Free me from the algorithm

I want to be a part of a communal experience

Mount Hood behind Trillium Lake. We trekked in to clear out a yurt that was absolutely covered in snow

Not too long ago, in the grand scheme of things, I took my iPod with me to summer camp. It was loaded with songs, standup specials, a few movies, and some old games (probably Angry Birds or something). Between all of us boys in the cabin, we had a pretty solid media library that would get us through the summer.

In the short amount of time it took us to get to today, nearly all of that has changed. For one: the camp I attended no longer allows campers to have screens at camp, which is probably for the best. But beyond that, the world has changed. You no longer get to dictate your own media existence, at least not if you use the path of least resistance.

Of the things listed above, nearly none of them exist anymore. The iPod Touch was discontinued in 2022. Now only phones exist. Music streaming has totally overtaken any kind of digital music ownership. Now only subscriptions exist. Even Angry Birds, the classic iOS game, no longer exists (it does, but it’s called “Red’s First Flight” and you have to pay for it again). Of the 8 Angry Birds apps that I’ve ever downloaded on my Apple ID, only 2 of them still exist on the storefront as downloadable apps. It is simply not possible to experience the world in the same way that you could just ten years ago.

Companies, in general, have stopped selling products, and instead have started selling algorithms. An algorithm can always be improved, and always needs people working on it, so instead of an upfront cost, you need to pay in every month so that these algorithms can work their magic and give you a personally tailored experience.

These algorithms are never finished, so there’s limitless growth opportunities for the shareholders, or something. Except there’s a problem: Who cares. These algorithms suck.

If I was given an option of having the perfect algorithm or a hand selected list published by a real person, I’m taking the hand crafted experience every time. One of the biggest things we’ve lost in the Silicon Valley nerd takeover of our lives is the end of communal experiences. I want to be released from the algorithm.

Spotify used to have basic playlists, handmade by their staff. My favorite was Indie Rock Road Trip, although I’m sure there are others I used to enjoy. At some point, they switched these over from Made by Spotify to Made for You.

Why is every playlist made for me? Music is not made for me, it’s made for everyone. It’s made for specific people, and sometimes for no one. I want to hear the music, not just my music.

Of course, there is still a place for algorithmic music exploration. The Discover Weekly playlist was one of the main reasons I picked Spotify over Apple Music back in 2017. The Daily Mixes and other, clearly personalized, playlists can also be fun. But If I wanted the indie rock road trip playlist to be made for me, I would have made it. Seeing the previously editorialized playlists now being called “made for me” is disheartening and takes away from the communal aspect of playlists that used to exist. There is no way to know if my listening experience is the same as others, even within the same playlist. It’s bad and I hate it. I also wont listen to it.

In defiance of playlists made algorithmically for me (and generally have no clue what I actually want to listen to, just what I will listen to) I’ve started intentionally searching for playlists created by other users on the app. Spotify is a social media platform and I’m going to milk that. Everyone makes playlists. If you don’t make playlists, go make one! They’re fun! And when making playlists, sometimes people put a little phrase or saying as the title (my running playlists is titled “Don’t do me like that” and my playlist of songs/artists people always told me were good but I never really listened to is “Better late than never”). I’ve been searching up phrases that relate to my current mood, then finding a strangers playlist and letting go of algorithmic control. It’s fun! The music is not always good, not always what I’m interested in listening to, and not always what I’m looking for, but it is always an intentional choice made by both me and whoever decided to make this playlist.

Remember Vine? It rocked. You wanna know what rocked about it? Certainly a large part was the comedy, but you can find comedy anywhere. YouTube was already alive and well, but instead of being a competitor to Vine, it became a compilation hub. Even if those same creators moved to YouTube after Vine ended, the ~Vine magic~ would never have worked there. Vine worked because it was curated and everyone (mostly) got the same references. That’s part of what made it so special. The six second snippets were not only immensely quotable but also easily available. All you had to do was open the app you were receiving the exact same content as everyone else. Vine created a communal experience, and for that it is still remembered fondly.¹²

TikTok, on the other hand, is not that. TikTok is dense and inaccessible. The algorithm is very good, but absolutely not based in communal experience. There’s a phrase IBM used in early days of computing, which goes “A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision.”

A computer has no taste. It has no lived experiences or unique quirks. It is driven purely by engagement and math. We are not. We are driven by emotions, wants, needs, history, and ambitions. Algorithms are not personal. Inherently, an algorithm is a generalizable way to solve a specific problem. There is no such thing as a personalized algorithm. Only personalized weights that dictate what the algorithm will prioritize given whatever information you’ve provided.

When you cede control of your life to an algorithm, you are giving a computer accountability over your media consumption habits. No matter how perfect the algorithm is, it will never be you who is in control. The problem here is that all the funny internet comedy videos are on TikTok and I like funny internet videos.

The cause of this problem is that in the past decade or so, the internet has been reduced from the World Wide Web to the world wide like 7 websites. You have Meta, Twitter, Google, Yelp, and Reddit. If you include apps, you could add TikTok and Snapchat to that list. I’ve tried Discord and I just don’t see the appeal, but I guess we can count it too.³ Despite the massive size of the internet, I could hardly tell you the last time I spent significant time positively interacting with other people on the internet outside of a Reddit/Meta/Google owned website (Substack notwithstanding). The internet is the biggest thing humans have ever made, and now it just feels immensely small. The social core of the internet is run not by people, but by algorithms. And most of the content you see is created by ChatGPT anyways, so why spend your time reading a feed written by a robot and organized by a robot?

My solution?

I’m off Twitter!!!! if you remember from one of my earlier posts, I said “you will have to drag me away kicking and screaming from that place” in reference to quitting that bird app. But a few weeks ago, my teammate Hélène and I made a bet: I would leave bird hell if she quit candy crush. Since that day, aided by both how much I despise fascism and the not unrelated rise of Blue Sky, I haven’t spent another minute on that forsaken website.

Blue Sky is a flawed but (hopefully) better app. I’m yet to make any posts, but from what I can tell, the app is very community based and highly values communal interactions in a way that the early internet did (or at least what I remember early facebook being like). At the very least, it’s not a retention based algorithm, so I get bored and don’t waste too much time on it.

I’ve never been big into making friends with randos on the internet, so if you’re on that app let me know and maybe I’ll start posting again! I have also been immensely enjoying building communities on Letterboxd and Substack. Gigantic shoutout to everyone who has been a part of these growing communities.⁴

In general, I’m trying to become less online and more intentional about the media I consume. Certainly living in the woods and working as a firefighter all day helps, at least for now.

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Thanks for reading! This has been on my mind for a while and hopefully you enjoyed it! Let me know if you agree/disagree with anything, or if I’ve missed something crucial.

Today’s reader question is: was it just me or were the Super Bowl commercials terrible this year? What’s up with that. Also what are your thoughts on Kendrick’s halftime show? I thought it was really good.

Watch for rock,

Jesse

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Some adventures from this past month

Where I’m at:

• Mount Hood National Forest 🗻

What I’m Reading:

• Death’s End - Cixin Liu 🚀

What I’m Watching:

• Oscar noms 🏆

• Severance S2 📁

• White Lotus S3 🏖️

• Avatar: The Last Airbender 💨🔥💧🪨 (finishing the rewatch with the team)

1. In many ways, despite its collapse (is it still going strong? Idk I’m not on it anymore) BeReal was also an immensely cool cultural touchpoint for how much everyone loves communal experiences. So was HQ, the trivia game show app.

2. An aside from the topic at hand, I really appreciate how Vine’s 6 second time limit made people get to the point, a skill many people are missing on social media these days.

3. Somehow gamers have become the most socially coordinated group on the internet

4. Special shoutouts to Lena, Marcella, Gabbie, Maggie, and Tobiah for making Substack cool, and to Lucy, Evan, Paige, KT, Nolan, Eliza, Gabbie, Ethan, Liam, and Helene for making Letterboxd cool.