How I'm healing from algorithms

The slow awakening that I no longer have to create around an algorithm's demands

Photo by Mahdi Bafande on Unsplash

It’s the tail end of Chinese New Year and I’m doing the usual Lunar New Year things: Visiting relatives, overindulging in rich food and, as the first step to heal from years of creative burnout, carving out an algorithm-free space for myself.

I’ve come across a few interesting articles that confirmed my deep, almost conspiracy-bent feeling that algorithms were killing my creativity.

“We fell into the trap where our creations started to be dictated by the metrics of the “algorithm” … Thus, we stop creating what we like to create and become hostage to a creation focused only on results and performance.”

Felipe Zamana, The Algorithm is Killing Creativity. Here is how to save yours.

Algorithms are forcing us to create art that fits into a neat little box — their neat little box.

Food bloggers had to write long, rambly introductions before introducing a recipe. Bloggers threw away short posts because short content was deemed “low value” by Google. When social media platforms said “this is the year of the video” photographers felt pressured to pivot to videos … even if they didn’t like want to abandon their still images.

Just to be seen.

Just to make a living.

I think any creative will recognise that creating to a formula tends to kill your creative soul.

I fell into the trap too. And I was firmly in the cage, unaware, until recently.