Track_ShovelMar 9

Boredom is universal

https://slrpnk.net/post/35089361

Show threadrumba

Hell yes, get rid of anything that’s an algorithm.

If you can’t run out of content on the platform you’re on, it’s a bad thing.

Use youtube clients that follow users

Browse text platforms that let you follow communities.

TT, IG, /all, and shorts are where your brain goes to die.

Mar 9 at 7:01pmWeb
Show threadTJA!Mar 9
Everything that’s on your phone has an algorithm. It’s like saying I don’t eat things with chemicals in it.
Show threadspittingimageMar 9
Group chats with Friends? Games? Ebooks? There might be algorithms associated with those somewhere, but you’d have to go digging for them.
Show threadTJA!Mar 9

Chats: an algorithm decides the order of the messages shown Games: a lot of algorithms everywhere. Ebooks: eg algorithms are used to decode the drm of you are using a Kindle.

You don’t need to dig very deep.

Show threadCarrotMar 10
A pedant’s job is never done, huh?
Show threadmfed1122Mar 10
We should use technical words in a technically correct way, or else public discourse becomes obscured and confused. Like what Discord did with the word “Server”, it’s not innocuous even when people are doing it by accident.
Show threadCarrotMar 10

Language isn’t set in stone, and when people use the term “algorithm” when referring to the system in place that decides what content is put in front of them, people understand what they mean. No one gets this algorithm mixed up with the math/computer science term algorithm.

The discord one is slightly different, but I’d argue it isn’t that harmful, as Discord “servers” function effectively as a server from a user point of view. The only problem with this nomenclature is that it somewhat implies to a layperson that there is some form of privacy/security in place, which there isn’t.

Show threadschnurritoMar 9
Technically correct, but I think you know what the above user meant.
Show threadgandalf_der_12teMar 10

recommendation algorithm

though i reckon lemmy has one too, just a more transparent one

Show threadrumbaMar 10
Ahh yes, the old “things are bad so we shouldn’t worry about making them any better” argument.
Show threadTJA!Mar 10

That’s not what I wrote. It’s just that they were complaining about the wrong thing. Algorithms are not bad, just how they are sometimes used is bad.

I don’t say " the sun is bad, we should get rid of the sun", when I get a sunburn. I will protect myself from this specific problem by other means ( sunscreen).

Show threadrumbaMar 11
Well I didn’t write anything about phones, I was talking about social media echo-chambers, but you took that there.
Show threadTJA!Mar 11

Okay then let’s get rid of the phone, it was just an example either way. Every program consists of algorithms, no matter where it is installed: in your phone, car or TV. In a street light, a digital thermometer or a smoke detector.

You wrote:

get rid of anything that’s an algorithm.

If we do that, no digital thing will work anymore. It’s not just social media. Or phones. It’s everything.

Show threadrumbaMar 11

get rid of anything that’s an algorithm.

you get my point, yet you refuse to get my point, we have nothing left here to discuss