I almost literally sell my work out of my knap sack. It's gratifying to feel some legitimation of this mode. I really don't want to mass produce my messages. I cherish the fundamental exchange of selling what I make to the person who receives it, physically and directly. And it spreads. The messages spread. (My project is called the Female Power Project and I am based in Washington DC)
This conflict between the trying to be where people are and follow the trend by posting the format that people want, while at the same time wanting to read forgotten old books, has a lot to it.
I think one thing the algorithms are doing is to funnel users into particular, and separate, view points. The ‘if you liked this you’ll like that’ and ‘people who watched/read/bought this went on to watch/read/buy that’ prompts push us into a kind of tunnel vision which is almost impossible to escape. It’s a little like the story of a group of blind people describing an elephant; each has hold of a different part of the elephant, one has the tail, one an ear, another has the trunk and so on. Each comes up with a completely different description of an elephant and each believes they have ‘the truth’. However, none of them can have an accurate overview of the whole picture but each believes they are right. During the Brexit referendum millions of people were being hit with adverts, memes and talking points that millions of others weren’t able to access, because they liked different things, engaged with different content, so the algorithm filtered what each saw. If we want social media to be a true town square where we can have honest and open discussions about vital and important topics, then we need to have fewer filters pushing us all into different and opposing streams.
Would you like more conversations like this?
Yes, loved it. Am a huge fan of yr courageous work re Brexit Carole and loved what these two inspiring people had to say about our current world.
I almost literally sell my work out of my knap sack. It's gratifying to feel some legitimation of this mode. I really don't want to mass produce my messages. I cherish the fundamental exchange of selling what I make to the person who receives it, physically and directly. And it spreads. The messages spread. (My project is called the Female Power Project and I am based in Washington DC)
This conflict between the trying to be where people are and follow the trend by posting the format that people want, while at the same time wanting to read forgotten old books, has a lot to it.
I think one thing the algorithms are doing is to funnel users into particular, and separate, view points. The ‘if you liked this you’ll like that’ and ‘people who watched/read/bought this went on to watch/read/buy that’ prompts push us into a kind of tunnel vision which is almost impossible to escape. It’s a little like the story of a group of blind people describing an elephant; each has hold of a different part of the elephant, one has the tail, one an ear, another has the trunk and so on. Each comes up with a completely different description of an elephant and each believes they have ‘the truth’. However, none of them can have an accurate overview of the whole picture but each believes they are right. During the Brexit referendum millions of people were being hit with adverts, memes and talking points that millions of others weren’t able to access, because they liked different things, engaged with different content, so the algorithm filtered what each saw. If we want social media to be a true town square where we can have honest and open discussions about vital and important topics, then we need to have fewer filters pushing us all into different and opposing streams.
Precisely. Important point...
Platform cooperatives are the future.