Our fatal weakness: trusting Facebook. Isn't crazy that we, the users of Facebook, allow a social media site to decide what is important to read? Whether it is a friend's post or an article on Paper, we are allowing algorithms to make decisions for us.
Algorithms are probably the worst feature on social media sites. On Facebook, I always feel like I never see posts from certain people, and then see too many posts from others. Which is funny, because I rarely like anyones posts or really do anything on that site aside from invisibly scrolling. So I'm curious on to how Facebook created an algorithm based on who I would like to see on my feed. Twitter and Instagram were once my favorite sites, due to their non-use of algorithms. But now that Twitter and Instagram recently adapted algorithms to their sites, I'm slowly beginning to hate those too. Why can't we just live in a world where we see posts from friends in real-time, with no filtering and no algorithms? Is that too much to ask for?
The idea of Facebook creating a news app scares me. Facebook has been under close-eye and scrutiny for altering "Top Stories" and filtering out certain information and key words from their news feed. The thought of Facebook acting as a news site through Paper sounds ridiculous to me. Facebook should stick to social media and let actual news corporations (such as CNN, FOX, etc.) stick to news. If we begin to let Facebook branch out to all other aspects of media, then all of a sudden we will have one dominating force in society controlling everything we think, see, or hear.
No matter how much I complain about Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook using algorithms and filtering posts for me, I will never stop using these sites. I've tried, and I always come back. I guess, that too, is also another fatal weakness.
No comments:
Post a Comment