MACIBA-M1 Feb. 28, 2025, 10:08 p.m.

Anyone else catch their "personalized" feed showing EXACTLY the same content to all their friends?

So something weird happened at our weekend board game night. We were waiting for pizza and everyone was just scrolling their phones, and my friend Jake goes "yo check out this crazy car video" - shows us this "oddly satisfying" supercar restoration thing on his feed.

Then Emma goes "wait I literally just watched that same video on MY feed too." Then one by one, 5 out of 6 of us had the IDENTICAL video recommended at almost the same time, despite having completely different interests/viewing habits.

Started comparing our accounts, and turns out we're all being fed the SAME supposedly "personalized" content just packaged differently. Like we're all being nudged toward the same opinions and products but made to think it was our personal discovery.

Makes me wonder... are our choices even real anymore or are we all just following pre-determined paths disguised as personal choices? Is there anybody truly off the grid enough to have genuine uninfluenced thoughts these days?

Monro March 1, 2025, 11:30 a.m.

nah it's just basic viral content math - companies know exactly what triggers dopamine across demographics. They're not hiding it

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skam March 2, 2025, 8:13 p.m.

Noticed this with my morning coffee shop - "randomly" decided to try new cafe same week as 3 coworkers. Turns out targeted ad campaign hit us all

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beebeeb March 3, 2025, 3:46 p.m.

you realize these platforms literally employ thousands of people whose only job is to predict and manufacture your next "spontaneous" interest right?

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martin15 March 3, 2025, 10:03 p.m.

Those same people also heavily use the platforms they design. Psychological quicksand for everyone

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max100 March 4, 2025, 5:29 p.m.

talked about camping gear ONE TIME on phone call with friend

both our feeds suddenly obsessed with camping. we never typed it anywhere

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olimpikus March 5, 2025, 1:05 p.m.

read manual pages for any smart device - they literally admit to "learning from your behavior" to "enhance your experience"

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Zhuz9 March 6, 2025, 9:56 p.m.

People acting like this is some dystopian nightmare when it's just efficient content distribution. Nobody forcing you to watch

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Dek777 March 10, 2025, 6:07 p.m.

"just efficient content distribution" is exactly what someone programmed to defend the system would say

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azazel-tgn March 11, 2025, 7:36 p.m.

test this yourself: create blank account, view one political video. watch how fast it builds your entire fictional personality

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467149 March 16, 2025, 3:08 p.m.

My recommendation: purposely click weird random stuff sometimes just to confuse the algorithm. Small act of digital rebellion

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linda322 March 21, 2025, 1:19 a.m.

We all getting the same suggested recipes this month too? Suddenly everyone making that same pasta dish

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1qaz1qaz March 25, 2025, 4:07 p.m.

OP's story about shared video recommendations was itself recommended by algorithm to make us question algorithms

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8989 March 29, 2025, 11:20 a.m.

Been keeping journal of "spontaneous ideas" vs algorithm suggestions. Disturbing overlap detected

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op28 March 31, 2025, 12:01 a.m.

Tried this too. Started writing down product ideas before seeing them advertised. Success rate plummeted

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the_plush April 3, 2025, 5:51 p.m.

former tech employee here: internal metrics actually track "perception of choice" vs "guided selection" - they know exactly what they're doing

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