We're all fed up with the algorithm

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What we're seeing is an end of the race to the bottom.

What's happened is that most of the major social networks only hire and promote people who make decisions primarily based on analytics. As a result these sites no longer have any real communities or organic content, and have been completely hollowed out by math-friendly refrigerator magnet junkf... See more

Snap’s Drop in Active Users Could Signal a Social Media Peak | Hacker News

‘Algorithmic’ has become a byword for anything that feels too slick, too reductive, or too optimized for attracting attention: a combination of high production values with little concern for fundamental content.

— Filterworld, pg. 140

Not only does the feed try to guess what you like, it may not understand when your preferences move on or evolve.

Kyle Chayka • Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture

The network of algorithms makes so many decisions for us, and yet we have little way of talking back to it or changing how it works. This imbalance induces a state of passivity: We consume what the feeds recommend to us without engaging too deeply with the material. We also adapt the way we present ourselves online to its incentives. We write tweet

Kyle Chayka • Filterworld

Ultimately, the big bad enemy that the legacy platforms’ algorithms are serving is ... us. The algorithms have been studying us, and they know what we want. They serve our desires with ruthless intent.

The problem is that the version of us that they serve is the basest version of ourselves.

Chris Best • An Algorithm for Quality