REALITY SILOS AND RAINBOW COWBOYS

or How To Choose The Best VHS Movie This Weekend

I stood up.

I hate flying economy.

I hate flying economy but my wallet sometimes denies me the pleasure of avoiding flying economy.

So I stood up to let the couple in to the row. I was in the aisle seat.

Very nice couple. Around my age. We chatted briefly and they explained that their flight on WestJet had been cancelled and they hurriedly rebooked with Air Canada.

I responded with “oh, yeah… the mechanics are on strike. I heard they’ve cancelled about 1,000 or more flights.”

They responded with shock.

I stifled my “YOU DIDN’T KNOW??”

Of course, I don’t expect everyone to know everything, however this WestJet strike has been headline news everywhere in Canada.
To the point where you would have to make an effort to not know about it.
Especially IF YOU WERE GOING TO BE FLYING WESTJET.

Then a thought came to me from a conversation we had on Podcast Is Broken where we spoke of how people are being swayed by parties, political slogans, and people, they really don’t know anything about.

Sure, there is so much information and 24/7 access to that overwhelming information that ignoring it sometimes becomes a matter of survival… but I credit algorithms.

I credit them in that I blame them.

TikTok’s For You feed serves up exactly the type of videos I like any time I open the app.
My experience on TikTok is not the same as your’s or anyone else’s.
It’s all for me/you.
Amazing.

Spotify can serve up 80s hit after 80s hit all day every day if I let it.
Amazing.

Social Media platforms will serve me platefuls of the same spicy discourse I love to hate.
Am… actually this one sucks.

That all seems great… but it is not.
I think it’s terrible for us.
I’ll even go so far as to say algorithms are at the root, if not the root, of the apparent divisiveness we experience today.

Case in point…

I’m in Alberta.
Calgary to be exact.
It’s Stampede and there are tourists everywhere.
Yes, it is cowboy hell/heaven here but I can tell you that there are every colour and creed of person out here having a great time.
It’s wonderful.
My server at lunch was, and I feel this is a qualified statement, the most rainbow cowboy I have ever seen.
Right down to his pink jackalope pen and winky jokes about riding his horse.
Fabulous.

My time spent on Social Media, specifically in the comments sections, would sometimes have me believe that Alberta is nothing but a sea of angry white people.
It most definitely is not.

The algorithm lied to me.

And that’s it.
The algorithm is a yes-man.
The algorithm is a digital drug dealer who wants to keep me numb and coming back for more of the same.

It says to me, “naw naw, man… you never have to listen to anything recorded after 1989. This is all you need. Now let’s give Modern English’s Melt With You another spin!”

So I listen.
I feel warm and comfortable… and unchallenged.

That’s not good.

I miss the days of renting a VHS movie.
The technology was garbage but in the store I would to pause see the little paper stars to see what Randy said about a movie, or what Susan gave the latest blockbuster sequel.

Or when I first saw New Order’s Blue Monday in a record shop and the staff had stuck a sticky note on it saying “Joy Division goes disco”.

Curation is similar to an algorithm but it is not an algorithm.

We will always look for more of what we already like, but having it force fed to us like it’s all that’s out there is creating reality silos.

We need to find a way to make reality a shared experience again.
We have the technology.
We just need to use it better.

Mark Twain was right.
Maybe we just all need to travel more if we can.

Oh… and kill all the algorithms.
They’re turning us into idiots.

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(Pictured: Author stands on hotel balcony in Calgary relieved that his request for ‘room with a view of a liquor store’ was granted)