Archive for July 31st, 2023

The app formerly known as Twitter is poisoning your mind

I just launched the app formerly known as Twitter and I see:

  • 2 posts from people I follow
  • Ad
  • Post from someone I follow
  • 2 suggested posts
  • “Who to Follow” (3)
  • Ad
  • Post from someone I follow
  • “Creators for You” (3)
  • 2 suggested posts
  • 2 posts from people I follow
  • Ad
  • Suggested post
  • Post from someone I follow
  • Ad

So that’s 7 posts from people I actually follow out of 18 total (and that’s counting the three-banger “Who to Follow” and “Creators for You” as 1 each). Less than half.

Please note that the ads are marked only by a small gray “Promoted” at the bottom, and the suggested posts look exactly the same as posts from people I follow. The only way I can tell a post was suggested is to hover over the poster’s userpic and note that it presents a “Follow” button instead of “Following.” If the algorithm is selecting posts that look similar to what your friends post (e.g. something about the WGA strike), you might not immediately notice that a post was put into your feed by the algorithm rather than being posted or retweeted by your actual friends.

This means that information Twitter has selected for you, for reasons of its own, hits your brain with the same perceptual filters you apply to posts from your friends. It might be on the same topics your friends post about, but it may not be factual and may not align with their values. Do you see how dangerous that is?