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Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

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Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#71

Post by lysace »

crims0n wrote: post #44
lysace wrote: post #31

Reddit is unfortunately a major thing in my life. There's an eternal battle between left and right politics in my small European country's relevant subreddits. Not very healthy - it's like a never ending feed of "someone is wrong on the Internet". For the record: "right" here is roughly equivalent with the political position of the US Democratic party. Unfortunately these subreddits are not very balanced, so when I d…

There is a book for this, aptly titled “You Should Quit Reddit”. It got me to quit, highly recommend it.

CliffsNotes (ish):

https://www.reddit.com/r/nosurf/comments/1693ky4/you_should_...

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#72

Post by mifydev »

I've been thinking about this, to get rid of feeds I need something that will allow me to find posts and videos via related keywords. I want to be able to search for information by myself, but in this time, I need to be able to do it at scale. AI Agents that do research for me is a step in the right direction. Also, I think the platforms would resist this by trying to gatekeep information by all means necessary.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#74

Post by susam »

trescenzi wrote: post #38

For me peak internet was mid 2000s StumbleUpon. Finding random sites at the click of a button lightly sorted by theme. One major difference was people weren’t competing to get the most views. Of course monetized sites wanted more but today’s feeds create a sort of homogeneity I find less interesting because people are trying to appease an algorithm not viewers.

While this isn't at all like StumbleUpon, I've been enjoying a similar sense of discovery by adding https://indieblog.page/random as a bookmark to my web browser. Whenever I have some spare time and feel like surfing the web the old-fashioned way, I click this bookmark and get a random post from an independent blog. It's definitely a refreshing and much calmer experience compared to the black-box-algorithm-driven feeds of mainstream social media.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#75

Post by tempodox »

ncr100 wrote: post #27
tempodox wrote: post #4

I can't help thinking that those receptive to the message would have drawn consequences long since. The feeds themselves would have chased them away. Can you wean a crack addict by telling them to stop using? Maybe, but I don't see a high probability of success. I sure hope I'm wrong.

> 5. Talk about it - if you’re reading this you a already know this is a problem. Your friends and family may not be aware of how their feeds are manipulating their attention and beliefs. Without intervention, the radicalisation of opinions, and the consequences we’re already seeing, will only escalate. This is not Crack fortunately. Physical dependence -> dopamine -> euphoria, escape, coping with stress + anxiety ->…

The thing is that those needs people are trying to fulfill with social media feeds are mostly real and legitimate. The problem is to find alternate, and better, sources of fulfillment. This is something you cannot talk into existence.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#76

Post by nerevarthelame »

lolinder wrote: post #19

The author sort of (but not really) acknowledges this midway through, but this is basically a summary of the most recent Technology Connections video, Algorithms are breaking how we think : https://youtu.be/QEJpZjg8GuA I'd rather they acknowledge Alec as the inspiration/source for this post at the beginning and explicitly, rather than just mentioning the video in passing midway through, but at least they do link to i…

Alec also cited this video as at least a partial motivator for his video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNOol5OTasw

It focuses on the harmful nature of infinitely scrolling content. Cutting out all infinite scrolling apps has had a hugely positive effect on my productivity and mental health.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#77

Post by gorbachev »

I've been thinking about an ideal "algorithm" for myself.

I read a lot of online content, from all kinds of sources. Different types of content: short-form, long-form, memes, WaPo editorials, sports, politics, tech, stuff, weird stuff, off-beat, serious, rants, opinions, facts.

The most delightful experiences I've had is when something totally random pops in from someplace. It could come from anywhere, but I've noticed that the best surprises come from places like longreads.com, which collect good writing across a diverse set topics and sources. Pretty much all social platforms do a horrible job at this, and recommend content that is so similar to content I've already consumed that the additional value of that content is extremely low, often even negative.

I think the ideal algorithm for me would be randomly suggestions after filtering out the garbage. No ads disguised as journalism, no influencer content, no clickbait, no spam, no AI slop, etc. I would jump on a platform that does this immediately. Even better, if the platform allowed me to control the knobs on what I consider to be garbage and not garbage.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#78

Post by lostlogin »

gorbachev wrote: post #77

I've been thinking about an ideal "algorithm" for myself. I read a lot of online content, from all kinds of sources. Different types of content: short-form, long-form, memes, WaPo editorials, sports, politics, tech, stuff, weird stuff, off-beat, serious, rants, opinions, facts. The most delightful experiences I've had is when something totally random pops in from someplace. It could come from anywhere, but I've notic…

HN does this for me.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#79

Post by pseudosaid »

tom_usher wrote: post #33
lolinder wrote: post #19

The author sort of (but not really) acknowledges this midway through, but this is basically a summary of the most recent Technology Connections video, Algorithms are breaking how we think : https://youtu.be/QEJpZjg8GuA I'd rather they acknowledge Alec as the inspiration/source for this post at the beginning and explicitly, rather than just mentioning the video in passing midway through, but at least they do link to i…

I was definitely influenced to write this by Alec's excellent video which I recommend everyone watch. I'd hoped it would be a way to share my own opinions on it, summarise my own personal concerns, as well as adding my own recommendations - but totally appreciate if you feel it is derivative, and I appreciate the call out. As a big Technology Connections fan I certainly don't intend to steal his work. It's also inten…

sharing similar ideas is never stealing. Your vantage point is unique and everyone should be espousing their take on the lack of agency running our lives these days.

Re: Kill your Feeds – Stop letting algorithms dictate what you think

#80

Post by tom_usher »

letmeinhere wrote: post #25

This advice is missing something crucial which is how to discover new creators sans feeds. Not saying it's impossible, but it's something they excel at and they've extinguished a lot of the old ways.

Great point. I'm personally trying linkblogging and following other link blogs inspired by Simon Willison [1].

The more people that do this the more we can start rebuilding networks of people we trust and still retain control over the diversity of our sources.

1: https://simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/22/link-blog/

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