ACCORDING TO TWITTER, I am interested in items I like, retweet, or comment upon. According to YouTube, I'm interested in things that lead to the highest paid advertisements. Facebook's [algorithm] has lost its way, totally subordinating Facebook Group activity for mindless emotive musings of my friends. I count on Instagram to serve me advertisements of things I try to buy locally.
I'm interested in knowing how algorithms parse my personality by viewing my interactions on various networks. I know we are often personified by machine learning behind the scenes when people search for us online. I'm also interested in seeing more relevant things when I visit places online. After all, I often allow all cookies and permit tracking to occur so I'd like to get something in return, such as personalised information, better wish lists, and pertinent wisdom of the crowds.
Here's one view of Flickr analysing the 35,000 public images I've displayed there in the past 17 years.
Each online demographic differs. In my experience, the most text-heavy one (Twitter) returns more value per minute than any other place I opt to scroll online.
[Bernie Goldbach teaches creative media for business on the Clonmel Digital Campus of the Technological University of the Shannon.]
