The Idolatry of Algorithms

Kyle Chayka joins us to discuss Filterworld, and the impact that algorithms have on culture and connection. Are we at the mercy of rapidly-changing algorithms and recommendations? How do we overcome ‘algorithm anxiety’ and become more intentional and thoughtful in our content consumption and decision-making? Listen now.

The Digital Front Porch

Key takeaways:

- The rise of huge social media platforms has led to algorithmic recommendations and feeds becoming the main way we experience culture on the internet.

- A personal algorithm cleanse can help reset our relationship with the internet and inspire us to think for ourselves.

- Friction is an important concept—algorithmic feeds try to eliminate friction, while slowing down our process of consumption allows for more intentional decision-making.

- Algorithm anxiety is real, particularly for those who make their living on the internet; they are at the mercy of constantly changing algorithms and recommendations.

- As consumers, our preferences are influenced by both algorithms and personal curators; we should recognize our role as tastemakers and actively participate in shaping our own cultural experiences.

• {00:08:17} - “Not being sort of plugged into the matrix doesn't mean that your life and the things that fill it in changes, it means that you're enduring more friction personally.” - Phillip
• {00:17:13} - “It's knowing who your customer is, and cultivating a longer-term relationship, and that requires a kind of friction or slowness or patience in a way. You don't just want them to frictionlessly convert from a viewer to a buyer. You want them to actually think about something.” - Kyle
• {00:19:29} - “The digital platforms treat us as passive consumers of content and as fungible user eyeballs. And so that's how we act. We act as these passive consumers who don't think about what we're consuming until we're given a reason to, and that's unfortunate.” - Kyle
• {00:33:25} - “We're seeing another wave of Internet development happening with smaller platforms that are not so algorithmically driven. I think user behavior is changing, albeit slowly.” - Kyle
• {00:39:53} - “I also grew up in AIM-era AOL chat rooms, and those aesthetics are still captured somewhere on the Internet, and they're memorable because they stuck around long enough to make an impression on us. I don't know that anyone pines for the 2019 brief interface change on Instagram as it was. There is no era anymore because it's constantly in motion.” - Phillip
• {00:52:41} - “You kind of have to ignore that someone else has already thought about the problem that you've thought about or come up with a good book on whatever. You have to have this willful amnesia to make something new.” - Kyle
• {00:59:14} - “The sheer ability of people to move quickly and change ideas and information is going to create that homogeneity. It's just that algorithmic recommendations and feeds make the speed of that exchange even faster, even more granular.” - Kyle
• {01:04:14} - “It's about connecting with what's around you, connecting with people who are in line with your philosophy or whatever. We can build communities without everything having to be for everyone, maybe.” - Kyle

Associated Links:

• Learn more about Kyle Chayka and get your copy of Filterworld
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