Engagement Algorithms Are Killing Meaningful Content
Here at Medium, there at Facebook, over there at Twitter — everywhere.
Like, clap, retweet, reshare. Click click click. Just click on something to ‘engage’ with someone’s content so we can keep seeing posts from that person instead of the algorithm vanishing him and his ideas & posts from our lives because we don’t ‘engage’ enough with his or her content.
In contrast, like or share something, and the algorithm will pepper your feed with similar things for days. Even if you don’t have an interest in that particular thing. It shows those to you just because you ‘engaged’ with similar content — just once.
No, Facebook, I’m not interested in knitting, thank you very much — that knitting share I liked was extraordinary, I liked it for that reason. Not because I am into knitting in general…
We are like pigeons pecking a button when prompted — like in that famous experiment which used pigeons to spot defective products in factory production lines…
The feed keeps scrolling, and we keep clicking - like, clap, share. Click, click, click. Like, share, comment. Engage! Peck that button like a pigeon! The algorithm must be fed!
So that product managers, directors in social media companies will be able to report that they improved ‘user engagement rate’. To give CEOs and VPs of those companies something measurable to tell their investors in the next meeting — “Our engagement rates are way up”.
And they, in return, will applause — “Great, they improved performance! Now many more millions of people are semi-consciously clicking various buttons like pigeons! Stock prices will go way up!”.
Therefore the algorithm just keeps getting bigger. Looking for more ways to make people act like pigeons.
Prioritizing impulsive, clicky content instead of meaningful, deep content that leaves lasting impressions on the readers. Clickbait titles, content charged with negative emotions, outrageous news. These are what cause more ‘engagement’, so they end up winning the algorithm.
The engagement beast is so big that even websites that resisted it before eventually end up having to give in and appease it in some way or the other. Even places like Quora and Medium. Finding ways to have users peck buttons more — like pigeons…
It doesn’t need to be this way
The engagement beast doesn’t need to be fed.
The algorithm can be changed.
Meaningful content can be prioritized, deep thought can be valued, lasting impressions can be encouraged.
All of these are man-made — from websites to algorithms, from databases to AI.
They can be made work differently. They can be changed to put meaning in people’s lives. They can be our allies in meaningful online interaction rather than being the enemies of it.
Things are as they are now only because insatiable investors need to be fed news of measurable, ever-increasing ‘performance’ so that the stock prices can go up. So they are the main reason behind the algorithm beast.
But some people, somewhere, someday, will start prioritizing the people more than the investors. They will create services, websites that prioritize people over the beast. They will make the algorithm an ally of the people instead of an ally of profit-maximization.
Then the meaningful Internet we knew from before, will return…