Competition and Consequentialism

Capitalism is not at all the “free market” it’s made out to be

Brief disclaimer

This is the fifth of a multi-part article series based on a paper I originally wrote for a University rhetoric course. If you missed parts one through four I recommend reading those first.

I broke my very long paper into sections and made edits to make it easier to read, so I hope you enjoy.

The game is rigged

As I mentioned recently one of many glaring problems with behaviourism is, whether you’re in grade school or online, the game is rigged.

As children, the game is rigged by the adults. Those who have the power can dangle the carrots and decide which behaviours get rewarded and which don’t. Social media is no different. Algorithms aren’t designed to benefit the users or the content creators, they’re designed to benefit the stakeholders.

Instead of the highest quality content being rewarded, popularity is the arbiter of who wins this competition. The actual rules of this game are known only to the owners, website designers, and app developers, but they boil down to this: whoever brings the most viewers to the site or app — by just about any means necessary — wins.