Cory Doctorow on Facebook’s reward mechanism

After my post Facebook’s dirty secret: your profile page, in which I suggested that Facebook had moved beyond the ‘game’ mechanisms of its early days, someone on Twitter (can’t remember who, sorry) pointed me in the direction of this brilliant rant from Cory Doctorow. He reckons that it is still a game of sorts, but, curiously for a social network, it’s a private game: closer to a slot machine than a sport. You pull the lever, and sometimes you get a wonderful social reward.

Anyway, watch the video. It’s a great talk, and also contains some excellent advice about how to educate your kids.

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