Saturday, December 17, 2016

Fakebook

All social media platforms start with what people want and end up destroying them. You want a way to communicate with and hear information about people you choose. That's never enough, so they mess it up. Just let people see the stupid shit the people they choose "to be friends with" or "follow" post in reverse chronological order like the baby jeebus intended, insert the stupid ads occasionally to make the money, and kill the algorithm. Let users control anything fancier, and stop making it a constant battle to maintain the semi-privacy they offer. The only reason "fake news" is a problem is because of the stupid algorithms they impose. Get rid of all of that and you don't have to turn engagement with the site into a perpetual metaphysical battle over the nature of truth. Just let people see the stupid shit their friends post and stop the rest of it. End the algorithm and end the curation and no one can complain about anything except the fact that their friends are idiots who post the same stupid stuff their uncles used to email them from their AOL accounts back in the day.