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The Internet is Worse Than Ever – Now What? (yewtu.be)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Social media divides us, makes us more extreme and less empathetic, it riles us up or sucks us into doom scrolling, making us stressed and depressed. It feels like we need to touch grass and escape to the real world.

New research shows that we might have largely misinterpreted why this is the case. It turns out that the social media internet may uniquely undermine the way our brains work but not in the way you think.

This video is sponsored and contains an ad.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Not really. Recommendation algorithms are great for discovering related information and new stuff. They even beat search at its own game, as search is often limited to plain text, while the algorithms take the broader context into account. The problem is that you have no control over the recommendations, no transparency how they work, no way to switch or disable them and no way to explore the deeper knowledge hidden in them. It's all just a magical black box for more engagement and more ads.

A recommendation algorithms that somehow manages to be open and transparent would be a very big step towards fixing the Web. Lemmy and Co. are too busy replicating failed technology from 30 years ago instead of actually fixing the underlying problems.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Recommendation algorithms are great for discovering related information and new stuff.

I agree that open, controllable recommendation algorithms would be great. But right now using none of the currently widespread social media recommendation algorithms at all (and just matching keywords instead) makes for a less-abusive, more positive experience. IMHO.