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I'm rebelling against the algorithm

varunraghu.com

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Re: I'm rebelling against the algorithm

#41

Post by pamelafox »

I gave a very similar talk back in 2018: "Getting un-hooked from technology: using tech to fight tech".

I wrote it up here:

https://uxdesign.cc/getting-unhooked-from-technology-86ca8be...

I still use a YouTube Unhook extension (a better one than the one I wrote, though with nearly the same name, hilariously), though I'm not as good at some of the other practices I used to use. My attempts to avoid tech's magnetism is confounded by my current role in developer relations, where social media is a necessary part of the job. But maybe my next role will be one where I can detach from it a bit more.

Re: I'm rebelling against the algorithm

#42

Post by overvale »

ryandrake wrote: post #40
overvale wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, sorry I mentioned wrong AI, replace it with whatever your choice of AI is that has web access and is good at summarizing current events and answering questions about them. I come up against this argument a lot, that by stopping reading the news I've somehow "cut myself off from the outside world". I still read books, study history, do research on topics that interest me, talk to my friends and family about what's…

Just be careful you're not moving from the news-media created simulacrum to an equally bad AI created simulacrum.

Fair! Is it too much to hope that I can escape all simulacrums?

Re: I'm rebelling against the algorithm

#43

Post by sangeeth96 »

gnarlouse wrote: post #37
sangeeth96 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish we didn't stuff being "anti-algorithm" under "minimalism". It's just not the same thing. I don't want to go minimalist even if I respect the folks who do. I wish I could pay for YouTube and other apps and they'd stop cramming their decisions on my feed and instead let _me_ control the experience. At least, let me have reverse-chronological feeds on my home, mute/block channels I don't care about, hide content…

DFTube (distraction free) is a browser plug-in that kills 99% of algorithm html. ublock origin kills ads. Perfect YouTube experience. So good I’d pay yearly for it.

I do something similar with the built-in functionalities of uBlock/Adguard to hide the annoying bits of YouTube out of my sight. But I’m remarking that this shouldn’t be necessary when one’s already paying YouTube in hopes to get an unshittified experience.

Re: I'm rebelling against the algorithm

#45

Post by Paradigm2020 »

pamelafox wrote: post #41

I gave a very similar talk back in 2018: "Getting un-hooked from technology: using tech to fight tech". I wrote it up here: https://uxdesign.cc/getting-unhooked-from-technology-86ca8be... I still use a YouTube Unhook extension (a better one than the one I wrote, though with nearly the same name, hilariously), though I'm not as good at some of the other practices I used to use. My attempts to avoid tech's magnetism is…

Can you share a link to the extension? Is it available for Firefox / chrome (edge I guess based on your job/profile)

Thank you so nuh

Re: I'm rebelling against the algorithm

#46

Post by Paradigm2020 »

pamelafox wrote: post #41

I gave a very similar talk back in 2018: "Getting un-hooked from technology: using tech to fight tech". I wrote it up here: https://uxdesign.cc/getting-unhooked-from-technology-86ca8be... I still use a YouTube Unhook extension (a better one than the one I wrote, though with nearly the same name, hilariously), though I'm not as good at some of the other practices I used to use. My attempts to avoid tech's magnetism is…

Can you share a link to the extension? Is it available for Firefox / chrome (edge I guess based on your job/profile)

Thank you so much

Re: I'm rebelling against the algorithm

#47

Post by barbs »

Ginger-Pickles wrote: post #26
pkdpic wrote: post #10

Perfect length post, perfect CSS, perfect font family. For whatever it's worth after years of being in a space that felt very similar to this my solution was... Having a kid and / or going to Recurse Center and / or moving to a non-LA/NY city. I don't know if any of it's causal but I have finally crossed over some kind of line. I read books again (like I ever really did), I don't think about social media, I don't hav…

Unfortunately yes, yes definitely, yes & yes, and yes.

I know it's a grey area but I would not consider SMS social media.

Re: I'm rebelling against the algorithm

#48

Post by mgarciaisaia »

molticrystal wrote: post #4

I used to be a hybrid user, mixing RSS feeds with scrolling a set of pages a few page downs. Now I only use RSS feeds. To keep it manageable, they can be configured to be updated once or twice a day and have set restrictions on sites or search terms. https://hnrss.org/frontpage works for me as a restriction for stories on this site, but it can also filter by points or other criteria as well. There are many mobile rea…

I've done https://deja.de.hueve.ar/hn for this - it updates every (Argentinian) midnight with HN's frontpage, so I have a fixed amount of stories to read per day, and it stops my compulsion to open HN's homepage without thinking every time I'm bored.

I wanted to do the same for the two local newspapers I read, but I think they have Github Actions blocked so the script can't reach them. And I didn't bother to search for a workaround.

Making things slow again is a good anxiety countermeasure.

Re: I'm rebelling against the algorithm

#49

Post by pamelafox »

Paradigm2020 wrote: post #46
pamelafox wrote: post #41

I gave a very similar talk back in 2018: "Getting un-hooked from technology: using tech to fight tech". I wrote it up here: https://uxdesign.cc/getting-unhooked-from-technology-86ca8be... I still use a YouTube Unhook extension (a better one than the one I wrote, though with nearly the same name, hilariously), though I'm not as good at some of the other practices I used to use. My attempts to avoid tech's magnetism is…

Can you share a link to the extension? Is it available for Firefox / chrome (edge I guess based on your job/profile) Thank you so much

Unhook extension: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/unhook-remove-youtu...

That's the one I use now, it has more features than the one I made.

Re: I'm rebelling against the algorithm

#50

Post by theshrike79 »

molticrystal wrote: post #4

I used to be a hybrid user, mixing RSS feeds with scrolling a set of pages a few page downs. Now I only use RSS feeds. To keep it manageable, they can be configured to be updated once or twice a day and have set restrictions on sites or search terms. https://hnrss.org/frontpage works for me as a restriction for stories on this site, but it can also filter by points or other criteria as well. There are many mobile rea…

I’ve been building my own RSS feeds for sites that don’t have them

Then I can filter them and add actual content to them so I can determine whether the link is worth opening or can I just hit ‘j’ to get to the next one in FreshRSS.

For example my HN feed grabs the link’s open graph preview and embeds it to the feed. It also filters by comment count and score before even adding it.

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