We all know the price for freedom is our data. And this results in a personalised social media feed (with their targeted ads) based on what you like and who you are. Facebook knows everything about us and the more we use it, the more the algorithms it uses to target us are perfected. It can super-target us in a way that advertisers of the past could only dream of. But, ask a noble group of folks at MIT:
“Why don’t social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter give users powerful tools to filter their own feeds? Right now, the algorithms control what we see, but we can’t control them.”
To overcome this control (or lack thereof) problem, they have created an application called Gobo, (after the cut outs you put in front of stage lighting to cast effects). The intention? They say:
“…the real goal behind Gobo is to open a conversation about who gets to filter what you see on the web. If we prompt a conversation about why platforms don’t give you more control over what you see, we’d be really happy. If Facebook or another platform incorporated ideas from Gobo in their own design, we’d throw a party. We’d even invite you.”
When I discover projects like this, tackling the problems that we see arising (the unforeseen consequences) as a result of the use and abuse of social media, I feel better that, even if the lawmakers of the world aren’t yet looking to the wisdom of crowds to solve legal challenges, crowd-members themselves are taking matters into their own hands and fighting the good fight. It reinforces my view that we are still in the Wild West of this new era of technological progress, but helps me have faith that balance will eventually be restored.