The netizens of 2021 are somewhat rebellious, and this year, "escaping the algorithm" has become a feat that many people care about and even practice in person.
The algorithmic information flow seems to have rudely filled our eyes: the recommendation information flow of e-commerce will never end; even if no one pays attention, time will still be absorbed by Douyin; the once quite conservative WeChat subscription account has been redesigned again, simply folding the content of attention and connecting the recommendation information flow...
As far as the eye can see, it is all algorithms, no matter what app is opened, it is being observed and recorded and analyzed, and then embodied in the "self-righteous" information flow - the sense of control is completely absent, which is not good.
The rethinking of algorithms has always been there, especially this year, and this is not unique to Chinese netizens. At the time, algorithmic information flow was suffering from unprecedented controversy.
Just last week, social platform Instagram finally relented, saying it would return the time-ordered feed option to users in early 2022. This is the first time the platform has officially announced such a plan after changing the flow of information in 2016.
Behind this is the verbal criticism suffered by its parent company Facebook, or will resort to new legislation to prompt the platform to publish algorithm rules, or even force the platform to allow users to disable algorithm recommendations.
Thus, we can see two sides of the contradiction. On the one hand, the territory of algorithmic information flow is still expanding, so is the WeChat subscription account, and the same is true of the foreign video platform Youtube, whose newly launched short video information stream Shorts, using pure algorithmic sorting.
But on the other hand, the flow of algorithmic information is also being forced to retract. TikTok has also recently stated that it is testing new technical means to limit the spread of harmful information on the platform. Is our information flow "algorithmicly excessive"? The whole world is asking the same question.
People who oppose algorithmic information flow often miss the pre-algorithmic era. Although the application of algorithm recommendations on Internet platforms is very early, the time node that really affects the way a generation of netizens receive information is still in 2016.
Foreign Twitter, Instagram, and domestic Weibo are all majorly changing the timeline information flow and completely covering the previous time information flow, which is not un radical.
At that time, netizens at home and abroad were accustomed to opening the App to see what the people they followed had sent, and the time was slowly unfolding from near and far.
Suddenly from the pure time information flow, kicked into the algorithmic time stream, a month ago and three days ago the content, concerned and uncontrolled people, all mixed together, only feel chaotic and noisy.
Weibo began to gradually try to do "intelligent sorting" as early as 2012, and the 2016 revision made users confused. I'm afraid that you forget how much you complained about it five years ago, please allow the netizens at that time to comment on the archaeology of the Internet: "I am a normal person, I can go forward to Weibo by myself." ”
You resent yours, the platform that operates the platform, just howled like this for two years, until 2018, Twitter finally added an option to users. Users can click a few times and select the time order to display the feed. Coincidentally, Weibo did the same thing in the same year, several years before Instagram, which had just made up its mind.
Now, you open Weibo and click on the "Latest Weibo" option in "Follow", you can read the messages in chronological order.
But there are two problems here, the first is that the platform has done this but there is no publicity, and the entrance is not obvious, and I did not find that there are many people who can still operate like this.
The second is that this option is given to you, but you have to set it up every time you use it. For example, if you open Weibo, click twice, see the time information flow, close the software and come back, you have to do it again.
Many Weibo users fled to the "Weibo International Edition" after the revision of the information flow, and the recommended words of this version of the App in the Apple Store are: "Enjoy the time sequence brushing Weibo." ”
The revision of the WeChat subscription account is also the same idea, and the revision of the WeChat subscription account in 2020 disrupts the original reverse order timeline and attracts some complaints. This year again, the way to test the new version of the feed will be passed out again, and the subscription account feed will collapse the followed messages and pick up the recommended messages. It's just that the time information flow has always been there, and it has not completely abdicated.
How to see, such an option is not generous, more like a kind of "friendship help", algorithmic information flow is still the protagonist.
If you say that the old platform has undergone the transformation of the information flow, this option is still reserved for users. The algorithm-based platform that has risen in recent years doesn't care about this matter at all.
For example, douyin, even if you switch to the "follow" page, although what you see is the content posted by the bloggers you follow, the ranking is not purely time series; even, your "people who follow" list will change the ranking due to the frequency of interaction between the two sides.
That is to say, the "pure time ordering" thing does not exist in Douyin.
Nowadays, the only people who can see the pure timeline information flow in China are probably Weibo International Edition, WeChat Circle of Friends and Douban.
The love of social platforms for the flow of algorithmic information can be described as justified.
Timeline sorting, while clean, is also "boring," and in this mode, you have no incentive to open it again ten minutes after you've just swiped weibo. According to an internal Facebook report in 2014, shutting down the recommendation algorithm has a series of consequences: users spend less time browsing, posting information less often, and then returning to the platform and logging on to the platform less often.
Algorithmic information flow is a business in itself, and it is a good brother to advertising. Break the timeline and make the "spend money to buy exposure" fan headline function better. Weibo's Q3 2017 financial report showed that the number of active users in September increased by about 79 million from the same period last year, and advertising and marketing revenue increased by 77% year-on-year.
Even WeChat, which "does not know the flow of information", has brought one "surprise" after another to everyone in recent years. After launching a look, Zhang Xiaolong said in the WeChat open class in 2018 that he does not think that the subscription number is an information flow, it is just a collection, "if you want to see the information flow, you can go to see it."
The next story everyone knows, WeChat subscription number has also changed.
No way, the WeChat subscription account has encountered a bottleneck in the pure time ordering. WeChat, which has always been considered to be obviously decentralized by the outside world, naturally does not want to see the big V become the new centralized traffic entrance. Adding algorithms in, it is equivalent to turning backwater into living water, and if you haven't paid attention to it, you can also see and miss the wonderful content, and it can also appear in front of your eyes again.
Nowadays, the king of killing time, Douyin (or TikTok), has formed a bout of algorithm worship with strength, whether it is opened a few times, or after opening it for a while, for the platform running in the competition, it is the same thing: attract you, keep you.
People are 24 hours a day, whether you are a social platform, a graphic platform, a short video platform or anything, attention to others can not give you, do not use algorithmic information flow, users are praising you and then brush hours on Douyin, do charity? This kind of loss-making and profitable thing, no one does except Douban.
Getting the information flow "algorithmized" is more of a necessity for the platform than a wayward choice.
Be fed the algorithm by the head, just like your mother thinks you're cold and forces you to wear autumn pants. It doesn't matter if it's really cold outside, it's annoying to wear autumn pants that you didn't choose yourself.