I have a particular hatred of American politics and its ability to worm its way into everything. During the entire Trump administration, even tech blogs managed to sneak in some snark and commentary. No thanks. All media and social media were covering the poison of politics (still do) and then infiltrating everything that large-scale services suggest I should read. Now, media outlets auto-suggests posts that they think I want to read, which means I don’t read as much. It is not clear how the recommendations work, but clearly, some people are reading these posts, but that person is not me.
Taking recommendations from a broad a selection of people, or making all the suggested posts human-curated. This may work for some people, but again, not I.
In a world of algorithms and intelligent services, you would think that someone, somewhere would be able to learn what I enjoy reading and recommend more like it. I do not want to live in an echo chamber, but I want to avoid having to put in as much work as I do to find enjoyable articles. This is precisely the type of useful application new technology should have instead of manipulating people on media and social media. Can I not just find things for me of interest to read?
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