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Bluesky is ushering in a pick-your-own algorithm era of social media

(www.newscientist.com)
190 points amichail | 1 comments | 20 Nov 24 12:59 UTC | HN request time: 0.202s | source
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grishka ◴[20 Nov 24 16:09 UTC] No.42195272[source]▶
> The use of algorithms to filter information has become the norm because chronologically presenting information from followers creates a confusing morass for the average user to process.

Can't disagree more. Call me old-fashioned but I hate any algorithms at all meddling with what I see. If I follow someone, I want to see their posts, all of them, without exceptions. If I don't follow someone, I only want to see their posts if they were knowingly reposted by someone who I do follow. If I want some posts filtered from my feed, I'll set up word filters myself, thank you very much.

It's a recurring theme in the modern IT industry that "the average user" can't be trusted to take their own responsibility. It's sometimes taken as an indisputable truth, even. Why does this keep happening? What can I do to put an end to this?

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1. prophesi ◴[20 Nov 24 16:51 UTC] No.42195785[source]▶
Yep. I'm not on social media, but even with Youtube it can be frustrating that subscriptions are "personalized" by default; you otherwise have to click the notification button again and select "All" for all their videos to show in your subscriptions tab. I'm at least glad the option is there to not let it be determined by an algorithm.

When I was on Instagram, they introduced a chronological feed, but that view hid Stories for some reason. Tinfoil hat theory is that it's to show users prefer their personalized feeds full of ads when in reality they made the chronological view frustrating to use as people use stories more than regular posts these days.