I think it would be interesting to see what hobbies lead to what political views by algorithmic association. I could have intuited that Greco-Roman fanatics are unfortunately associated with...
I think it would be interesting to see what hobbies lead to what political views by algorithmic association. I could have intuited that Greco-Roman fanatics are unfortunately associated with alt-right leanings, as I would assume is ironically the same with the World Wars. I would think shooting is associated with libertarian views. Fanfiction probably with some very leftist ideologies. What else? Do algorithms turn gardeners communist? I can see mountain biking going either into bro culture to somewhat alt-right or just to environmentalism. It's fascinating to think about how much our perception of the modern world is siloed by how computers stereotype us.
The way I think of it is that a website can make offers, and it can use fancy algorithms to try to make offers that users are more likely to accept, based on whatever correlations it can figure...
The way I think of it is that a website can make offers, and it can use fancy algorithms to try to make offers that users are more likely to accept, based on whatever correlations it can figure out. But it’s still true that the vast majority of offers aren’t accepted. Even if you click on a link, you will hit the back button if you don’t like it. Even if you subscribe, if you find it annoying or boring you will skim past it and not read the post or watch the video, and maybe unsubscribe.
(In this abstract sense, ads, recommendations, search results, and email in your inbox are quite similar things. They’re lists of offers.)
What people do is a combination of what offers they’re exposed to and what sort of things they like. Some people are vulnerable to some kinds of content because they genuinely find it funny or appealing.
These vulnerabilities can be harmless, but sometimes they’re a problem. For example, I think many of us have elderly relatives who do seem to be vulnerable to some kinds of offers. It’s natural to want to protect them by arranging so they don’t see the offers. There are tools like spam and ad blockers. But it’s difficult to do on the open Internet.
Similar arguments can be made for children.
I think many people aren’t really cut out for the open Internet, don’t need it, and would be better served by alternatives. It’s common to complain about closed gardens, but there’s a demand for them, and often the problem is that they aren’t closed enough.
There’s a tendency for some closed guardens to become more open and less vetted. They want more content, and outsiders (who may be attackers) want to publish content. App Stores are an example of this. Or think about all the dubious sellers on Amazon.
Also, people are unruly. You might have noticed that it’s hard to keep people from doing things that are bad for them (us). A lot of people don’t want to be kept safe, they want to jailbreak their phones.
But better ways to opt out, turning off large categories of things that you don’t want, would be a start.
The author creates a new account on Twitter (X) and describes what happens when they look for ancient history information like a curious but uninformed person might. It’s a somewhat artificial...
The author creates a new account on Twitter (X) and describes what happens when they look for ancient history information like a curious but uninformed person might. It’s a somewhat artificial exercise (actual results will vary; real users aren’t likely to follow any account recommended to them) but interesting to see how the software works nowadays.
The final step in this process was to follow a minimum of one account.
The first account recommended was Elon Musk’s.
…
The goal of my investigation was to explore how engaging with ancient history-related content as a hobby-historian impacted my user experience on Twitter, with particular attention to the posts placed on my timeline and accounts recommended to me to follow. If I did end up being exposed to alt-right content, which was not a guarantee when I began my project, I wished to understand the connection between contemporary extremist political movements and Greco-Roman aesthetics as well as the rhetorical tactics creators use to radicalize their audience.
…
Over the span of a month I “liked” approximately 600 Tweets, followed 60 accounts, and viewed thousands of posts. After “liking” approximately 65 Tweets, the account belonging to Andrew Tate (@cobratate) was at the top of my “who to follow” list.[5]
Adhering to my guidelines to follow accounts suggested by the algorithm, I clicked the “follow” button. This was the first time I was recommended content adjacent to alt-right and "manosphere" ideology. Prior to that, it was all history related. After “liking” approximately 100 Tweets, however, I saw that the accounts suggested to me were becoming increasingly political, and I was specifically being recommended accounts run by internet political commentators – as opposed to professional politicians or journalists. I cannot definitively call this observation evidence of being led down an alt-right pipeline, but it was interesting to note that those were the types of accounts suggested to me by the Twitter algorithm.
Not necessarily every account recommended, but we all know the power of the default, and especially the first item in a list. And Elon Musk is a bit of a nefarious one simply because to people who...
real users aren’t likely to follow any account recommended to them
Not necessarily every account recommended, but we all know the power of the default, and especially the first item in a list. And Elon Musk is a bit of a nefarious one simply because to people who don't follow the news about him incessantly, he's still a bit of a hero techbro saving the world.
Tom on MySpace also had the most friends, for similar reasons.
I think it would be interesting to see what hobbies lead to what political views by algorithmic association. I could have intuited that Greco-Roman fanatics are unfortunately associated with alt-right leanings, as I would assume is ironically the same with the World Wars. I would think shooting is associated with libertarian views. Fanfiction probably with some very leftist ideologies. What else? Do algorithms turn gardeners communist? I can see mountain biking going either into bro culture to somewhat alt-right or just to environmentalism. It's fascinating to think about how much our perception of the modern world is siloed by how computers stereotype us.
The way I think of it is that a website can make offers, and it can use fancy algorithms to try to make offers that users are more likely to accept, based on whatever correlations it can figure out. But it’s still true that the vast majority of offers aren’t accepted. Even if you click on a link, you will hit the back button if you don’t like it. Even if you subscribe, if you find it annoying or boring you will skim past it and not read the post or watch the video, and maybe unsubscribe.
(In this abstract sense, ads, recommendations, search results, and email in your inbox are quite similar things. They’re lists of offers.)
What people do is a combination of what offers they’re exposed to and what sort of things they like. Some people are vulnerable to some kinds of content because they genuinely find it funny or appealing.
These vulnerabilities can be harmless, but sometimes they’re a problem. For example, I think many of us have elderly relatives who do seem to be vulnerable to some kinds of offers. It’s natural to want to protect them by arranging so they don’t see the offers. There are tools like spam and ad blockers. But it’s difficult to do on the open Internet.
Similar arguments can be made for children.
I think many people aren’t really cut out for the open Internet, don’t need it, and would be better served by alternatives. It’s common to complain about closed gardens, but there’s a demand for them, and often the problem is that they aren’t closed enough.
There’s a tendency for some closed guardens to become more open and less vetted. They want more content, and outsiders (who may be attackers) want to publish content. App Stores are an example of this. Or think about all the dubious sellers on Amazon.
Also, people are unruly. You might have noticed that it’s hard to keep people from doing things that are bad for them (us). A lot of people don’t want to be kept safe, they want to jailbreak their phones.
But better ways to opt out, turning off large categories of things that you don’t want, would be a start.
The author creates a new account on Twitter (X) and describes what happens when they look for ancient history information like a curious but uninformed person might. It’s a somewhat artificial exercise (actual results will vary; real users aren’t likely to follow any account recommended to them) but interesting to see how the software works nowadays.
…
…
Not necessarily every account recommended, but we all know the power of the default, and especially the first item in a list. And Elon Musk is a bit of a nefarious one simply because to people who don't follow the news about him incessantly, he's still a bit of a hero techbro saving the world.
Tom on MySpace also had the most friends, for similar reasons.