Because it’s not really about the bike, or about my leaderboard ranking in a HIIT class or whatever—it’s about finding a crumb of control in a world that sometimes feels very much outside of my control.

In practice, though, this means platforms show us things that it is paid to show us (ads, promoted content, etc.) along with the sorts of content that makes us tolerate it, that convinces us there is no point in trying to search for anything different. In other words, algorithmic sorting is meant to make us indifferent to wanting particular things. It teaches users to enjoy passivity as an end in itself, as a kind of pure convenience in the abstract.

i dont think twitter lacks "complex discussions" because of its UX design, but because it's a deeply gamified platform that functions on metrics. only certain discussions are possible when everyone is keeping score https://t.co/MFFrw8FNHx— nathanjurgenson (@nathanjurgenson) February 18, 2019