Recommendation Systems

In the rush to copy TikTok, many Western social networks have misread how easy it is to apply lessons of a very particular short video experience to social feeds built around other formats. If you’re Instagram Reels and your format and interface are a near carbon copy, then sure, applying the lessons of my three TikTok essays is straightforward.... See more

• · Are we being reprogrammed by algorithms? In the last edition, I mentioned a recent tweet-er-xeet post by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. Jack suggested that we should all be able to choose the algorithm that controls our timelines across social media products. But the underlying premise is more interesting: As social algorithms get far more

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I’ve never cared much about the presence or not of a blue check by a user’s name, but I do notice when tweets from people I follow make up a smaller and smaller percentage of my feed. It’s as if neighbors of years moved out from my block overnight, replaced by strangers who all came knocking on my front door carrying not a casserole but a... See more