> Instead of picking what we want to see we let other people decide what is supposed to be good for us.
100% agree, and this is exactly why I disable any sort of algorithmic recommendations on the platforms I’m active on. I do this either through the app itself or by using those platforms on the web and hiding distracting elements with an extension like uBlock or AdGuard.
My final feed consists only of channels/profiles I directly follow. Oh, and there’s also RSS…
I really recommend everyone do the same. It really clears your head.
There are a few particular problems with this. Let's go with the most extreme example I can think of.
You walk up to the interface of an infinite digital library. In this library there are an infinite amount of books that you'd like to read, or even contain anything coherent for you to read. The problem is there is also an infinite amount of books you don't want to read, can't read, or aren't even coherent information. And this second infinity is so much bigger than the first infinity that it is infinitely improbable that you will ever pick out a coherent book.
Everything you do in a coherent informational world is directed by sets of biases. Algorithmic recommendations are just another one of the tools used to traverse this infinite world, and if you understand the biases they impart you can use these tools successfully.
Even a library with all the books ever written, even those forever lost to time, would be very much finite. And even if such a library was possible - I would really be careful in using the term such as infinity with anything that is in anyway dependant of physical resources - the first ”bias” or rather a filter limiting the books you can read would be the languages you can read. Then time you have to read it. Whether you understand the subject matter. Etc. This already starts to resemble an algorithm of sorts, yes.
I think the mistake you are making is that you believe you can know what decisions and on what basis algorithms on platform apps make for you. Well you cannot. First of all they have again and again been shown to have a hidden agenda’s and besides, they change all the time. In the end it is basically same as letting Zuck or Musk select everything you read.
Instead you can select your own algorithm. It is pretty simple, I did one at age of ten at our local library before I even knew what algorithm was. Only think I knew was that I really liked this book Hobbit by someone named JRR Tolkien.
Ok but why "find me a book that explains how car insurance works" no find book that explains how car insurance works but find exactly one car insurance company?
100% agree, and this is exactly why I disable any sort of algorithmic recommendations on the platforms I’m active on. I do this either through the app itself or by using those platforms on the web and hiding distracting elements with an extension like uBlock or AdGuard.
My final feed consists only of channels/profiles I directly follow. Oh, and there’s also RSS…
I really recommend everyone do the same. It really clears your head.