Repost, but worth it.
This is what the “Luddite” attitude to technology actually is. It’s also important to remember that “recommendation” models are also a problem, it’s not just the slop generators that need to go.
Repost, but worth it.
This is what the “Luddite” attitude to technology actually is. It’s also important to remember that “recommendation” models are also a problem, it’s not just the slop generators that need to go.
It’s not LLM AI because the algorithms predate LLM’s. His rant falls flat logically because before the Internet was commonplace, people watched TV as their algorithm feed. I’m old enough to remember we had maybe 5 channels total. There was ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and one independent that ran reruns of Leave it to Beaver and Gilligan’s Island. Your information about the world was only what the industry broadcast to you. Searching meant going to the library which no one ever did except for schoolwork.
It’s particularly funny that he opens on an antique radio when radio was the algorithm feed before TV. Before that it was newspaper.
No, Public media was curated by journalist based on importance or relevance. Social media is optimized to what holds you on the screen the longest and brings the most ad revenue.
Also classic media had a lot more competition, especially print. Today it’s a handful of big media companies and social media sites who copy each other’s content.
What you’re talking about is 5 streams of lowest-common-denominator content
Algorithms are tailor made to individuals, and designed to keep one person specifically engaged
It’s not really comparable
That’s not what his video was about. He didn’t mention that angle at all. The video was exclusively about passively consuming media instead of searching for information yourself.
This issue might be that it is an algorithm customised to the individual, as opposed to programming chosen by people to work for all.
Indeed, enormous differences.
You can think of the cultural difference between TV and internet regarding series. In the ‘90s, everyone was watching the same episode the same day. If you missed it, you better have it recorded otherwise you just lost it.
Nowadays, everyone is watching something different at a different time. It’s not a shared experience anymore. This can be capitalized by the recommendation algorithm to create a program that is only for you, no more global experience. In this new set up, you find yourself in a bubble of likeminded individuals because you are never exposed to anything else. So extremism can run rampant. It’s the other side of the coin of being able to find nice communities by for your niche hobbies.
Like when Hearst used his media empire to get the US into the Spanish American war?
That’s propaganda, a separate (but related) thing
You are using the word algorithm wrong. I know you’re technically correct but in context it is wrong to suggest that pre-social media radio/TV channels were the same thing as today’s algorithmically tailored content streams.
Radio and broadcast TV were not “algorithms” as discussed here
They absolutely were. Programming was done on spreadsheets ( the physical kind). It was algorithms that broadcasters used for maximizing revenue.
That’s very different than the personalized algorithms of today’s internet
The video is about not searching for answers yourself but passively consuming media. His claim was that the excessive passive consumption has made people unable to research information for themselves.
Did you even watch the 1st 5 minutes where he detailed how to figure out an antique radio from a picture?
I’ve watched like every video this guy has made 😅. I still think the implication is that today’s algorithms are making this problem way worse.
You made a completely different argument than what the video is actually about.
But as you said the point is that “excessive passive consumption has made people unable to research information for themselves”. And as mentioned in the video title, algorithms, which I think everyone else here can agree does not refer to radio broadcasts, are part of that problem.
But as I said earlier, TV had the exact same effect. People didn’t go to libraries to find answers. They took whatever the TV broadcast at them. The TV programming was designed to keep people consuming the media.
Not sure if a troll account for stupidity ragebait, but obviously a radio broadcast to all users that “Acme Diapers are Great” is a fucking huge difference to knowing that you, personally, have just had a kid and so now will ONLY see and marketed Acme childcare products. That’s different, right? Kinda targets and excludes you from mass exposure to alternatives? Kinda puts you in a little focused bubble right?
Now extrapolate to political and socio economics.
THAT IS NOT WHAT THE VIDEO IS ABOUT.
The video is about how people passively consume media instead of search for answers themselves.
Sorry, I was just responding to your claim radio broadcast is the same thing as algorithmically targetted advertising. Like a fuckin idiot.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/algorithm
" a specific step-by-step procedure for solving a problem" " a procedure for solving a mathematical problem " Notice that 1st two definitions of algorithm does not mention computers. The word algorithm was not invented in 2000 by Google.
The algorithms networks used 30 years ago were run on computers and calculated how to keep the public passively consuming their media. The video was about people forgetting how to research by themselves.
I definitely noticed how you edited your comment so you wouldn’t have to admit that you were wrong.
Also, don’t try to put words in my mouth. I never said “algorithms can’t exist outside of computers”, and I definitely didn’t say some dumb shit like “Google invented algorithms”.