Newspapers instead of infinite feeds
We all know that the feed and algorithm on most social media sites don’t serve us. We doomscroll, we get a phone addiction, and Big Social Media profits.
Well, lets do something about it. We can control the user interface on our computers. We can access information from APIs. LLMs can sift through it for us, and we can tell it what to look for.
Ok - so how should information be structured?
Principles:
- You only consume a finite number of pieces of media a day, and there is a maximum after which you should probably not be shown more.
- The platform should know your goals and help you make choices about what these pieces of media are. It should not make choices based on boosting engagement.
- It should respect opportunity cost, instead of showing you one piece of media at a time, it should present a few options, or all your options for the day so you can decide what is worth consuming.
A personalised newspaper seems to hit these points. A newspaper has sections (like sport, business, lifestyle, et.c.) to cater to your different reasons for using social media. There is a finite amount of content, but still more than you can read in a day, so you can select the most relevant articles to engage with. Newspapers also expire so you can wait until the next day (or week, or any other period) to receive more news.