The issue is that they are very smart/subversive; they definitely track the amount of time you spend looking at certain pictures vs. others. So while you may be careful not to directly engage with certain material, if they noticed that you pause a little more at certain pics than others, and there is a pattern in the common topic in the pictures that you pause at, they use that information to create your interest profile.
This is it - you’ve got to be deliberate in scrolling immediately past anything remotely thirst-trappy, otherwise the algorithm hyperfixates. And then overstay your welcome at the type of content you want to see.
In my experience, it has worked (my discover page is an amalgamation of classic Simpsons, Dropout.tv, and Whose Line Is It Anyway?, while my Reels feed is unhinged in the right way.) But also I’ve stopped using it because my brain was melting.
No, if he's been looking at material that indicates an interest in thirst trap stuff for years, then looks at pottery for a couple of weeks, the algorithm correctly identifies that he isn't really into pottery and corrects back.
> he's been looking at material that indicates an interest in thirst trap stuff for years
N is obviously too small to get anything meaningful, though article was about the same problem and article’s author haven’t visited facebook for 8 years…
Cannot say about FB or IG, but on Youtube I get way too many “AI girlfriend” ads or video recommendations. I report as many as I can and my subscription channels are as far away from such topics as it can be. Thus I totally understand OC and article’s author.
Except that I am into pottery, and I'm a parent into parenting stuff. But instead of just liking the stuff it was showing me, I made the extra effort to seek out that content and like more of it in an attempt to train the algo.
Also, as I mentioned elsewhere, this problem only started about two years ago, and I've had instagram for 15 years. So either they did something differently, or suddenly there was a lot more of that content, but I didn't change my habits.
Also, as a funny side note, scrolling my feed this morning was suddenly thirst-trap free for the first time in years.
I don't have an Instagram, so maybe they did change their algorithm recently. However, remember that the whole concept of "training the algorithm" and "not wanting to mess up your algorithm" has been a common saying for years at this point. Unfortunately, this is against what the social media companies actually want, which is more engagement. So they start to look at other factors that are more difficult to game. For instance, it may have noticed that you linger at images of thirst traps more than other images it shows. In fact, it may notice that while you are purposely liking pictures of pottery and parenting, the actual pictures that you are liking have both thirst trap qualities and pottery/parenting qualities. Not accusing you of anything, just saying that that is the pattern they use because they know that overtly liking thirst trap pictures may be frowned upon.
Yep. It's far from "it knows you're male => it gives you thirst traps non stop"
But also I will say that curating algo feed to show what you want is annoying and ultra frustrating, whenever it goes off the rails it makes me want to quit.
Actually, what Google does is totally legit because they pester you constantly about "sharing your location/photos/installing Gemini" until you accidentally press yes, and they can say they have your consent. So they are actually the good guys.
I concur, and find it abhorrent. And wish more people would kick up a stink about this. We need a publication or channel that talks about rights like this. I don't know of any that do a decent job. I donate to my local best option.
Someone (not me obviously) should look it up, because I would think that if it was circumference, it would be "4 inches longer" not wider. Because that case, ...wow.
Yes, this just sounds like the run-of-the-mill specialization issue that is affecting every industry (and has been affecting every industry before AI). Web devs learn Javascript/Typescript/frameworks, "middleware" developers learn Rust/Go/C++/etc. to build the web development frameworks, lower-level devs build that, etc. There shouldn’t be a strict need for someone who wants to make websites or web technology to learn Rust or Go unless they want to break into web framework development or WASM stuff. But again, this is just over-specialization that has been happening since forever (or at least since the Industrial revolution).
I see this accusation a lot, and admittedly, I defended someone who later on was shown to use AI to generate comments, but I am still missing a motivation for this. Is your argument that he is using AI to copyedit his posts, or that he is asking AI to write a response to a random thread that looks insightful? Because I cannot fathom why someone would ever do that.
I have no idea what their motivation is and no idea if they're using an LLM to tune their prose or write comments whole cloth (considering the four recent comments, each two paragraphs, within 2.5 minutes, though, I'm guessing fully generated).
I was just annoyed enough by spending a couple of minutes trying to decode what had the semblance of something interesting that I felt compelled to write my response :)
There are a ton of interesting top-level comments and questions posted in this thread. It's such a waste this one is at the top.
Wow, that is definitely more sophisticated than we have in the states. It seems like you can use it for things that one would otherwise need a notary for, that is such a timesaver.
If your employer required the use of a smartphone for essential components of your job and provided you with a smartphone and cellular data plan, would you not use that smartphone for those components of your job?
I'd not use employer- or government-furnished equipment for tasks that the equipment wasn't provided to complete, but I'd definitely use it for those tasks.
Exactly. Bank needs me to have an official FruitPhone to access my account? Fine, send me the phone, I'll turn it on when I need to bank, and at all other times it sits powered-off in a drawer. Same for the government-supplied DroidPhone I need to access my Social Security statements (or whatever). Turn on, do my business, turn off.
Would this apply to giving you a phone plan, internet plan, computer, paper, pen, electricity, etc., because all of those are necessary to do online banking or access school chats as well?
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