Kill The Algorithms!

This is the second blog post dealing with how we can restore fairness and balance to the media. In this case, the social media. (If you want to read my initial blog post, check here.)

We complain a lot about social media algorithms, don't we? They are designed to take the data regarding what we see, and then feed us more of what we tend to look at more. So if a bunch of extremist stuff engages us, it will shove even more extremist stuff into our feed. Which causes even more online engagement, which leads to more extremist stuff, which causes more engagement, and even more extremist stuff, and before you know it you (the user) have become completely radicalized.

The thing is, we really don't need algorithms in our social media! The only people who need the algorithms are the owners of the platforms.

Here's how it works: The more engagement being driven by the social media platform, the more it can charge for advertising on it. (It's just like the Neilsen Ratings System, except it's accurate.) So it's in the best interests of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk to push algorithms into the system to drive up user engagement, lure more eyeballs into the media, sell more advertising at a higher price point, and thus make a bigger profit.

And if some people go off the rails as a result, launch a riot, shoot a CEO in the back, engage in a mass shooting, or sack our nation's capital, well, those are just externalities, aren't they?

But it's possible to have social media platforms without algorithms. That's exactly what Facebook was to start with. Twitter, too. Just people posting things. And what determined which things you saw, and in what order? Why, nothing more than the chronological order of what your friends and liked pages posted. And if you don't have any of either, random pot-luck.

And that model is sustainable today. Look at BlueSky. Another social media platform without an algorithm.

And it's beautiful!

So, since algorithms only benefit the grifters at the top, and have zero actual benefits to the user whatsoever, then the standard is clear: algorithms must be outlawed on social media platforms.

Kill the algorithms!

Notice how this does not impinge anyone's freedom of speech! Everyone gets an equal say in the social media sphere. Everyone except, perhaps, the wealthy owners, who can't push their agendas in front of our eyeballs in order to fatten their own purse anymore. They also can't favor their own political viewpoint on your feed. (Looking at you, Elon!)

And you know what? GOOD. That's the way it should be.

If Musk and Zuckerberg don't like it, too bad, so sad. B-O-O H-O-O, cry me a river.

Now let's make it happen!


Eric

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