Algorithms — Why are they ubiquitous and are they really important?
Algorithms have become part of our daily lives. And we often hear how they are manipulating our daily lives — what we see, what we think, what actions we take. This indeed is a concern. But what has caused this widespread use of algorithms and more importantly, can we avoid us being influenced by them.
Algorithms have become widespread because we have too many things to do. Time is the ultimate constraint! Hence, to fit all the things available in the modern world in the limited time, we need to prioritize. Unfortunately, we outsource this prioritization to external algorithms.
Before Internet, there were limited options to spend time — very few TV channels, few books. There was no need for prioritization. One would read whatever was available and watched whatever was telecasted. But with technology, the whole world is now available to you — books, movies, games. So how would one decide what to watch/read? Enter algorithms. They ‘curate’ content to suit your preferences, but unfortunately often put you in echo chambers where you fail to get diverse content. While this may be good for their business as it increases the time spent on the platform, it may not necessarily a good thing for you.
So the problem is not the algorithm, but your decision to outsource prioritization to algorithms. Can we take matters in own hands? Definitely! Don’t rely on algorithms, prioritize yourself. Reduce the amount of content you intend to consume and ‘curate’ yourself. Rather than following 100s of personalities/celebrities and letting algorithm prioritizing them, shortlist 10 you really care about and consume content from them. Want to watch videos/movies? Decide the genre/actors/directors you like and start watching them. I
While algorithms are useful in prioritizing many important tasks, letting them control what we read/watch and deciding our thinking is really risky in my opinion. So, deciding own algorithm on own by spending time on personal ‘curation’ is the way to go.
