Interesting Moses, as I like to put it - the perils of living in an "echo-chamber"

Sent from my iPhone

On 21 Nov 2016, at 16:26, Ali Hussein via kictanet <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

Well put Moses.

My take home today is:-

Digital in-breeding. As Swaleh Mdoe would say - Tafakari hayo.

Ali Hussein
Principal
Hussein & Associates
+254 0713 601113 

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim



"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi

Sent from my iPad

On 21 Nov 2016, at 6:34 PM, Moses Karanja <mosekaranja@gmail.com> wrote:

I think the biggest tragedy we face, not just as Kenyans but as humans, is the behavior of teaming with only those we agree with.

This takes two levels.

Consciously: Some shares a news item on your timeline about a topic you find disgusting. You unfriend or unfollow them.

Unconsciously: Social network algorithms study your behavior and show you those things they think you 'like'.

The end result is you have a busy social media life but you are only interacting with those who look like you.

We end up with very weak social genes thanks to 'digital in-breeding'.

Individuals can work on the first one - a very steep socialization process though.

The issue is the second level; can social networks rewrite their algorithms to bring diversity to their subscribers at the cost of weakened business models that depend on engagement and personalization of online experiences.


This is not a simple problem and even if Facebook fixes the 'Fake News' problem, this 'digital in-breeding' will still lurk with us, not forgetting that other social media platforms have a responsibility too.


-Moses


On 21/11/2016 18:14, kictanet-request@lists.kictanet.or.ke wrote:
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