Amplification
Aemula Writer Spotlight - 12.5.24
“Or do you just find that coming to terms with the mindless tedium of it all presents an interesting challenge?”
— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guider to the Galaxy
The algorithms curating our feeds from the endless streams of online content have full authority over the information we see — and, more importantly, what we miss. These chaotically complex content delivery systems are highly sensitive to initial conditions, and small differences in the early traction of content on a platform can significantly influence what begins to trend.
This “engagement treadmill” creates a recursive feedback loop between the content creators and the algorithm, leading to the “MrBeastification” of everything. Creators must conform to a platform’s demands to optimize for engagement rather than the platforms doing the difficult work of promoting the best creators.
The result is the amplification of clickbait, short-form, misinformation, A.I.-generated, “brain rot” slop — everything algorithms incentivize because it generates the numbers necessary to sell ads or collect data. This outcome starkly contrasts what we want to see as real, human users.
We are all aware of this negative feedback loop, continuously searching for ways out of it. We delete our social media accounts or flock to new forms of social media that promise to be different. Yet, we soon find that these platforms fall victim to the same traps that caught their predecessors.
Scroll Bluesky and you will see that nearly every user still has the .bsky.social handle on the default Bluesky Personal Data Servers, with all their feeds developed in-house at Bluesky. Federation, customizability, and community control mean nothing when the barriers to utilize these features require hundreds of hours of technical experience.
If we want to understand why we are seeing the content that makes it to our feeds, we need to create an environment of usable transparency. Open-sourcing information is meaningless if no one knows how to access it.
Instead, our algorithms should be human-readable — not machine-learning, A.I. black boxes. Any user should be able to understand how their feeds are created in as much time as it takes to create an account.
Most importantly, content creators should be able to succeed on a platform without wasting their time growth-hacking content strategies — especially when these strategies are often rendered useless once changes to the algorithm shift the goalposts.
It should be simple. If you write interesting, quality content, you should receive the amplification and compensation you deserve. By building straightforward, community-governed protocols and cultivating a stable audience of paid subscribers, Aemula aims to eliminate barriers and burdens for creators so they can focus exclusively on the content they create.
This week, we are sharing first-hand accounts from writers who have experienced the ripple effects of engagement optimization throughout all aspects of our lives, as well as Pessimist Archive’s work in cataloging how similar patterns have emerged throughout the history of information technology adoption.
Discussion Candy
Written by Cydney Hayes, a San Francisco based culture writer whose work has been featured in publications such as Gazetteer, Architectural Digest, Baltimore Magazine, and more.
“By now people are well-versed on social media algorithms. I think most people understand that the powers that be at Substack HQ want you to engage with their platform because it gives them user data and site traffic and other things they can show to investors to keep their business on the up and up, so they’ve built their product so that the more you engage on the platform, the more subscribers you get, so you’ll engage more, and the cycle continues. I also think that most people understand where they need to invest their time when, other than publishing a new post, the majority of the engagement actions now available on Substack are wrapped up in Notes.
And so the vibe has shifted, and here we all are, flopping around on Notes, diligently engaging, restacking and restacking restacks, commenting and sharing and slobbering over other writers’ stuff always a little bit in the hopes of getting noticed and getting subscribed to.”
LOOSEY
Written by Brendon Holder, a New York based writer from Canada with work featured in publications such as The Global and Mail, Electric Lit, The Drift, and more.
“Another risk to the duplication of the internet is that you can become walled in by mirrors of your own engagement. Your thoughts become reconfirmed a zillion times and suddenly you’re filled in a room stuffed with a thousand Drew Starkeys. What a dooming scenario, isn’t it? This, of course, creates a false scale where you believe the world reflects the circular references of your algorithm. It’s Tolentino’s titular Trick Mirror. Naomi Klein’s Mirror World. My ‘vacuums of duplication.’ You believe that surely everyone in America is voting for Kamala Harris when the majority are not. You begin to think everyone understands the obscure references of your feed and is also re-watching Girls. And finally, on a Friday at noon when the GRAMMY nominations get released, you scratch your head with surprise that Camila Cabello’s C,XOXO wasn’t nominated for Album of The Year (kidding lol).”
Pessimists Archive
Curated by Louis Anslow, a writer and tech-progressive, as a project to document how moral panics and technophobia have preceded adoption of new technologies, ideas, and trends throughout history.
“The Oxford Dictionary just added "brainrot" as its newest official word—a cynical, but tongue-in-cheek term for consuming too much short-form social media content.
However, the word isn't actually new - in the archives we found examples going back as far as a century and a half of ‘brainrot’ being used in the context of unhealthy consumption of (new) media.
125 years ago - In 1899 - journalist Julian Ralph warned of a "BRAIN-ROT CONTAGION" that would be accelerated by an increase of magazines in the US - after witnessing their popularity in England. He posited that:
‘The number of people who think like birds, in little broken thoughts, will be greatly enlarged.’”
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