Algorithms & Why We Lost the Plot on Curation

Think about how quickly you found out that Taylor Swift is dropping her new album in April. Was it seconds? Minutes? Hours? Likely not days, since she announced it less than two days ago, and chances are, you've already seen the track list (announced this morning).

If our news is traveling this quickly, our culture follows suit.

I recently read an excellent Esquire interview by Jon Roth with Kyle Chayka, author of Filterworld, about the impact of algorithms on our culture (he also covers much of this on this episode of The Ezra Klein Show).

The TLDR; it's dire.

Chayka argues that we as people, are becoming more culturally flat... whether we're aware of it or not. Algorithms are designed to keep us addicted to our social feeds, and always push the best-performing content to the to the top, where it stays for a brief period of time, before it's pushed out by the next post. And so on.

The ultimate self-inflicted echo chamber.

Of course, if the technology is working, then aren't we benefitting? We're entertained, horrified, saddened, and stimulated...in the span of an hour. But maybe that's the issue.

Curators Take Responsibility

Chayka talks about the fact that curation is an age-old concept, beginning in ancient Rome.

Fast forward to today, and social media democratized this phenomenon. Anyone can be a curator, as long as they have a social media account.

But is this a good thing?

Yes and no. I'm all for democratization. We've seen the power of the influencer to wield trends and help serve as as a guide for what to buy, read, eat, wear, listen to. But at some point, the torch of influence was handed over to the reality of capitalism. Which may explain why you constantly see AG1, Seed, and Ritual promoted on your feeds.

Chakya says, the real curators are now Twitter, Spotify, and TikTok. They are competing for your attention and they always come out on top, because they can see what works.

You don't need to suffer through "bad" content because you simply won't see it. But that means that we aren't challenging our perspectives or getting a new way to see things.

Curation Needs Context

To me, great curation requires context. The ideal Curation happens when we can go a layer deeper, beyond just liking a thing and actually understanding where it came from, what it was influenced by.

Rather than just seeing a trend like "Mob Wife" spring up on TikTok because someone deemed it "in" and others jumped on the trend, a better form of curation would be tracing the origins of this trend and its influences over the last century (I'm sure someone has already done this, and if they haven't, they should).

The New Era of Curation

I believe the new era of Curation is already in motion. We're seeing people turn back to long-form content (like this article) and subscribe to Substacks and join Discord groups to create a real sense of community.

In my own network, I'm hearing that people are spending less time on algorithmic powered social media and more time in group chats and on private social apps like Lapse.

To me, the next wave of Curation will come from those who earn the right to have their voices heard, through a dedication to their craft and a knowledge of their industry.

We're taking the power back.

Do you agree?