The Algorithm Recommends

[Ruby92]

It knows I watched
a video about grief
for eleven seconds.

Now it sends me
more grief.
More and more.
Carefully calibrated grief
in portion sizes
I did not ask for.

Somewhere a graph
shows my engagement rising.

Somewhere an engineer
celebrates
having found me

[Ann13]

Carefully calibrated grief in portion sizes I did not ask for is one of the most precise descriptions of the recommendation algorithm experience I have read

[Sentinel96]

The engineer celebrating having found me is the line that turns this from observation into something darker. The human behind the system making it personal

[ThreadNecro11]

Eleven seconds is so specific and so right. You did not even watch it. You scrolled past it. And now it owns something about you

[Mason0]

This is very good and also makes me want to close every app I have open

[Crossing]

Somewhere a graph shows my engagement rising while I am suffering. That split screen between the human experience and the metric is the whole horror of attention economy design in eight words