The algorithms aren’t that smart. They’re extraordinarily dumb.

For example, on YT recently I got recommended an ancient video from 2011 where an ex-con was giving advice about how to pick up hookers. I looked at the comments and tons of them were recent and also confused about why they were recommended this video. After sifting through my own watch history, I realized I had recently watched the Austrian version of Eyes Wide Shut where the main character meets a hooker. So the algorithm just looked and saw the synopsis had the word “hooker” and found another video where the word “hooker” is used, and then sent it my way.

The algorithm is not even as smart as any given free chess app that some college kid wrote over the weekend as an exercise. If the algorithm is manipulating people and hacking their brains, that’s a problem with the wetware not the software. The remote control isn’t hacking people’s brains when they press 5 and the TV displays channel 5.

You looked at one of those videos at some point. I get them too because I occasionally get curious. Some of it is tied to watch history. You might have one buried in the pile. If you clean it out, you might not see those anymore.

What would disprove it is if people would quit upvoting, reading, and watching things that make them more and more angry. Algorithms don’t steer anyone. People steer themselves with the algorithms. They’re essentially mirrors of one’s personality. Just be aware if you upvote a post that says “Tech billionaire kills baby seals with his bare hands, has sex with the corpses, and laughs about it on TikTok”, you’re going to get more stuff that has all those keywords in it. However, if you upvote “How do I subdivide a mesh in Blender?” you will get a bunch of stuff about Blender, subdividing 3D models, and other topics related to that.

Algorithms give you what you want. If you’re getting rage, you’re looking at and upvoting rage. On Reddit, 99% of what I get are posts about Hitman, Blender, Boomershooters and other things I’m interested in. The same with YT except I also get obscure movies from the 30s and 40s. The more of that I consume, the more the algorithms push it to me. The same with news. If there’s a big news event I might read and watch a bunch of news and then all the news stuff gets pushed to me.

Algorithms boil down to “Did user look at, upvote something with these keywords? If yes, then send more things with those keywords their way.” These magical mystery algorithms are probably 5 lines of code most.

That’s the way it is with any disease. If you hobble into a party with a compound fracture and turn all the conversations to that, it’s going to make people uncomfortable. They’re not doctors. They don’t know how to deal with it. It’s not that they think you’re lesser. I have a dozen physical ailments plus bipolar disorder. The best thing to do is not to focus on it. If you can’t do that, you need meds. And they work. Trust me. Go to the doctor and get treated.

They’re like wearing a hazmat suit to go swimming. Plus, my wife gets offended when I wear one, thinks I think she’s cheating on me. When I told her that it’s to protect her, that didn’t help!