Elizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾<p>Just 20min getting onto <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/Substack" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Substack</span></a> Notes - I was already angry. The algorithm delivered a Substack note to me about Chinese media, and I got so angry because, oh why repeat it here. Basically they described a nation of 1 bil people from diverse ethnicities as lacking "critical thinking skills about public policy" due to being brainwashed by algorithms. 👀 you are one to talk, writer from the US, who invented the term brain rot and elected the orange one! 😆</p><p>Anyway, it's easy to spot an article with a naughty/racist angle against china - they often depict the people as less than human and as a homogenous blob.</p><p>Anyway, what I am saying is it's really sad that Substack, once a haven for me where I can just flit from one lovely newsletter to the next has become another algorithmic rage pusher. I am trying to find new Substacks to read and I keep thinking Notes is where I can find them. I should know better but the programming is real 😆.</p><p>That is why retreating to <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/Mastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Mastodon</span></a> and <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/RedNote" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RedNote</span></a> (xiaohongshu) is such a relief. I don't have to be fed BS like this. First, because on Mastodon I have control over my feed. Two, if there's an algo like on XiaoHongShu, it's excellent. Seriously, best algorithm I've encountered. My feed is designed to delight me, so I get fed cooking recipes, cats, dogs and handsome actors 🫢. It only gets sour when I get undisciplined and click on something I shouldn't 😅.<br>The people I follow and those who deign to follow me are rational folks and lovely and from all nations.<br>Of course I still get reply guys, but they're easily handled with a block and mute, and they do me a favour by appearing so I can deselect them from my feed 😁</p><p><a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/SocialMedia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SocialMedia</span></a></p>