The holidays are over and I am coming to you after a nice reprieve. Fourth book’s ending became an amalgam of everything in the book so it had to be re-outlined on giant pieces of paper because there are too many moving parts for my notebook. But, I am here to discuss algorithms today. As a non-scientist, I must warn you that what comes next is a philosophical analysis and not based on research but observation.
This exercise of mine began when I first read an article about political segregation (democrats versus republicans) and how neighborhoods are singular in their beliefs (they are either republican neighborhoods or democratic neighborhoods). In my search for the article (which I could not find) I found a few other sources that discuss the phenomenon and how it can be researched using those that have registered their political affiliation. So yes, there is a way to look heavily at that topic, however, I wanted to review the internet and its ability to be a repository of knowledge. Therefore, I do not care about the neighborhoods, what I do care about is how the internet – being so vast and amazing – is going to be detrimental to our society in the long run.
You see, I love the internet and the fact that I can pull insane amounts of knowledge from anywhere in the world. Not only can I pull an ancient – renaissance so not super ancient – manual for swordsmanship by an Italian master from some server in some far away land, but I can also read it in middle English, while hanging out in my underwear, and drinking a tea. This is why I love the internet; the internet allows anyone with access to find anything they could ever want. However, I am beginning to notice odd trends (I have no way to confirm them or not).
Algorithms, this is how the people who are developing content for you on webpages sort, collate, and deliver the content you desire. Why do they want to give you what you desire? No it isn’t because they are nice, it is because you are the product they are selling. When Google gives you an email account, that email account gives Google a look into your personal life and helps them choose what you may purchase. So if you look at a belay device, imagine all the advertisements you will see in the near future are rock climbing based. Your Google membership (using their services) is valued at a little over two hundred dollars a year (Forbes has an article on this, it isn’t a scholarly journal but business journals are slower than newspapers and magazines at the current time. Since it isn’t a scholarly journal, it should be criticized heavily by you the reader). Since you aren’t paying for the service [email], someone else is paying for you to use the service (companies pay for you to use services on Google). Google is an advertisement company, and it is in their interest to know as much about you and never upset you. That means, you will never see something you disagree with; for example: if you are pro-choice you will not be delivered a pro-life advertisement.
Since these companies (Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, and any other free to use service on the internet) don’t want to upset you, they go through great pains to appease you. This is where my issue arises with the internet being detrimental to humanity. In Facebook, if you see something from a friend that upsets you, you can remove that friend, block the post, and even block all posts that are similar.
“But Mr. Maestranzi! I like that, it keeps this idiots out of my head!”
“Exactly little Timmy, it keeps competing ideas out of your tiny little brain box, which means, when confronted with it in real life – at a bar, a gallery, or even on the street – you will be ill-equipped to handle the opposing belief. And that scares me little Timmy, because you will not be capable of a civil and informed discourse.”
With each click, with each idea you share, with each person you block, or with each competing idea you shun, you end up creating a perfect little box. And the bulk of us do it without realizing that we are slowly suffocating our intellect. The model that the internet has been built upon is one of free services that contain advertisements. As long as this model exists, companies are going to try their hardest to keep you from seeing something that causes you pain instead of helping educate you about the multitude of different and valid opinions when it comes to a specific topic.
So remember, every click is recorded, and with each click, you tell them what you like so they can only give you what you want. All you need to do is walk out of your little cube and search the internet for opposing beliefs and thoughts – that really fucks up their algorithm and keeps you from becoming polarized.