Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash

Howdy DEV gang! I trust you are doing great (if not, here's a virtual hug ).

Despite experiencing a bit of a writers block, I decided I'd get a discussion going so that I can get the ball rolling again ().

Today's topic: algorithms. Specifically the ones we find on social media platforms and the consequences they bring. I don't intend to say algorithms are bad, but sometimes they really aren't that great.

Let me give you some context first.

A little context...

A while ago I attended two talks on building your online presence and building a system to create content consistently. I wrote two posts about these talks, which you can find below.

Supercharge your blogging efforts with a solid system

Amelia Vieira Rosado Apr 12 7 min read

#productivity #writing #techtalks #discuss

Boost your online presence with a STRONG personal brand

Amelia Vieira Rosado Apr 14 7 min read

#techtalks #writing #watercooler #leadership

Frequently asked questions during these sessions included:

• How do you promote your content?
• Where do you promote your content?
• How do you ensure your content is discovered?
• How can I measure the traffic my post attracts?
• What tools can I use to analyze my contents performance?

You get the idea (or so I'd hope...).

Long story short, all of this got me thinking. Thinking about how preoccupied we have gotten about metrics and online popularity. How social media plays a central role in our lives and how it takes control of our lives (if we allow it to, of course). And here's the thing about "social" platforms: they all implement some sort of algorithm and recommendation engine. And what does that do? It keeps people and their work from being noticed. It buries your efforts. Here's a recent example of a fellow with a large pool of subscribers on YouTube who's not having the best time with his content.

These days, we no longer people please. Instead, some of us live to please algorithms. We go to crazy lengths to get our content noticed and at times we fail miserably. This only helps to deteriorate our mental health further (among other problems that may arise as a result).

So my question to YOU is simple: How can we as developers create platforms and tools that empower people to show their work and guarantee that everyone gets a fair chance of being noticed? How would you try to solve this "issue"?

I'd love to hear your thoughts, so please drop them below!