10 votes

"The Algorithm" does not exist

Posted by akkartik
Tags: social media, algorithms, facebook, youtube, tiktok, author.kevin munger, source.motherjones
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/01/the-algorithm-social-media-facebook-technology-the-apparatus

Link information

This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.

Authors
Kevin Munger, Kate Yoder, Mark Follman, Edwin Rios, Isabela Dias, Inae Oh, Ali Breland, Jonathan Watts, Lylla Younes
Word count
705 words

6 comments

  1. [2]
    kacey
    Link
    This seems like a willful misinterpretation of how technology works in order to implicate users and eliminate responsibility from corporations. If you stood on a second storey bridge above an...

    This seems like a willful misinterpretation of how technology works in order to implicate users and eliminate responsibility from corporations. If you stood on a second storey bridge above an office tower lobby, are you part of an “apparatus”; a complex device composed of elevators, beams, electrical wiring and composed together with complex mathematics and simulation technologies? Or are you a person standing on a bridge.

    “The algorithm” is a convenient abstraction people use to refer to recommender algorithm systems, which are actual for real things that exist and corporations control. Yes, you interact with them, in much the same way clicking a button in an elevator moves the elevator. No, that doesn’t disclaim responsibility on behalf of the elevator operator to avoid sending you plummeting to doom.

    Just because something is multifaceted and vast doesn’t make it complex. Maybe the argument is being made somewhere that recommender systems are complex, but that doesn’t seem to be in the text of this piece.

    72 votes
    1. akkartik
      Link Parent
      Interesting, I didn't at all interpret OP as a defense of corporations. Perhaps it's because I found it while reading this blog post which mentions various books and articles it's responding to.

      Interesting, I didn't at all interpret OP as a defense of corporations. Perhaps it's because I found it while reading this blog post which mentions various books and articles it's responding to.

      2 votes
  2. [2]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. vord
      Link Parent
      And it's all in service of trying to drive you to buy more crap you didn't want or need before.

      And it's all in service of trying to drive you to buy more crap you didn't want or need before.

      And then I got mad. I got terribly mad. I yelled at the Lorax, Now listen here, Dad! All you do is yap-yap and say, Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad! Well, I have my rights, sir, and I'm telling you I intend to go on doing just what I do!

      And, for your information, you Lorax, I'm figgering on biggering and Biggering and BIGGERING and BIGGERING!! Turning MORE Truffula Trees into Thneed’s which everyone, EVERYONE, EVERYONE needs!

      And at that very moment, we heard a loud whack! From outside in the fields came a sickening smack of an axe on a tree. Then we heard the tree fall. The very last Truffula Tree of them all! No more trees. No more Thneed’s.

      No more work to be done. So, in no time, my uncles and aunts, every one, all waved my good-bye. They jumped into my cars and drove away under the smoke-smuggered stars.

      Now all that was left beneath the bad-smelling sky was my big empty factory... the Lorax... and I.

      8 votes
  3. knocklessmonster
    Link
    It's not The Algorithm, but the data is analyzed per service to weight served content towards what you are most likely to watch. I have to click that Jordan Peterson video to continue down the...

    It's not The Algorithm, but the data is analyzed per service to weight served content towards what you are most likely to watch. I have to click that Jordan Peterson video to continue down the pipeline, but the pipeline was presented because that given pipeline is the most likely path to maximized engagement.

    This article seems to try to absolve companies of their responsibilities for behavior modification. I agree, generally, that there isn't an Algorithm following us around, but the content that shapes us is served to us via algorithms. The split hair here does not change the fact that these data analysis driven video service models modify our behavior and viewing.

    19 votes
  4. [2]
    Dr_Amazing
    Link
    The algorithm doesn't exist. Now here's a few pages about what it is and how it works

    The algorithm doesn't exist. Now here's a few pages about what it is and how it works

    12 votes
    1. Kopper
      Link Parent
      No, no, you see. It's an apparatus. Totally different.

      No, no, you see. It's an apparatus. Totally different.

      4 votes