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I find it absolutely painful that our recommender ML based content discovery streams like YouTube and Tiktok and Instagram don't have multiple 'hats' you can pu

I find it absolutely painful that our recommender ML based content discovery streams like YouTube and Tiktok and Instagram don't have multiple 'hats' you can put on and take off, in the sense of saying 'hey TikTok, I'm feeling frisky, feel free to send me those thirst trap videos now', but then 30 minutes later you can say 'OK TikTok, I know I watched a bunch of those dancing videos, but can you send me the educational stuff now'. Ditto IG, YouTube etc. Like 'hey YouTube, engage education mode', 'hey YouTube, engage self-improvement mode', 'hey YouTube, I just wanna relax and laugh'. I know that there are categories, even auto-generated categories on YouTube, but they aren't that great or all encompassing. My biggest critique of present personalized ML content streams is that there's no two-way communication. I can't tell IG that yes I wanna see big booties right now, but no I don't want to see them five hours from now. Or I want to see aquaponics right now since I'm on a learning binge, but later tonight I don't need more technology and science, I just need to laugh and unwind. Our actions, our content consumption, is not allowed to be one and done. Every move you make is seen as a signal to the algorithm that you want more of that all the time. The closest thing we have is incognito mode, or maintaining multiple accounts for different purposes. But why can't you look at an ex on instagram one time without them showing you that person everytime you open the app for 5 years. It's really toxic and unsustainable that all of your actions are seen as 'yes, please more of this all the time'.

jorpal 5y ago
Anyone remember StumbleUpon? You could easily edit your interests and get different types of content. It was the pinnacle.
clairity 5y ago
> "...in the sense of saying 'hey TikTok, I'm feeling frisky, feel free to send me those thirst trap videos now'..." i once pitched this type of user experience (for the general case, not tiktok, which didn't exist at the time) at a hackathon competition, and it was popular enough then to win us some free stuff. the demo we hacked together was very rudimentary, but had we gotten a little further along with a proof of concept before falling apart, who knows what might have happened... the biggest challenge was actually licensing costs and rights management, not the recommendation engine (though that was challenging too).
lobocinza 5y ago
You can use YouTube anonymously and also clear your history (which I frequently do). In my experience the algorithms are good when they know just a little about you and make good recommendations once in a while. Once you watch too much of something it become a rabbit hole of the same stuff but more dumb.

jorpal 5y ago

Anyone remember StumbleUpon? You could easily edit your interests and get different types of content. It was the pinnacle.

clairity 5y ago

> "...in the sense of saying 'hey TikTok, I'm feeling frisky, feel free to send me those thirst trap videos now'..." i once pitched this type of user experience (for the general case, not tiktok, which didn't exist at the time) at a hackathon competition, and it was popular enough then to win us some free stuff. the demo we hacked together was very rudimentary, but had we gotten a little further along with a proof of concept before falling apart, who knows what might have happened... the biggest challenge was actually licensing costs and rights management, not the recommendation engine (though that was challenging too).

lobocinza 5y ago

You can use YouTube anonymously and also clear your history (which I frequently do). In my experience the algorithms are good when they know just a little about you and make good recommendations once in a while. Once you watch too much of something it become a rabbit hole of the same stuff but more dumb.