The algorithms of social media ensure you will always find more of what you have already found on the internet. As a result, social media reflects and amplifies our existing preferences and biases. If you are captivated by professional wrestling, flower arrangements, or hip-hop, it feeds you streams of images, videos, photos, and text that encourage those passions.
Feb 4, 2023·edited Feb 4, 2023Liked by Admired Leadership
One key is to be aware of and intentional about where the algorithms can add value to you and where they don't. If you're intentionally learning a specific skill (say, baking or playing the piano), YouTube serving you up more and more videos from different sources on that topic can be incredibly valuable. The same is true if you're going deep trying to learn about a specific concept. Both of those cases could be considered instrumental. Even in those cases, there are probably diminishing returns to the algorithms at some point. But when you're you're in the realm of "news," opinion, commentary, etc. (which is most of what most people consume online), that's a different animal.
It’s quite scary how these algorithms are curating what we consume. Just one click of a random YouTube video and suddenly your feed is inundated for a few days with similar videos.
And you’re right. There must also be an echo chamber for work and leadership too. We are just so deep into it that we can’t even see there could be another way.
Self help books area often not immune to this too.
Take “productivity”. There are a myriad of books now that basically say the same thing just with a slightly different ending title or take on the same theme.
Podcasts are great. Although the thing with podcasts is there isn’t a great discovery mechanism. This is obviously good in that there isn’t an algorithm pushing you in a direction but it does make it difficult to discover new creators.
To this end, I’ve created a new section in my newsletter highlighting a particular podcast I’ve listened to recently that could be worth trying out.
It’s very difficult but awareness has the be the start and then trying new things all the time.
The daily email is something we subscribe to because we like something initially, it's not very different of a follow on social media, so I am not sure how it fights the echo chamber.
One key is to be aware of and intentional about where the algorithms can add value to you and where they don't. If you're intentionally learning a specific skill (say, baking or playing the piano), YouTube serving you up more and more videos from different sources on that topic can be incredibly valuable. The same is true if you're going deep trying to learn about a specific concept. Both of those cases could be considered instrumental. Even in those cases, there are probably diminishing returns to the algorithms at some point. But when you're you're in the realm of "news," opinion, commentary, etc. (which is most of what most people consume online), that's a different animal.
How frequently might you be curating and weeding out your own social feeds?
It’s quite scary how these algorithms are curating what we consume. Just one click of a random YouTube video and suddenly your feed is inundated for a few days with similar videos.
And you’re right. There must also be an echo chamber for work and leadership too. We are just so deep into it that we can’t even see there could be another way.
Self help books area often not immune to this too.
Take “productivity”. There are a myriad of books now that basically say the same thing just with a slightly different ending title or take on the same theme.
Podcasts are great. Although the thing with podcasts is there isn’t a great discovery mechanism. This is obviously good in that there isn’t an algorithm pushing you in a direction but it does make it difficult to discover new creators.
To this end, I’ve created a new section in my newsletter highlighting a particular podcast I’ve listened to recently that could be worth trying out.
It’s very difficult but awareness has the be the start and then trying new things all the time.
The daily email is something we subscribe to because we like something initially, it's not very different of a follow on social media, so I am not sure how it fights the echo chamber.
Higher you go up the ladder, greater the tension between listening to all opinions but also knowing every voice has a bias.
I think there is a strong tendency to build that echo chamber. Keeping the tension is not an easier choice, but it is better.