I had just about given up on Facebook. Most of the posts in my feed were ads for stuff I was not interested in. But I must have been interested in them at some point, searched or clicked on or paused on an image or video. And that behavior was fed into some big algorithm cruncher in the sky which resulted in ubiquitous ads for deck umbrellas (at one point I needed a new one), flattering swimsuit tops (always looking for those) and candles. Readers of this space know I have a thing for candles. The deluge of ads got so bad, that I could barely find organic posts — from friends or relatives — and sticking with Facebook seemed an exercise in frustration.
Then something surprising happened — my Facebook feed became filled with beauty, not beauty products. And, dare I say, filled with inspiration.
On any given day, when I open Facebook now, I find myself scrolling, and then scrolling some more — through posts of poems, or philosophical concepts, beautiful landscapes, and impressionist art. It’s as if Monet and Rumi themselves are programming the algorithm used to determine the content I see. If so, thanks guys!
Alas, the intervention which changed my feed is not of the divine sort, but rather likely the result of ever smarter artificial intelligence and machine learning employed by Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
I don’t pretend to understand how it works — I’m one who wonders if somehow Mark Zuckerberg is listening, even though I don’t use an Alexa, because after having a conversation about something, a post will show up featuring the very thing I was talking about. Spooky.
Not spooky is what more typically shows up these days. Here’s a sample from today:
- A pencil drawing by Christine Malman from a 1935 issue of the New Yorker of a woman and her dog.
- An aerial photo of the medieval village of Rocca Imperiale in Calabria, Italy.
- A painting of a evening rural scene by Maxfield Parrish featuring contrasts of blues and greens and grays with the fading golden light.
- 42 life lessons written by a 90-year-old from the Cleveland Plain Dealer with a delightful photo of the woman looking at herself in a gigantic mirror.
- A post and photo about a double helix staircase designed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1516.
Ah, and this, a post from a site called “Rumi Heals”:
“Sorrow prepares you for joy.
It violently sweeps everything out of your house,
So that new joy can find space to enter.
It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so
that fresh green leaves can grow in their place…”
Seeing a Rumi poem pop up in my feed sure beats an ad from some place called “Market Umbrella.”
Yes, I still get those, and lots of ads from Pottery Barn and Serena and Lily and other places I browse. But as one who has arrived in the second half of life far less cynical than I used to be and as a committed optimist (no one’s more surprised by these than me!), I must spend at least as much time browsing for inspiration. That the algorithm responds and feeds inspiration back to me makes me think maybe we can outsmart the looming monster of AI. It’s not so unlike the old expression from the early days of computing — “Garbage in, garbage out.” In other words, if you input flawed data into a computer program, you’ll end up with flawed output.
Beauty in, beauty out. Maybe it is just that simple.
A member of the Marblehead Current’s Board of Directors, Virginia Buckingham is the former chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Port Authority, chief of staff to two Massachusetts governors, deputy editorial page editor for the Boston Herald and author of “On My Watch: A Memoir.”
