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My Experience With Algorithm Extremism:

So, most of us have been through this. I needed to buy a rug, so, I searched a few websites, and purchased what I needed. Now over a week later, I'm still getting ads for rugs. You bought a rug, DON'T YOU WANT A DOZEN MORE!

This is mostly an annoyance, an Algorithm missing it's mark, but what if this also applied to ideas? Let me tell you another story:

If you follow me, you probably already know I'm a pretty ardent feminist. Occasionally, I will peruse other websites, and social media (not X, ffs get off X) that use Algorithms. I had liked a few feminist posts, so the Algorithm said she likes these let's give her more, which was nice, at first. I started noticing they were getting more extreme, less women deserve equality, and moving more into Fuck all men, I hope they die, territory. Not a fan of that, but I figured it's a one off no big deal. Within a few days it had moved into full TERF territory. It took several weeks of me aggressively blocking and reporting every post I saw for it to disappear from my Timeline.

Now imagine if you're a young man who searches or asks on social media, Why won't women date me?, think about how quickly they could get pulled into a world of lies and extremism. Imagine asking any question about a group of marginalized people. This is why places like Mastodon will become more and more essential, and why teaching children critical thinking skills is paramount.

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