[This has been hinted at in various threads but I'm stating it clearly here]
A fundamental cause of political polarisation is social media. Tech platforms incentivised by advertising to increase engagement have (probably mostly inadvertently) become manipulation engines that have destabilised democracies.
I think at this moment in time the tech community should take pause to consider what we have done. We started with heady ideals and hopes, especially for the internet, but we have veered a long way from that vision.
As engineers, we have great power in this world. For the foreseeable future, our skills will be highly in demand and shape the future of humanity, in every area of society - from finance to health, from entertainment to politics.
If you work for a social media company, or a search engine, or any company that is reliant on adtech or high engagement for its income, then I implore you to think long and hard about how your actions may have contributed to bringing us to this point, and whether it is possible to change the course of your organisation or it would be better to leave.
More positively, the large social media networks are now entrenched corporations, and they have lost the advantages that startups confer. With sufficient imagination and hard work there are many opportunities to disrupt those companies with the compelling mission of making the world a better, not a worse, place.
I absolutely agree this is an issue, but I honestly think it even transcends social media algorithms. Well, for one thing, the news media is just as much to blame, pushing clickbait and stories that induce the most rage. The next step is, regardless of social media sites, people tend to share said stories far more, so it's a vicious circle. I think any large connected social media site, regardless of the algorithms, will lead to a similar result.
Hint: 'Personalized' algorithms simply mean tailored to one's biases. As in Google will show liberals only liberal articles, and conservatives conservative articles.
I think there's an important distinction between recommendation algorithms, which is how I'd describe what you're referring to, and _algorithms designed to maximise engagement_.
Recommendation algorithms try to provide content that you'll enjoy, like new movies to watch.
Engagement algorithms will try to find content that keeps you engaged, even if that means enraging you. They don't just exploit biases, rather they exploit what triggers you.
A fundamental cause of political polarisation is social media. Tech platforms incentivised by advertising to increase engagement have (probably mostly inadvertently) become manipulation engines that have destabilised democracies.
I think at this moment in time the tech community should take pause to consider what we have done. We started with heady ideals and hopes, especially for the internet, but we have veered a long way from that vision.
As engineers, we have great power in this world. For the foreseeable future, our skills will be highly in demand and shape the future of humanity, in every area of society - from finance to health, from entertainment to politics.
If you work for a social media company, or a search engine, or any company that is reliant on adtech or high engagement for its income, then I implore you to think long and hard about how your actions may have contributed to bringing us to this point, and whether it is possible to change the course of your organisation or it would be better to leave.
More positively, the large social media networks are now entrenched corporations, and they have lost the advantages that startups confer. With sufficient imagination and hard work there are many opportunities to disrupt those companies with the compelling mission of making the world a better, not a worse, place.