jumpingbeetle

I fear this change to will lead to the destruction of this app's art and hobby communities. Grok is transparent in its intent to prioritize "high engagement content" and specifically says likes and replies will be weighted in that decision. We already have a toxic culture of clout chasing, clap backs and rage bait controversy on this app. If the AI tailored algorithm pushes content that is engagement based then you will be flooded with posts that you don't WANT to engage with, but will feed OBLIGATED to out of outcry and dissent. And the more you do, the less you will be presented with the opportunity to actually engage with the content you WANT to see. It's human nature to provide insight, ask for context, inform the ignorant and even ridicule those who deserve it. But most of the time, that is not substantial content. Most of the time, that content is deliberately vague, enraging, or provocative to illicit a reaction. This, in my opinion, is a terrible and short sighted method of customizing an algorithm WITHOUT restrictions in place to prevent such shallow and, frankly, annoying content. Even before the implementation we saw how deliberate rage bait has been monetized and I can only assume that will get worse with this change. Now more than ever it is important to engage responsibly with the content you want to see. Learn to recognize bait, and ignore it. Sometimes I see low hanging fruit and take a shot at it too, I'm far from perfect. And I doubt doing so occasionally will put your feed in jeopardy. But it's going to get increasingly more important for us as individuals to learn how to treat social media in a reflective way instead of an instinctual one, because that is what these companies depend on in order to cheaply retain users with low effort highly stimulating garbage. Art, animation, hobbies, music, all these things that are very volatile and risky in terms of engagement will be drowned out in a sea of slop and rage bait. I'm somewhat in the minority of people who doesn't think Elon wants to deliberately nuke this app into a Facebook AI slop content factory despite the fact that he is personally developing the AI and implementing it here. Maybe I am just optimistic in that regard, I actually do think he is trying to use AI as a means to optimize it for our own personal gratification and fulfillment to make each persons experience unique. But gratification isn't always healthy, nor is gratification always delivered in the way people actually prefer. I actually do think something like this COULD work, but it needs to be specifically regulated and coded in a way that deliberately curates what people want to see rather than simply what they engage with. Because those are not always the same thing This, unfortunately, is just the beginning. They say you can switch back to the old feed through your settings which is good but there are two problems with that. The first being, we know most people won't actually have the agency to revert back, certainly not enough to expect content curation to organically return to normal despite the change. Secondly, today they give you the option to revert to the old algorithm, tomorrow they wont. And we all know this to be true. Companies rarely give you the choice to customize your experience on their platforms, forcing their users to live with terrible designs and features nobody asked for or wanted. So now more than ever we need to realize the internet is not going to remain the same, but in order to retain some normalcy and substance it's our own personal responsibility to engage with media and content in a way that is productive. Ignore bait, drama, and gossip. Engage with hobbies, art, and culture. Thanks for reading.