The algorithms that are currently being used by the social media platforms that dominate our attention are designed to keep us engaged with content for as long as possible.
But that’s not all they can do.
We can use algorithms to achieve all sorts of goals, including goals that would favour understanding over attention. For example, we could design algorithms that would help us surface content we are likely to find interesting but might not have otherwise come across. Or, we could design algorithms that would help us better filter out distractions.
The potential is there, but it requires us to be intentional about the algorithms we create and the goals we want them to achieve.
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