Be Your Own Algorithm
So, I saw this video from the youtube channel "pagemelt" here and it was titled "be your own algorithm". It's a great video and I recommend watching it. However, the video is more of a call-to-action that doesn't actually give a path for a person to become their own algorithm.
It's mostly a dissection of the book "Filterworld" by Kyle Chayka and social commentary.
A friend of the blog also asked for a guide, so I thought I could fill the void since I've largely been living the media consumption sans algorithms lifestyle for well over a year now.
What do I mean by "algorithms"
For the pedantic out there, I'm aware "algorithm" is a vague term, since even simple mathematical equations like the Bear Blog discover feed is considered an algorithm.
So, what I'm meaning is this:
"black box artificial intelligence serving you content based on superficial data (i.e. 'engagement')"
So, Instagram, YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, etc.
Why?
Why should you be your own algorithm? A few reasons:
- You are more likely to discover new songs/shows/movies
- More mindful consumption
- You'll own your own media
- Your self-algorithm won't piledrive your chances of discovery based on if other people engage with it in the exact right way.
- Far more humanist way of discovering media
- Algorithms are designed to keep you hooked, low-quality content that will continue to degrade until all you're consuming is AI garbage
- Always ad-free
- No AI slop being served to you that you didn't consent to
There's a lot more reasons, but the list would go on forever.
How do I do it?
This article will attempt to serve as a simple guide for quitting these platforms.
The good news, despite the word "addiction" being thrown around when describing smartphone/algorithms and maybe I've used it before. The good news is I don't think people are ACTUALLY addicted to these, you won't have withdrawal symptoms or cravings. At most, you'll find yourself opening apps that you don't even use anymore.
So without further ado, lets start with the subject that started my journey to remove algorithms from my life, music.
Music
Spotify fucking sucks.
It's a half-assed algorithm, the shuffle sucks, the audio quality is practically halved, its expensive for what you get, songs get removed willy nilly, lots of songs aren't even on the platform to begin with, etc., etc., etc.
I dropped Spotify like a baby covered in olive oil when I discovered the alternatives. Downloading and owning the music files and managing my own library (more on that later).
Finding Music
Finding music is gonna be a challenge, but the good news is, you're not starting from scratch. You already have a general sense for your taste, so start there. Go to artists you like
For me personally, I like going into local record/cd/used media shops. I like to browse the physical music as what'll generally ensnare me is the design. I never would have listened to Chappell Roan if I didn't see the 1 year anniversary copy of "The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess" with it's green embossed design. Going to these stores will also allow you to ask the staff for recommendations, thus forming a new connection.
Often you'll find "new" music or at least new songs you haven't heard before by listening to the full album. I think for most people, they miss out on a lot of good music because they only listen to what gets served to them via the radio, tiktok, spotify, or greatest hits compilations. I discovered some of my favorite songs because I sat and listened to the whole album, and most of them I prefer over the biggest hits.
So, if you have songs you already like, consider listening to the entire album that song comes from on YouTube. Or if you're already on spotify, you can give that a listen there too. Be sure to look for Deluxe Editions of albums as they will have bonus songs you might enjoy too.
By the way, I recommend you listen to Flying Beagle by Himiko Kikuchi, it's Japanese jazz fusion and it's one of my favorite albums. See what I did there? I just gave you a personal recommendation, this may have sparked you to choose to go listen to the album, or you heard "japanese jazz fusion" and thought that sounded lame. Either way, that's what is great about listening to other people's recommendations, because you may very well have never heard of Kikuchi or her work, how else would you have stumbled upon 1980s foreign Jazz? It's unlikely an algorithm will recommend it to you unless you've already been in the niche for a while. I couldn't tell you how I even stumbled on Kikuchi, but I'm glad I did and I hope you give it a shot.
Also, just listen. Music is playing everywhere. I found a song I really like because of the Wii U Homebrew channel. I found Castle of Glass by Linkin Park in the 2010s thanks to being on a loading screen for the server I was joining. A song that played at my wedding was discovered because of a trip to a department store.
Sites like rateyourmusic.com or albumoftheyear.org also are great resources for finding great music. They have filters for genre, year, and a human reviewing system to gauge what is the best of the particular band to start with.
Make Note: It's okay to not finish a song and skip it if it isn't grabbing you by the time you've completed the chorus.
Now how to actually GET the music.
Getting Music
The cheapest option, is obviously to use an MP3 downloading tool like yt-dlp, soulseek, lucida or qqdl and download music off of youtube. This can get you basically any song you could ever want, and may very well be the only way you can obtain certain songs.
If you want to actually own a physical/digital copy to support the artists then sites like Bandcamp are right up your alley for online purchases. You can also buy the music from the band's website sometimes depending on their setup.
I get a lot of used media off eBay, and music is no exception. Many stores will have deals on their eBay accounts like "Buy 2, Get 1 50% off". They're often cheaper at the expense of not being "new". However, it is a great resource for getting your hands on foreign
You can of course also visit the aforementioned cd/record/used media store. The downside is they may not have what you're looking for, but some stores almost feel like a treasure trove. Like I found a copy of the Halo 2 Soundtrack: Volume 2 at a decent price (cheaper than eBay) when I went to the record store I like on my birthday.
From there, now you just gotta rip the files off the CD using whatever software you have. iTunes has this functionality, and there is other dedicated software you can use. I prefer abcde for my music ripping as it also uses MusicBrainz, however this one is a CLI app which can make that daunting for newcomers, but it is worth it for its simplicity. You'll of course need an external device that can read CDs if you don't have one already built-in.
Now you've got the music, now we have to manage our library.
Managing Music
Now it comes time to manage your libraries. The best way to manage libraries is to use a software that can edit the meta data of the files.
The most notable is iTunes available on Windows and older Macs, which I use quite frequently on my '08 Macbook. You can simply drop in an MP3 file and click "edit details" to set tons of meta data: the year the song came out, the track number, the BPM, the genre, etc. You can also download the Apple Music app and it'll let you manage your MP3s as well.
For Mac users, you won't be able to use iTunes on newer macs, but you can use Apple Music.
For Linux Users, Rhythmbox and Strawberry Music Player are great GUI apps for managing libraries.
Getting Music onto Device of Choice
The Apple Music app works just fine if you have an iPhone, but you can also use the VLC app to do the same thing. If you're on android, VLC is your best option. The added bonus of using VLC, if you rip CDs or have downloads of FLACs VLC will play FLAC files. There are other MP3 media apps out there, but I prefer these 2 apps.
You can also use an iPod like I do. Just an option.
Plug in your device, open the application of your choice, and allow your
With all that out of the way, lets move on to movies and shows.
Movies/Shows
Netflix's biggest competition is sleep, at least that's what Netflix's CEO has stated in the past. Streaming companies want to colonize your attention span. So don't let them.
Finding Movies/Shows
A fun game I'm starting to play with my wife is finding a movie for each letter of the alphabet. For example, for A I chose the French film Amelie. Which I heard of thanks to a certain fit girl (if you know you know). There are plenty of websites that will allow you see the top rated movies for each letter of the alphabet, so use that as a game to find new movies for you to watch.
If you like the style of a certain director, give their other films a shot. If you like The Shining, consider Full Metal Jacket. If you like Jaws, consider Jurassic Park and so on.
Think of shows you've heard of as a kid, but never cared or had the ability to watch. For me, this was Adventure Time. I didn't get to watch it during it's run, but I'm watching it now and I love it. I also watched Breaking Bad finally, it was talked about so much when it first came out, and got meme'd to high hell. So, my wife and I decided to give it a shot, and we watch it all the time (when my ADHD brain lets me).
Same strategy as above with music, go to local used media shops and browse, see what catches your eye.
Getting Movies/Shows
The cheapest solution is to get a vpn like Proton or Mullvad and sail the seven seas, but for legal reasons I can't advocate piracy, but... well look at my name.
Just whatever you do don't look at the r/piracy megathread on reddit. wink.
Alternatively, you can just go on ebay or a local used media store/thrift store and find dvds there.
It's pretty easy to just watch DVDs/Blu-Rays on a console you might have laying around. Hell, the PS3's biggest selling point was the fact it read blu-ray. Any blu-ray player can run dvds, so don't think you need to have a separate device.
DVDs are pretty easy to rip through desktop apps like Handbrake if you prefer to own digitally. Simply borrow the DVD, rip it, then return it.
The public library can be a great resource for this, as some will have a movies/shows section, but the selection may vary.
You'll need an external device that can read DVDs Blu-rays will require a different peripheral. I recommend just going for a blu-ray drive from jump for it's wider compatibility.
YouTube
I won't lie, this is my weakness. I watch quite a bit of youtube, probably more than I do shows or movies. YouTube's algorithm is incredibly prevalent. So, to combat this, I use an extension called Unhook, which allows me to disable aspects of the website, primarily the home feed or the recommended feed.
To discover new channels or videos, I'll search up a topic I'm interested in and watch it from a variety of channels to see who I like the most. This is how I came across pagemelt's channel.
So, on my youtube. I have the homepage disabled, and it redirects to my subscriptions. I have shorts disabled as well, so my brain doesn't feel drawn to the scroll. I have the bottom recommended sometimes enabled, but not always. I try to be mindful of "do I want to see content adjacent to this video", so I guess in a way this aspect still uses an algorithm. Which, to be fair even the search bar is algorithmically driven in it's results. So, if you're using youtube, you're kinda still at the mercy of a black box algorithm, but at least this way you have more of a say in what you're actually watching or if you want to continue to watch.
Disclaimer
There are of course downsides to trying to cut out algorithms.
If you collect physically, you'll need the physical space. If you are doing so digitally, then you'll need the storage space on a hard drive.
It's not nearly as convenient. For me, I have a USB that I plug into my smart TV and watch, if I wanna change rooms, I have to remember to take the USB with me.
Unless you go the yo ho ho route, there is a cost to this, the good news is, the cost is generally up to you. You can spend as much or as little as you want on media. No company to raise prices on you artificially.
In Conclusion
I think it is worth to go down this pathway as you will now own the media you consume, and the only thing that could stop that is a hardware malfunction or yourself.
I recommend start small before completely cutting the chord, or cut the chord and build up from the bottom, the choice is yours, and that's the beauty of it.
If you have any more questions or maybe I forgot to mention something (which is 100% likely), feel free to drop me an email at me@absurdpirate.com.
Pirate is wearing all-black converse, green khakis, black Levi's shirt.
Pirate is feeling good. He finally had a night he slept well.
Pirate is listening to nimrod. (Album by Green Day).
Pirate is playing Halo 3.
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