Let’s be honest: way more people than we would like to admit gravitate towards junk content on their own, most of the time.
Celebrity gossip and conspiracies, reactionary politics and pseudo-science.
There is a ton and a half of extraordinary educational content on places like YouTube. Say you start watching videos from the PBS Spacetime channel, then start watching what the algorithm throws at you. Pretty soon you’ll be getting things like Cambridge physics lectures on your feed. Then suddenly videos about mathematical equations start appearing, another rabbit hole opening up before your eyes.
The algorithm is an incredibly powerful tool, and just like a knife or a blowtorch, it can be mishandled and/or abused.
So you give people the tool, people start inputting shit into the tool, and when shit comes out the other end, it’s all about “oh look… it’s the fault of capitalism!”
Maybe capitalism seems mediocre because people are mediocre.
They rant about how there’s no good options, you give them a good option, they stare at it blankly for a second before turning their backs on it, to keep on ranting about how there are no good options, and how it’s exclusively the fault of some pig in a suit in New York City, or some librul mooslem-lovin’ gay commie bastard from Hollywood.
The algorithm is an incredibly powerful tool, and just like a knife or a blowtorch, it can be mishandled and/or abused.
Yes, but the people who decided how the algo should work on youtube decided it should increase watch time and ad revenue, not quality content. Same with facebook.
I dont want to have to chooce between good and clickbait content, the same way i dont want to have to choose between unhealty or good food options in the supermarket.
All this revolutionary technology in the world and yet the masses are dumber
Giving people tools does not make them smarter.
Because there are people with money and power who use this technology to manipulate people.
Let’s be honest: way more people than we would like to admit gravitate towards junk content on their own, most of the time.
Celebrity gossip and conspiracies, reactionary politics and pseudo-science.
There is a ton and a half of extraordinary educational content on places like YouTube. Say you start watching videos from the PBS Spacetime channel, then start watching what the algorithm throws at you. Pretty soon you’ll be getting things like Cambridge physics lectures on your feed. Then suddenly videos about mathematical equations start appearing, another rabbit hole opening up before your eyes.
The algorithm is an incredibly powerful tool, and just like a knife or a blowtorch, it can be mishandled and/or abused.
So you give people the tool, people start inputting shit into the tool, and when shit comes out the other end, it’s all about “oh look… it’s the fault of capitalism!”
Maybe capitalism seems mediocre because people are mediocre.
They rant about how there’s no good options, you give them a good option, they stare at it blankly for a second before turning their backs on it, to keep on ranting about how there are no good options, and how it’s exclusively the fault of some pig in a suit in New York City, or some librul mooslem-lovin’ gay commie bastard from Hollywood.
Yes, but the people who decided how the algo should work on youtube decided it should increase watch time and ad revenue, not quality content. Same with facebook. I dont want to have to chooce between good and clickbait content, the same way i dont want to have to choose between unhealty or good food options in the supermarket.