from puppies mood to new dances to memes Americans average more than two hours a day scrolling content fed to us through algorithms based on our specific interests and Past online activity but a growing chorus of critics warns that algorithms can lead us to disturbing places and to making bad choices these algorithms they are the digital equivalent of AR-15s some public figures are demanding regulation they be banned they really ought to be banned it's an abuse of the public forum this Tik Tok user highlighting some of that criticism fasinated I don't actually care about this kind
of content well if you care so little why were you poking around in the comment section then so how effective are these algorithms think about it this way a grocery store like this one only knows what you are interested in once you've bought something but a social media company knows every time you pause even for a moment to look at anything and it constantly re organizes the store to be more attractive to you and that's why algorithms earn companies billions each year but they can also lead us astray in just three clicks I can go
from date night ideas to mind control seduction China has censored social media for years and the EU recently passed laws guaranteeing people the right to opt out of algorithms both sides of the aisle here have taken up the question of Regulation but no new laws have emerged why is the US so far behind it just becomes a def definitional issue so what people will say is oh we disagree on the specifics of Regulation we don't want it to be over Brad but in reality people are afraid of Crossing powerful interest groups business groups technology lobbyists
that leaves us to figure it out ourselves now you can limit your exposure by turning off the algorithm in Facebook and Instagram on YouTube you can turn off autoplay and sign out which limits its ability to track you and Tik Tock well you can reset the algorithm if you don't like what it feeds you so I think it's important to recognize that yes we have some agency but also these systems are constantly making decisions until some national standards emerge it is you against the algorithm now the thing to understand you guys right is that this
is fundamentally a business and it's a business of attention the more that you linger even for a moment on something emotionally heightened or offensive the more you're going to get that kind of and offensive content so it's important to understand that try and pull back from it where you can we have some control here but it really has all everything to do about how you advertise yourself show yourself so fascinating it's like it follows your thoughts you can't lie to it because they see where you linger so then where's this all going like if you
talk about you know 2024 and Beyond well I mean you'd say follow your thoughts I mean this is you know that sounds like a lot but it is really where it's going back in 2015 Mark Zuckerberg famously talked about wanting to figure out the the math of humans and their relationships and that is what everybody's trying to do and now as we're getting into these processors that are put right against your skin in something like a watch or meta has these Rayband sunglasses they're trying to get apple is working on this Vision Pro headset all
of that is getting up close to your skin and they're going to start monitoring you know what you like where your eyes are going what gets your heart rate going the analysis that they're after is only going to get deeper and deeper you know one of the things I think one of the things I find most troubling about it is and you point this out in your piece in many countries you can opt out of this stuff yes I mean it's so interesting right because in the United States we've talked in the past very much
about how we should not regulate this because China will get out in front of us China's actually regulating the heck out of this right now you know in the EU you can say opt me out of algorithms here in the United States it's just the wild west you guys great good to know thanks for scaring us enjoy your coffee every doie hey thanks for watching don't miss the Today show every weekday at 11 am Eastern 8 Pacific on our streaming Channel today all day to watch head to today.com allay or click the link right here
