algorithmic anxiety
exploring algorithmic authority over our lives, and what it's doing to us
Kasper Jordaens and
algorithmic anxiety
spending too much time in the big algorithmic feeds winds up being a form of intellectual monocropping. It’s not terribly diverse or surprising. It’s not that the stuff in your feeds is all bad; some of it’s great! But it’s got a deadening sameness to it.
Clive Thompson • 9 Ways to ‘Rewild Your Attention’
An algorithm just gives you what you think you want. I’m looking for what I don’t know I want. Keeping a list of what other humans say they like is better.
-Austin Kleon
The algorithms that shape our cultural landscape are not inherently malicious. They are indifferent. Their purpose is not to destroy art but to optimize engagement—a goal that, while profitable, is fundamentally incompatible with the principles of artistic innovation.
Dr. Felix S. Grenwood • Algorithms of Mediocrity — william
opposite of good isn’t evil, it’s indifference
The trouble with the internet, Mr. Williams says, is that it rewards extremes. Say you’re driving down the road and see a car crash. Of course you look. Everyone looks. The internet interprets behavior like this to mean everyone is asking for car crashes, so it tries to supply them.
‘The Internet Is Broken’: @ev Is Trying to Salvage It (Published 2017)
sari and
The Shawshank Redemption failed at the box office but went on to gross more than $100 million as a cult classic.
The 48 Laws of Power missed the bestseller lists for more than a decade and still sold more than a million copies.
How to Save the Internet
sriramk.com
What we’re not noticing enough is the fact that algorithms have flattened our cultural landscape and induced a sense of passivity and numbness, challenging our capacity to engage deeply or be genuinely curious.
Just a moment...
It’s getting ever harder to distinguish humans from bots, not just because bots are becoming more humanlike, but also because humans are becoming more botlike.
As knowledge of human psychology evolves, algorithms become better at shaping human behavior.
As knowledge of human psychology evolves, algorithms become better at shaping human behavior.