Protect me from what I want
tbray.org
Protect me from what I want
1–10 of 225 posts
Re: Protect me from what I want
#2The shock people experience when you tell them any sorting, especially sorting chronologically, requires an "algorithm" is disappointing.
Re: Protect me from what I want
#3The shock people experience when you tell them any sorting, especially sorting chronologically, requires an "algorithm" is disappointing.
It makes perfect sense considering the wider public understands "algorithm" as "big,opaque,unknowable way of doing something probably tilted towards interests of the corporation/government", which is how the word has been used in mass media for years.
Re: Protect me from what I want
#4The shock people experience when you tell them any sorting, especially sorting chronologically, requires an "algorithm" is disappointing.
It makes perfect sense considering the wider public understands "algorithm" as "big,opaque,unknowable way of doing something probably tilted towards interests of the corporation/government", which is how the word has been used in mass media for years.
compare the wider public understanding of "hacker"
Re: Protect me from what I want
#5The shock people experience when you tell them any sorting, especially sorting chronologically, requires an "algorithm" is disappointing.
I mean, it is mostly just people dont know what the word means. Its so vauge you could replace it with "do something" and be correct 99% of the time.
Sorting requires "doing something", doesn't sound too shocking.
Re: Protect me from what I want
#6The shock people experience when you tell them any sorting, especially sorting chronologically, requires an "algorithm" is disappointing.
I think most people don't regard something they could easily—if tediously—do by hand without ever so much as thinking of a mathematical symbol or operation (I mean, I guess they do a bit of you're sorting by numbers, but "is this number/date higher or lower?" only barely qualifies as math for most people, if at all) as algorithmic, even if it entirely is, by the strict definition.
Re: Protect me from what I want
#7I read this as a problem with how the term "algorithm" is used by / when communicating to the layperson (basically, the general problem of "buzzwords"). It's just being simplified; possibly overmuch but that's not relevant to the layperson's complaints. I think it's fair to say that the layperson understands that they don't want an algorithm which manipulates them to spend more time "engaged" than they otherwise would.
I do think there is value to algorithms which incidentally increase engagement as argued by the article (e.g. capturing and isolating email spam), but there is understandable push-back against an algorithm that is, additionally or not, being optimized for pupils pointed at screen.
Re: Protect me from what I want
#8Most Twitter users, as best I can tell, aren't actually complaining about what they see. They are complaining about what others see.
In their view, they have the "correct opinions" and have not been biased by any algorithms or moderation. Meanwhile, the people that disagree with them are the ones being duped by algorithms, bad moderation, and bad actors.
That's why there's a huge censorship movement right now in the US. People aren't saying, "protect me from what I want" -- they are saying, "protect others from what they want, but leave me alone." Which is, of course, entirely hypocritical.
Re: Protect me from what I want
#9I think of this as does Twitter / other social media act as a common carrier or not? If twitter just hoses you down with your followed accounts in chronological order then they probably get to be called a common carrier. If not then they are doing some level of curation, choice, publishing and that is "the" algorithm - and yes it might be tweaked to be "better" (good luck defining that) but it always exists.
Whatsapp is I think a common carrier by any sensible definition - and yet look at the anti-social effects ascribed to it - murders in India, right wing election issues in Brazil.
There is no algorithm controlled by whatsapp on who someone adds to their group and shares pro/anti political messages. There is just the real world social graph being imprinted on the technology
And I think this is the problem - people.
Tech does not mindlessly control us, it simply provides us with our bubbles.
I think I am violently agreeing with tim bray.
Re: Protect me from what I want
#10Most Twitter users, as best I can tell, aren't actually complaining about what they see. They are complaining about what others see. In their view, they have the "correct opinions" and have not been biased by any algorithms or moderation. Meanwhile, the people that disagree with them are the ones being duped by algorithms, bad moderation, and bad actors. That's why there's a huge censorship movement right now in the…
^ and this sentiment is repeated by everyone who thinks they're smarter than everyone else.
So now where are we?