Personalised content is the worst
I open any social network and I am bombarded by content. So, how does a social network determine what content to show me? They use algorithms to determine what type of person I am and what I like to see, so they adjust my feed accordingly to make me see more of that type of content.
Sign up to Twitter, and you will see on “who to follow” politicians of your country. Why? Twitter is trying to understand what type of person you are. Following Trump or Obama will allow Twitter to make a decision about you. Next, you will start seeing what other people like you have followed on your “who to follow”.
Youtube is probably the worst. If you are new to the site, you will see whatever is popular in your country. Called “Trending”. You might click on a few things. This allows the site to learn about you. “Oh, they clicked that”, “Oh, they liked that”… You watched a video about James Franco? As soon as you get back to the homepage of Youtube, which is populated entirely by personalised content, you will start seeing more videos about James Franco. I guarantee you, watch a video about James Franco and he will invade your “Suggested” feed on Youtube.
Personalised content creates a bubble around a person. You will have to actively fight against it to find new and interesting content you’ve never seen before. If you want to find opposite views, you will have to actively search for it. This creates an incredible barrier of communication in a time where it has never been easier to communicate. Personalised content helps create division, misunderstandings and culture gaps.
Most people don’t even realise it’s happening because it’s so invisible. In Twitter, you have to go into the settings into the settings and fiddle with multiple options to stop Twitter from curating your content for you. And even then, it doesn’t completely leave it alone. You still have to fight against it.
I realise by nature, humans create a social circle from people who are similar to each other. But what good is this incredible technology if not to allow us hear each other?
