prosocial-media

By giving users control over values, in contrast to other map-pings, such as topic or sentiment, Alexandria provides a way to shape their feed that is broad enough to capture diverse preferences and focused enough to remain practical and in-tuitive

Collecting and archiving are ways to reclaim and own our attention—they are acts of meaning-making. These practices are rituals: habits and skills that demand time, patience, and a willingness to look beyond the surface.

To collect well is to resist algorithmic influence. A true collection reflects deeply personal values and a genuine desire to... See more

The opportunity is in moving curated content feeds away from their never-ending-now orientation and towards more goal-oriented interfaces. People should be able to find whatever content they want on their terms and not be beholden to when the curator decides to publish.

there is a fundamentally social aspect of attention that cannot and should not be automated. Shared attention is part of what makes us human. We care about what human peers and experts find interesting, not just what opaque algorithms recommend.

This observation suggests that the my-opic, engagement-driven design of current feeds is at odds with users’ aspirational goals and sense of intentionality— tensions that Alexandria helps address by making feed val-ues visible and adjustable.