Rebelling Against the Algorithmic Shopaganda

Whose taste is it anyway, by Greg Morris, about how the current internet algorithms affect the content we consume:

You’re not seeking things out or deciding what you want to consume. You’re just accepting whatever appears in the feed. The algorithm does all the work, and you scroll.

We’ve been outsourcing things to the internet for years now. First it was memory. Why bother remembering facts when you can just look everything up? The information age meant we stopped retaining things and started relying on search. Now we’ve gone further. We’ve outsourced decision-making itself. We’ve outsourced taste.

It resonates. I am rebelling against that, even if it’s hard, because I was so used to being in zombie mode in front of my phone screen. I think the only antidote is to abandon social (sic.) media (at least the shopaganda part of it, which is the majority). To be honest, I’ve been in that fight for a few years now. I pretty much stopped actively posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other algorithm-centered platforms a long time ago. Then, little by little, I’ve been adopting measures to make it harder to access and consume algorithm-served content.

I realize that is not the best way to do it: just as with other addictions, there is a greater chance of success if you stop altogether. Anyway, some of the measures I’ve taken and am taking:

• Deleting the evil apps from my phone. I can still access anything from a browser, but it’s much less convenient and reduces usage a lot.
• Consciously avoiding the Discover tabs that are constantly pushed onto me. On the platforms that make it harder, I am barely going in anymore.
• Rebuilding my blogging habit (both from a producer and consumer perspective). In a way, I’m trying to put myself back in the 2003-2006 era (let me add the non-algorithmic social platforms, which give me some grace and let me extend this period to, let’s say, 2010).
• Going back to reading books. The internet has destroyed my lifelong habit of focused reading, but little by little, I am trying to return to it and spend more time with long-form texts.

As I said, probably not enough and for sure not fast enough. But I am trying, and that’s something. Bear with me.