cook responsible for a lot of their dishes had left and the food was below average at best.

And you are talking about higher end establishments that have a much higher margin than the basic mom and pop restaurant. I honestly don't know how any of them stay in business, or really even how they ever open. Someone once said the only guaranteed money making opportunity in the restaurant business is selling kitchen equipment. Sell a new restaurant $60-100K in equipment, and come back in 6 months to buy it back for $5k to sell it again to the next sucker. I know people that have had multiple restaurants that have opened and closed, and I just don't understand how they keep getting the money to do it.

[cuervo72]

Another case of ad freakiness. The other night I’m watching hockey and coming back from (to?) break they show some kids playing arcade (“bubble”) hockey. I think “man, those were cool — but expensive and where would I even put it/who would I even play it with?” Never verbalize this, don’t look them up.

Tonight? Bubble hockey ad.