Re:Moving Away from Algorithmic Curation
by at_a_remove on Wednesday April 26, 2023 @08:47PM
(#35721874)
I remember at one point Netflix had some suggestions and I was all "Ooooh, aaah, yess!" Now I have literally no idea what they're optimizing for. It seems to be "random plus a strong suggestion of a Netflix original." Amazon Prime seems to be doing somewhat better, but now I have to wade through their branded stuff, and then Black Voices, and Still Other Voices, and then Some Other Voices, and various things that are promoted before I can get to the part where the algorithmic business kicks in.
I think there's a lot of "we must override the algorithm due to Reasons" going on and that must be separated from the actual algorithmic suggestions.
Conversely, I don't think you can separate engagement from "might be interested in," honestly. They're not quite synonyms but they do have a huge overlap.
Possibly, but is that what you're getting? Or is the platform trying to maximise for engagement over 'content you might be interested in'?
We kind of know algorithmic feeds prioritised content that generates likes and comments - that's not necessarily or 'valuable' (for whoever's definition) content but it tends to promote "shock content" for the sake of shock in order to get engagement.