Man versus Algorithm

I'm usually pretty straightforward in what I write about.  But there are a few topics where I tread ever so lightly.  Today I'll be discussing one of them.  

I'm only on one of the big social media platforms.  And they do not always take criticism well.  It's possible in fact that they might chose to take things at Face value and throw the book at me.  OK, everyone now oriented?

It's a nice enough place, one that my Vindolanda excavator pals persuaded me to sign onto many years ago.  We can stay in touch, see what everyone is up to.  Over the years I've collected a small group of Friends, perhaps a third of whom I actually ever see anything from.

The service is free, so I have no gripes when Sponsored stuff turns up.  It's like roadside billboards, no big deal so long as they are not egregious.  But about a month ago something else started to pop up like loathsome fungi.  "Suggested for You" posts.

There seems to be variable opinion on these.  Some say they are  just be another version of paid advertisements, minus the official admission of same.  But the weight of opinion says that they are simply generated by the vaunted "algorithms", mathematical models that try to figure us out and then manipulate our behaviour in ways profitable to, well, you know.  By this reasoning anything that makes you stay longer is better for their advertisers.  Because in their view it is better to stay nose to the screen instead of say, seeing some actual faces or maybe reading a book.

As input they supposedly use your internet activities and those of your, ah let's just say Friends.  So what have they been sending me?

Tons of ancient, geezer country western star gossip.  Tom T. Hall, who I have not heard or thought of in maybe 40 years, was recommended ceaselessly.  Also geezer rock and roll figures.  And guitars.  So many guitars.  Some of these recommended "ads" featured supposed people I've never heard of.  Who exactly is, or was, Wynn Varble?

Other recurring recommendations featured dogs, which is fair, and colorful truck mishaps.  If those of you out there who are my ethereal Friends see your hand at play in this stuff I commend you to your consciences. 

Some of the suggestions got really weird after I played Whack-a-Mole for a while.  Why for the love of Buddha and/or Vishnu, would I be interested in an organization called United Humanists (based in India)?

Yes, Whack-a-Mole.  The Social Media Platform Which Shall Not Be Named allows you to object to the suggestions in various ways.  I usually just respond that this is Spam. Sometimes I say it is Political.  The best option is to say that it is Gross Content.  This actually seemed to reduce the flow of Recommendations quickly and effectively.  You can also indicate that you want to Hide All from a given source.  This does not work, they keep coming.  On rare and seemingly random occasions you are also given the chance to block an app that seems to be the shepherd for these flocks of scruffy critters.  Do so without fail.

Eventually I turned the tide.  By reporting each and every "Suggested for You" option as being objectionable in assorted ways I was able to drive them deeper and deeper down in the daily "feed".  And after about ten days they were gone.

Of course I just got more officially sponsored Ads.  And in a fit of pique I think, well lets just say there is Prima Facia evidence that the algorithm is trying to punish me by showing me less of everything.

I don't take it personally.  Having gone to considerable effort to persuade the Inner Machinations that I am a tedious, hypersensitive crank I can't object to being treated like one.  It is a small price to pay for being - like John Henry in the old story - victorious over the impersonal machine.

After thought.  Few victories are permanent.  Five days after the last Suggested for You post vanished I had a couple wander in.  Just scouts I suspect.  I repulsed them quickly with the Gross Content report and have seen no further incursions.

But is any victory against the machine ever lasting?  For a short time recently YouTube wanted to put ads in front of every video I select....unless I pay them five bucks a month.  And the legacy email service I'm foolishly sticking with - so far - has obnoxious low grade ads.  Nobody wants to see toenail fungus ads.  Nobody.  When I tweak my adblocker to cover these I find that email loads slowly and that the Enter Key no longer works when I am composing email.  This is Weaselry of the lowest order.

So I'll savor my short term victory here.  Sometimes that's all you get.