I'm in the middle (well, probably only 20% of the way in if I'm honest) of a steep new learning curve around social media algorithms, Search Engine Optimization and the very powerful and quixotic (not-to-be-overlooked) chill of audience disinterest.
And yesterday I came upon this paragraph in a pretty interesting (albeit somewhat depressing) post I'll link to here.
Naturally, this got me thinking.
I mean, if we're supposed to just accept -- hook, line and sinker -- that machines are deciding which opportunities, announcements, essays, contests, interviews, articles, images, etc. etc. I will get to lay eyes on and which ones I really shouldn't miss at all...
Well...
Wouldn't you like to have a little more autonomy? I know I would. Or at lest the illusion of autonomy, if actual autonomy is officially extinct.
It really bothers me to know (as I'm starting to know) that anything that scrolls down my social media feed will have landed in this position of privilege for little more than its similarity to other posts from generations long gone who possessed that certain Je Nais ce qua which magically moved others to LIKE, RETWEET, SHARE, POST, COMMENT.
My ego is too wrapped up in the idea that stuff I come up with to offer to my circle is too unique, too deeply significant and, yes, way too subtle to trigger even the most generous algorithm. And furthermore, I tell myself that I and I alone have a key to higher and deeper understanding than any mainframe or OS any day.
So Here's My Don Quixote-esque Battle Cry:
Let Us All Resist the Algorithms Together.
I think it may be easier done than said. All it would take would be for an army of us to wake up one morning and promise ourselves to scroll past anything offered up to us quickly and easily and only stop to read, share, like, post etc. that which we have uncovered through rigorous and unpredictably human digging.
Only then will we be filling our heads with something nobody in this world ever could have imagined we might truly enjoy.
(Or do you think I'm missing something?)
