What happens when we no longer see what’s out there, but what some algorithm feeds us, and what are the alternatives to learning new things from the internet? The answer: email.
In the mid-2010’s, I undertook a research project for Heritage Canada (now Canadian Heritage), the federal agency responsible for copyright regulations, looking at the creative industries. The purpose of the research was to explore how creators were operating in the marketplace and the issues they were facing or anticipated regarding the development, delivery, and protection of their products and services.
The Canadian federal government conducts a mandatory review of its copyright policies every five years, and this research was part of that review. But what made the timing so interesting was that this research was being undertaken as social media was starting to transform into an e-commerce platform.
Influencer was turning into a job.
When You Could Learn the Algorithm
The early and mid 2010’s began a period of massive transformation in how creators could market through and monetize digital platforms. This transformation meant you could make money by hosting a YouTube channel, selling products on Instagram, and providing services on Facebook, for the first time in a reliable, easy manner.
It was also when the creator economy was at its peak in terms of its diversification. Craft people, small businessed, and entrepreneurs could now earn a modest living (or at least some income) by selling things online through social platforms, not just websites. To make this easier, e-commerce services had matured enough, and the means of promoting sales had diversified enough that you could leverage places like Instagram to market and sell products with a few clicks.
You could also create genuine communities.
It was before the deluge of large corporations, established brands, and both domestic and foreign products began flooding the market. Once the big retailers and service providers clued in, they used their economic might and influence to distort many of these markets in their favour. And the algorithms that drove the content on these platforms enabled it.
These small-time digital entrepreneurs were creating products and communities. Creator communities were flourishing. It was much like the webrings of the early days of the World Wide Web, where people would link to each other’s sites to provide a small ‘ring’ of influence with similar products or perspectives. Many small-time entrepreneurs would work with others in their neighbourhood or city who deliver similar products or share the same values.
This went beyond just “likes” to active co-promotion and collaboration. It meant you could learn about new things and new people.
Culture and Marketing
At that time, there was a way to learn the platforms and to create a culture around them to shape the market. Whether through search (SEO optimization) or content marketing, you can create a way to connect with people with some expectation of success.
The rapid evolution of search and feed algorithms has changed that. Ever-more powerful AI-driven tools are bolstering the power of algorithms to shape what we see on the platforms we visit — whether it’s social media or search. What it’s led to is an inability to predict, control, or understand how to effectively, consistently, and reliably communicate with people and learn from them. At least, not those in your current orbit.
Re-Enter: Email
Who would have thought that the solution to all of this would be email? Yes, email. That tool that technology commentators have been saying is on its deathbed since the end of the BlackBerry.
Email is giving rise to what Seth Godin calls “permission marketing” through the massive proliferation of email newsletters. These newsletters, designed and delivered through platforms like Substack, are a blend of traditional newsletter, blog, and social feed. I got in early, but didn’t optimize it until later as the platform evolved. Now, I publish newsletters and have developed an entire design school for health and social impact delivered through email.
Blogs are largely useless unless they are coupled with a direct-to-inbox email to readers who subscribe. Yes, you can still get organic search traffic, but those visits are fewer and farther between. The rise of zero-click search through AI tools like Perplexity or even Google’s own AI content summary means that these automated content engines are failing to direct people to sites.
(I say this while being continually devoted to blog-style writing, as you can tell if you’re reading this).
Email is still, for now, resisting this trend.
Email and Algorithms
For now, the cost of creating an ‘algorithmic’ email system is very high. While there are myriad issues with email as a means of communication, it remains highly resistant to the kind of algorithmic content moderation we see on platforms that use a stream.
That’s not to say that client software companies aren’t trying. Most platforms are working diligently to implement AI-driven sorting and filtering. People are willing to hand over what they see to Superhuman (and Outlook and Gmail) to sort, sift, and prioritize.
Yet, we are still — for now — not there. We still have the opportunity to see every message that comes in, even if it has been sorted or labelled automatically upon arrival. It’s harder to eliminate perspectives, ideas, inputs, and people from access to you. (Which is, alas, the problem with junk mail).
I’m intrigued by how we might take advantage of this and use the potential AI offers to be more algorithmically useful to us individuals — rather than corporations. Maybe my email will look a little different than yours, but I’ll have control of it. It won’t be others (like AI bots) making the decision for what we see and are exposed to.
That’s a major change from what we have now. It’s gotten enormously difficult to see things in the world or know what’s out there with the tools we have. Where we once had the world at our fingertips, cumbersomely organized, we now have an algorithm that tells us what that world is.
It needs some anti-design.
Image credits: Brett Jordan on Unsplash,Austin Distel on Unsplash and Le Vu on Unsplash