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Post by Arkler on Sept 24, 2021 18:57:50 GMT
It started to be clear for me way before online articles about "personal interests bubble" appeared there and there. And it has only gotten worse from there: no matter the web place, I find it incredibly difficult to escape my "personal bubble" of things that the platform think I should like, and explore for genuine new stuff.
Facebook comes to mind, but of course nothing really interesting happens there, aside from maybe a few groups that you cannot even find if you don't know what you're looking for.
YouTube is even worse: it is like it's actually actively preventing you from finding new stuff. I mean ok I like tech, then me and countless others of course know LTT, SnazzyLabs, Austin, Jayz2cents and a few more. Question: is that really all there is? I don't even know how I was able at one point to find ModernVintageGamer or TechMoan and they are somewhat big. However, I could say they are still "in the bubble", or near it.
Once upon a time there was StumbleUpon. And yes, I discovered lot of stuff through it. The website that replaced it, Mix, never caught my attention.
My last resort (after Feedly, but putting together your feeds and caring for them when websites shut down / appear / migrate tends to bew annoying) had been Reddit. Was fun for a while, but then the algorhitm kicked in also there, and now my only hope is refreshing the random subreddit link. And 99% of the stuff is of course not interesting to me or not interesting at all.
Question for all of you after all of the above: how do you personally try to escape your bubble, how do you find new things? In other words, how do you explore the internet like we used to back in the days, genuinely searching for something that you can enjoy?
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Post by Danno on Sept 24, 2021 19:01:40 GMT
Sign out from everything, clear your cache and cookies, and have some search terms in mind to start anew. You need them (Google, basically) to forget your patterns.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Sept 24, 2021 19:09:32 GMT
Go to a library
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Post by 😎 on Sept 24, 2021 19:11:47 GMT
I bought a bidet attachment off Amazon and now it, and numerous advertising conglomerates, believe this to be the beginning of a lifelong bidet buying spree.
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Post by Arkler on Sept 24, 2021 19:27:24 GMT
I happen to have enough books at home to effectively say I "own" a library, the range of topics is amazing and I enjoy taking one once in a while and get lost reading. But of course this does not solve the problem at hand: once I turn on my computer again, it's not like magically YouTube or Facebook will show me something related to what I was reading. Well, unless I loudly read anything I happen to see in whatever book I am holding at the moment. Of course my phone or tablet are not listening to me at all times, except when they do. Brilliant, thank you. |
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Post by Danno on Sept 24, 2021 19:28:39 GMT
You could borrow someone else's Google account.
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Post by Arkler on Sept 24, 2021 19:42:59 GMT
I understand that my question was not clear in the opening post: I am not asking how "I" should do it, I would like to ask where "you" go or what "you" do when you are trying to get out of the bubble  , as in "you" that are currently reading this |
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zagibu
Junior Member
Posts: 1,946
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Post by zagibu on Sept 24, 2021 19:54:10 GMT
It really works the same as it did before the internet. If you want to see new stuff, you have to surround yourself with new people.
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Post by Danno on Sept 24, 2021 20:09:03 GMT
I don't, really. Things are so polarised that I try to stick to Reuters and such for news, I don't use social media, and my YouTube is purely my own interests/hobbies. Trying to venture outside of that is exhausting, depressing and belligerent. I'm off of all social media.
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cubby
Full Member
doesn't get subtext
Posts: 6,355
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Post by cubby on Sept 24, 2021 20:15:36 GMT
Use Brave browser
Use duckduckgo for searching
Don't use social media
Say no to all cookies
Use newpipe for youtube
Try to use anything but Amazon to buy things
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Post by Arkler on Sept 24, 2021 20:16:58 GMT
It really works the same as it did before the internet. If you want to see new stuff, you have to surround yourself with new people. Well, you guys here are new people to me, so I think I'm in the right place!  |
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Post by Danno on Sept 24, 2021 20:17:53 GMT
Use Brave browser Use duckduckgo for searching Don't use social media Say no to all cookies Use newpipe for youtube Try to use anything but Amazon to buy things Will look at Newpipe, but I use YT on a console mostly :/ |
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Post by Aunt Alison on Sept 24, 2021 20:44:55 GMT
I happen to have enough books at home to effectively say I "own" a library, the range of topics is amazing and I enjoy taking one once in a while and get lost reading. But of course this does not solve the problem at hand: once I turn on my computer again, it's not like magically YouTube or Facebook will show me something related to what I was reading. Well, unless I loudly read anything I happen to see in whatever book I am holding at the moment. Of course my phone or tablet are not listening to me at all times, except when they do. Brilliant, thank you. Well I wasn't to know you owned all books was I
To answer the question, I don't think I've really got a bubble, nor ever relied on algorithms for anything. Never used social media and routinely delete cookies so don't get recommendations from YT, just trending stuff which I ignore. Sometimes I'll just come by something that seems interesting and look into it myself or find something on a whim
I tend to get really invested in something for a bit and then move on so don't need a constant stream of stuff to keep me occupied
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Post by Matt A on Sept 24, 2021 21:31:12 GMT
It's a puzzle. YouTube thinks I like body building, Jordan Peterson and cow hoof videos.
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Post by Aunt Alison on Sept 24, 2021 21:33:08 GMT
What's a cow hoof video?
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Post by Matt A on Sept 24, 2021 21:34:46 GMT
Seriously. Put in hoof gp and abscess. I have no idea why I got fed the first one
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Post by Aunt Alison on Sept 24, 2021 21:35:52 GMT
I don't think I'm going to do that
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Post by Matt A on Sept 24, 2021 21:36:21 GMT
Good call
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Reviewer
Junior Member
Posts: 4,444
Member is Online
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Post by Reviewer on Sept 24, 2021 22:03:01 GMT
Pussy.
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Post by Arkler on Sept 24, 2021 22:08:25 GMT
Well I wasn't to know you owned all books was I I did not mean to sound aggressive or sarcastic, but it sounded a bit like I was, sorry about that  |
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Post by Aunt Alison on Sept 24, 2021 22:15:47 GMT
Well I wasn't to know you owned all books was I I did not mean to sound aggressive or sarcastic, but it sounded a bit like I was, sorry about that No, it's fine. Don't worry about it |
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Post by stacks on Sept 24, 2021 22:22:20 GMT
Umberto Eco is Italian and has a big library?
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gray
New Member
Posts: 435
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Post by gray on Sept 24, 2021 23:11:28 GMT
I have multiple reddit, youtube, "social media" accounts for my various moods, time of day etc. With the added bonus of decades old active accounts with zero posts freaking people out.
Here's an idea; an app you can link all of your mood accounts and easily switch between.
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Immaterial
New Member
A real person people.
Posts: 297
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Post by Immaterial on Sept 24, 2021 23:31:14 GMT
I don't think I'm going to do that I did, and I regret my choice. |
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deebs
New Member
So I was killing this pig with a hammer
Posts: 788
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Post by deebs on Sept 25, 2021 3:27:28 GMT
All I know is that if I accidentally click on a minecraft video, youtube thinks I'm 12 and fucking love minecraft.
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Post by godwhacker on Sept 25, 2021 7:09:16 GMT
Depends which filter you're looking to break really.
If it's Spotify recommendations, listen to the radio- 6 Music in particular usually has good new stuff.
If it's news and opinion, try The Financial Times- the actual news bit is incredibly even-handed.
If it's general interest stuff try reading magazines. I, a wanker, also subscribe to the New Yorker and The Economist- the former will give you five extremely well-written articles about a totally random topic, the latter counteracts my Guardian reading somewhat.
YouTube I'm less sure about- I watched a video about a gun once and it's decided I want lots of gun videos.
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hedben
Junior Member
Formerly: hedben2013
Posts: 2,201
Member is Online
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Post by hedben on Sept 25, 2021 8:07:31 GMT
All I know is that if I accidentally click on a minecraft video, youtube thinks I'm 12 and fucking love minecraft. My YouTube and Amazon Music accounts have been corrupted by having them as the default on shared home devices - Smart TV, Echo Dot etc. Not that Amazon Music was ever particularly good at recommended stuff anyway. But once you've had a wife and 3 kids of varying ages all using the same profile it's basically a family account anyway. The blasted kids (well, the older 2), having trashed my original login, have then gone on to set up their own profiles, which are now laser targeted to their specific tastes. I feel like YouTube got on top of this when they launched YouTube Kids- my youngest has her own profile from day 1, but it wasn't a thing when the older 2 started watching. |
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LTK
New Member
Posts: 276
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Post by LTK on Sept 25, 2021 8:22:38 GMT
First thing you should do is turn off all tracking on the things you have an account for. On youtube, you want to disable watch history and search recommendations, which prevents youtube from showing you another thousand videos related to the thing you just watch. I also set my browser to autocomplete to youtube.com/feed/subscriptions so I don't get the home page showing whatever the algorithm serves me up, and rather the videos from people I opted to follow. This does not work for finding new stuff but it does escape the algorithm.
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Post by Matt A on Sept 25, 2021 11:02:57 GMT
The whole thing about the algorithm becomes dangerous when you are talking about politics and political commentary. It basically feeds you your own prejudices. The years since Brexit and the evolution of political commentary gravitating to online partizan opinion pieces means that objectivity has gone out the window.
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Post by grizzly on Sept 25, 2021 12:41:17 GMT
First thing you should do is turn off all tracking on the things you have an account for. On youtube, you want to disable watch history and search recommendations, which prevents youtube from showing you another thousand videos related to the thing you just watch. I also set my browser to autocomplete to youtube.com/feed/subscriptions so I don't get the home page showing whatever the algorithm serves me up, and rather the videos from people I opted to follow. This does not work for finding new stuff but it does escape the algorithm.
TBF you don't exactly avoid the algorithm that way: It just has far more limited information to deal with. Stuff like the videos you press the like and dislike buttons on are still accounted for. That also means that when someone on a random discord server I'm on links a video I see I do go out of my way to press like or dislike on it to ensure it gets roped into my recommendations (or not, in the case of dislikes). But although that gives you more control over the algorithm, it doesn't disable it entirely.
The more important thing for me is to just not be reliant on algorithm-driven services for information. That means reading newspapers or websites, talking to friends about things that interest them and actively seeking that stuff out, that sorta thing. Having a diverse friendgroup helps a whole lot with that, as does a willingness to read different newspapers.
There's, obviously, still a whole lot of issues there, because ultimately you'll always be dependant on other curators, be they digital algorithms or meaty brains. And there's still self-selection going on there.
I think ultimately it's just... don't be lonely. I know it's easier said then done, and it's fat consolation for a lot of people who are perpetually online because they're lonely, and that's in part how the far-right can recruit a lot of neurodivergent young people (seeing a couple of my old friends fall down that rabbit hole is fucking painful). But the best way to escape the algorithm is in part just to go to, say, an archery club. Or a swimming club. Just any physical activity or what have you, since you get a bunch of people who share one interest but not necessarily any other ones, and that's the best way to expand your own bubble. Even when I did stuff like go on holiday trips with other autistic people you just get to see a lot of other stuff.
Being on a forum also works I geuss  |
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, as in "you" that are currently reading this
