Algorithm
A technical word for rage-inducing. Great for business, terrible for people.
It’s offensive how these platforms keep suggesting the same garbage over and over.
I have no idea what changes these social media companies are pushing to their algorithmic feeds, but it is just getting worse. I keep marking “Don’t recommend channel,” “Don’t show content from this source,” or “Not interested,” but it doesn’t seem to help anymore. I mean, I always had to use this, but it is getting worse these days. Before, these options would stop content like this after a few markings, but now it seems endless. There’s no point at all.
I don't think we have any control over our social media use, especially Google Feed on Android, YouTube, and Instagram. I use these for information gathering, memes, news, and updates. But they carefully plant content that triggers unwanted emotions in between posts I actually enjoy. I noticed this pattern for three consecutive days, and it is still happening. It was never like this, at least for me.
I suspect it might be an attempt to completely understand us so that they (who am I kidding, the whole world is going in favor of authoritarianism) can control how we think or act or most importantly how we elect. The state of social media is completely lost at the moment I think. I’m interested in politics, but I don’t want to see random political rants, conspiracy theories (this is the worst!!!), or irrelevant opinions forced onto my feed. It’s frustrating to see content I don’t care about.
The way I see it is, that people can go their way after watching all these, but slowly the people who pull the strings can easily control any amount of the population. It is now clear how conservatism winning all over the world with this trick. All they have to do is carefully plant ideas and it will ripple effect and will turn out to be in favor of them when needed.
We should be the ones who are in control of what we want to see and our data. There are no exceptions for this. The moment we don't wanna spend another minute, we should be able to walk out of any feeds or platforms.
Closing note unrelated to this: There are people out there who are bending what free speech is. They are thriving on that discussion, and eventually, everyone thinks of them when they hear “free speech.” These people will support when authoritarian governments issue gag orders when a person speaks freely or criticizes. Basically, it is a double edged sword, and we can't use it when we need it the most.
