Member-only story
Giving into the whims of the algorithm
Drowning in a sea of online content, I’ve given up on trying to curate it myself.
Severance is a psychological thriller that was released on Apple TV+ last year. It was undoubtedly one of my favourite series of 2022.
In the show, we follow a protagonist named Mark whose brain has been split in half. Every morning Mark drives to and from work, but never experiences ‘work’.
This is because his ‘innie’, aka the version of Mark who only experiences work does it for him. ‘Inne Mark’ wakes up every day in the office, where he plucks away on his computer, not knowing what he is doing or even contributing to.
I don’t remember how I found it. I definitely didn’t find it by reading the entertainment section of the Guardian or the Times. I am sure that one way or another, the algorithm just fed it to me.
And I’ve recently come to terms with the fact that I’m fine with this.
The TikTok’ification of social media
Looking through your Facebook, Twitter or YouTube feeds in 2023 can feel very similar to how it felt in 2013. You see posts from friends, family and others who you follow.
Yet behind the scenes, these platforms have fundamentally changed. They’ve evolved from simple recommendation…