Death By Algorithm

We’re dying by algorithms, and we’re not the only ones.

Of all the memes that I saw over the past few days mourning the murders of the Bibas family in Israel, one was particularly poignant.

It noted that while the Jews on your social media feeds spent days posting almost exclusively about the tragedy, perhaps the most attention the hostage crisis has gotten since October 7th, most of the non-Jews barely noticed it was happening.

The meme described it as living in two different worlds, which may not be far from the truth. On my own personal feed, half of my contacts were plunged deeply into grief, and the others were plunged deeply into the outcome of a hockey game.

It’s easy, then, to believe the narrative that the rest of the world ‘doesn’t care,’ as many seem to have adopted.

The truth, though, is more complicated than that.

First, The Death of News

The first hurdle is that our news consumption is so drastically different than it has been in previous generations.?

Remember the time that the family used to sit around the table and got their news from Walter Cronkite, easily the most trusted authority of an entire generation??

Perhaps it was David Brinkley, or Harry Reasoner, or for the Canadians in the later evenings it may have been Barbara Frum, or Knowlton Nash.

The point is that for decades, mainstream print and television media were the authorities on all things news. They understood what was important, and how to convey those stories in a way that made you pay attention - often for the length of an entire newscast.

That is simply a bygone era. Not only have the mainstream news outlets lost so much of their lustre and audience amidst corporatization and allegations of bias, but the internet has changed the game completely. The millennial generation got much of their news from The Daily Show - a late night news parody that never purported itself to be journalism.

Today that news comes through social media…except it doesn’t. In Canada, mainstream news outlets attempting to use social media have endured a literal blockade due to Meta’s fight with the federal government and their legislation.?

The bigger problem, however, are the algorithms.?

We See What We Want

The newscasts of yesteryear were curated, without question. A line-up producer helped to decide which stories were most ‘newsworthy,’ and which should get the most coverage. Yes, there were government and corporate interests dictating those interests as well, even if we did not always see their invisible hands through our screens.

This meant that some stories unquestionably got less coverage than others, which meant less focus and attention overall. Conflicts overseas that did not directly involve American or Canadian interests received significantly less attention than ones that did.

A war that involved your family’s country of origin, which put your relatives in significant harm, would often receive much less focus than a celebrity death closer to home, or a domestic election.

As a result, those who wanted to ‘stay informed’ really had to seek out world news from more expansive publications vs. just letting others decide what reaches their screens.

Today, though, social media algorithms have made that search infinitely harder, if such a thing were even possible. The unpleasant truth is that most of us spend hours a day on various social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, BlueSky, etc.?

The content that we see is curated in part by who we choose to connect with, but in larger part by complicated algorithms designed to give us more of what the platform thinks that we want to see, based on what we engage with.?

Like football? You probably also like beer, so here’s a lot more of what we think you’ll enjoy.

Support a particular political party or leaning? Here’s a lot more folks whose ideologies align with yours.?

You get where I’m going with this. The algorithms are built to keep you on the platform (and, by transitive property, consuming paid advertising), by feeding you more and more of what they think you want to see.

So what’s the problem?

Sometimes The Truth Isn’t Pretty

While these algorithms may make ‘news’ more enjoyable, they’re also highly adept at shutting out the content that you don’t want to see.

If you’re a conservative, vocally right-leaning social media user, you’re unlikely to get a significant amount of content about matters facing the LGBT community.?

Similarly, anyone who aligns with any particular position is unlikely to receive extensive content from ‘the other side.’?

If you’re apolitical, or unaligned entirely, what happens then? Well, enjoy the things those algorithms think you’re into based on what your friends are into, and the odds are that they’re usually right.?

The trouble is that these algorithms have a virtual chokehold on our limited access to a world beyond our own. If something is happening overseas for example that has little nexus to the world around you, the odds of you being highly exposed to the issue through these algorithms are slim to nil.?

That’s why it feels like we’re living in two different worlds, when the tragedy that impacts us so deeply is falling silent amongst our friends.?

It isn’t that they don’t care. They simply don’t know.

We’re Not Alone

In mid-October, 2023, I reached out to a family friend I follow closely on LinkedIn. A successful woman in the corporate world, she is also a proud Iranian who had spent months speaking out loudly about the death of Mahsa Amini, and the horrific situation of women’s freedoms in Iran.

I had seen her posts, and I knew a bit, but admittedly my knowledge was severely lacking. I knew there was an issue, but after a short while I did exactly what most of us do - I stopped paying attention.

She didn’t. She spoke out routinely and consistently without stopping, knowing how important it was for that information to permeate the ‘noise’ that inundates our respective internets.?

That October, I sent her a sincere note of apology. It was not for anything I had done wrong per se; it was for not doing enough, and not offering to do more. While her continued campaigning may have once seemed excessive, I understood immediately after October 7th that it was not. She, too, was trying to avoid death by algorithm.

When we don’t make noise, it’s too easy to get lost. Those outside of your community aren’t ignoring your collective cries for help. The internet is programmed specifically to make sure that they’re falling on deaf ears.

So how do we solve this?

Your voice matters

How do you, as a proud Zionist, explain to someone the story of the Bibas family and the impact of Hamas’ atrocities?

How do you, as a proud Persian woman, explain to others the struggle for women’s basic human rights under a tyrannical, brutalist government in Iran?

How do you, as a proud Ukrainian, explain the dangers of Russian aggression, and the importance of national sovereignty??

The list can go on indefinitely. More people than you would realize are deeply connected to a struggle you may know nothing about.

The answer is to keep speaking out, to keep telling your stories. No, this is not a business pitch - it's a simple fact.?

The only way to get someone to understand your world is to have them understand you. It’s easy to fall into false ideologies when the internet is collectively feeding you the message that it thinks you want to hear. It’s just as easy to connect with another viewpoint when you get to hear from an individual directly, and learn their story.

Keep sharing those stories, especially if you know people outside of your orbit may be listening. When they ask you what they can do to help, tell them to tell someone else what’s going on, and that that person should continue to pay it forward. It’s the best hope that we have of getting the world to listen to what matters to us most.?

It’s easy to forget about the faceless. It’s much harder to forget a face.

We’re dying by algorithm, and it’s happening in silence. The only way to fight back is to keep telling those stories.?