We Live in the Age of Well-Crafted Narratives

 

As the world changes, smart and powerful people see the big picture quicker than the rest of us. They have more access to information than we regular folks do, and they are surrounded by other smart people with greater knowledge.

It stands to reason, even without specific evidence, that these people will use their power and influence to shape general behavior in ways that benefit them.

So, what does that look like?

The first question we need to ask is, where do most people get their information about the world around them? Once upon a time, it was the TV network news. Raise your hand if that's your primary source of news now. What? Nobody? Yup, that's our new reality.

For some, it's Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. For others, it's YouTube. What do all of these platforms have in common? Go ahead and take a minute. It will come to you. Did you guess? It's the algorithm.

Let's unpack the algorithm. This is a complex set of rules that is applied to your feed. These rules determine what you see, and more importantly, what you don't see.

When you first join a social media network, the content you see in your feed is whatever is the most popular. The thinking of the algorithm designers is that if a lot of people liked it, then you will too. Of course, your tastes are unique, so some popular stuff won't appeal. When you click on or interact with the content you do like, the algorithm takes note and begins building a profile.

That profile becomes a feedback loop. Even though you may have many broad interests, once the feedback loop kicks in, unless you actively search for specific content, it keeps strengthening.

Eventually, your information bubble becomes impenetrable. Your searches for specific content have little weight in the feedback loop unless you NEVER click on anything in your feed, which is hard to do because you are interested in what's there.

This is bad, but it is not what concerns me most. I am more concerned about the inability to access unpopular content. This is critical because much of the best content is not the sensationalized garbage designed to grab your attention.

The rich and powerful people who control these platforms are guiding the rules governing their algorithms. We might assume they are focused solely on attention to better monetize their platform, but we don't know that.

Algorithms are a black box, and they control our view of the world. This should be untenable. The government should demand that the algorithms be open-source and completely transparent. A few politicians are calling this out, but many (most?) of them are complicit. The black box serves them, too.

It's like asking politicians to vote for public financing of elections. They will never do it because they are the victims of that change.

Being able to craft a narrative and have hundreds or even thousands of different people amplify it is so powerful that nobody in control will ever willingly give it up.

I have recently started posting on Bluesky. It is the only social media platform that lets you control what appears in your feed — 100%. Their algorithm is simply to present the content I choose to include. Ironically, they are the least popular of all of the social media platforms. Why? They are not manipulating you into the attention trap.

If all the other platforms are energy drinks, Bluesky is water. It's the best thing for us, but it's not an easy choice. Where this leads, I can only guess, but democracy relies on a well-informed public, and that ain't happening.