While free speech is fundamental right for all.
I do wonder if we should question the different sources of our information feeds, more. Are they biased, slanted, too cautious, too reactive?
Are they being poisoned by other actors to cause controversy?
Are we just hearing those voices with the biggest megaphones…
Very easy to live in isolated bubble, not questioning our own little bubble.
Ending up thinking one way, buying things, voting one way.
In questioning, we need to be critical but open minded and allow the possibility that we need to know to make the best decisions and opinions.
But this takes time, research and concentration which are resources that are in short supply.
I try to raise my concerns in as neutral position as I can but it’s hard to avoid taking a partisan position on some of the headlines and media positions that I see.
Perhaps AI might help us reach a calm consensus [0]
But it’s seems to be very difficult to produce a AI without biases.
So perhaps I am being very optimistic and we should just provide everybody with a Ground news subscription [1] that starts to highlight some of the biases.
I don't check my Twitter account very often these days, but when I do it's loaded with weird pro-Trump posts. And I'm not talking about the main feed, which I never check, but the lists I monitor for news related to my profession. No sensible algorithm would put the political stuff in my feed.
Never used TikTok so I can't comment on that. I love Mastodon because the only posts I see are the ones I've explicitly asked to see - there's no algorithm or levers for someone to spread a political message.
A less nefarious explanation is that the 44-year old Gabriela persona was shown more Harris-leaning content because she more closely meets the demographic of a Harris voter.
The algorithms are designed for exactly that kind of targeting.
It would interesting to know what TikTok showed the 71-year old Larry persona. X flooding the feeds of a Harris-leaning demographic with Trump-leaning content they are less likely to engage with seems suspect, but it's only one data point.
We can't draw any conclusions until we see the results from all the personas, but for some reason the author did not share them.
8 comments
[ 5.5 ms ] story [ 34.0 ms ] threadVery easy to live in isolated bubble, not questioning our own little bubble. Ending up thinking one way, buying things, voting one way.
In questioning, we need to be critical but open minded and allow the possibility that we need to know to make the best decisions and opinions. But this takes time, research and concentration which are resources that are in short supply.
I try to raise my concerns in as neutral position as I can but it’s hard to avoid taking a partisan position on some of the headlines and media positions that I see.
[0] https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/10/googles-deepmind-is-build...
[1] https://ground.news/
Never used TikTok so I can't comment on that. I love Mastodon because the only posts I see are the ones I've explicitly asked to see - there's no algorithm or levers for someone to spread a political message.
The algorithms are designed for exactly that kind of targeting.
It would interesting to know what TikTok showed the 71-year old Larry persona. X flooding the feeds of a Harris-leaning demographic with Trump-leaning content they are less likely to engage with seems suspect, but it's only one data point.
We can't draw any conclusions until we see the results from all the personas, but for some reason the author did not share them.