algorithmic anxiety

in preparation for the RADAR event

‘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

taste is algorithmically done but it comes from within your own frame of experiences and knowledge

another interesting point — you can be interested but not like it.

Algorithmic recommendations dictate genres of culture by rewarding particular tropes with promotion in feeds, based on what immediately attracts the most attention.

In 2018, the writer Liz Pelly identified "streambait" as one such genre: the "muted, mid-tempo, melancholy pop" characteristic of Spotify. In 2019, the writer Jia Tolentino similarly ide

First, you need to cultivate a deeper relationship with your gut. The more our world becomes measurable and quantifiable, the more we need spaces that preserve what can't be measured—the hunches we can't explain, the patterns we feel but can't prove. A jazz musician knows when to break rules in ways no theory explains. A good copywriter can feel wh... See more

What matters in the age of AI is taste

"The algorithm is metonymic for companies as a whole," he told me. "The Facebook algorithm doesn't exist;
Facebook exists. The algorithm is a way of talking about Facebook's decisions."

— Filterworld, Kyle Chayka

What is YOUR rule of logic? How can you train your online algorithm?

so many automated feeds dictated by corporations more so than users, gradually forming a more passive relationship between users and the content feed

— Filterworld, Kyle Chayka

When reviewing the data — as always, we should ask, “What are its biases?” This spawns questions: Does a platform and algorithm drive preference, or does preference drive the algorithm? Further, are creators making what they want, or what the platform rewards? And even further, do some clicks matter more in this creation-consumption flywheel?

The hollowed-out meaning of taste in the Filterworld era has something in common with the way engagement is measured by digital platforms: it's a snap judgment predicated mostly on whether something provokes immediate like or dislike. Taste's moral capac-ity, the idea that it generally leads an individual toward a better society as well as better c