Do algorithms suppress us or set us free?

There is strength in weak ties, as the sociologist Mark Granovetter has observed. Our acquaintances—not our friends—are our greatest source of new ideas and information. The Internet lets us exploit the power of these kinds of distant connections with marvellous efficiency. It’s terrific at the diffusion of innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, seamlessly matching up buyers and sellers, and the logistical functions of the dating world. But weak ties seldom lead to high-risk activism.

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Shirky considers this model of activism an upgrade. But it is simply a form of organizing which favors the weak-tie connections that give us access to information over the strong-tie connections that help us persevere in the face of danger. It shifts our energies from organizations that promote strategic and disciplined activity and toward those which promote resilience and adaptability. It makes it easier for activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression to have any impact. The instruments of social media are well suited to making the existing social order more efficient. They are not a natural enemy of the status quo. If you are of the opinion that all the world needs is a little buffing around the edges, this should not trouble you. But if you think that there are still lunch counters out there that need integrating it ought to give you pause.

From Malcom Gladwell’s story on activism in the New Yorker:

Gladwell begins a conversation about the Greensboro lunch counter protests. He argues that the social revolution will not happen online. He says our weak ties, our hundreds or thousands of friends let us express ourselves but the impact is significantly lower.

The Facebook algorithm is  designed such that their users can feel comfortable “over sharing.” Only relevant posts should show up in the feeds of their friends. This solves two potential problems for the Facebook experience: information overload and irrelevant content.

Users can post, express and write as much as they would like without the worry that they are writing, tagging, posting or commenting too much something that often happens on Twitter. However, on Twitter, the overshare situation is completely contextual to how many people you follow. If you  write 10 tweets a day, a recipient how follows 50 slow tweeters will feel overloaded, whereas a follower who reads from 300 people will barely notice those ten tweets.

Lets come back to Gladwell’s argument that these networks are both empowered and diluted by their size. Activists and those expressing themselves can do with much more ease. But, they cannot rally the attention that the Greensboro lunch counter could because the Facebook system is designed to quiet noise. It would take many friends posting and discussing a particular topic in a variety of mediums to draw any kind of social stir that the Greensboro counters saw.