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index.xml
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/">
<channel>
<title>Raúl E. Taveras's Website</title>
<link>//www.raultaveras.online/</link>
<description>Recent content on Raúl E. Taveras's Website</description>
<generator>Hugo -- gohugo.io</generator>
<language>en</language>
<managingEditor>[email protected] (Raúl Ernesto Taveras Franco)</managingEditor>
<webMaster>[email protected] (Raúl Ernesto Taveras Franco)</webMaster>
<copyright>© Raúl Ernesto Taveras Franco</copyright>
<lastBuildDate>Mon, 30 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="//www.raultaveras.online/index.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
<item>
<title>WhatsApp Channels: The evolution & devolution of communication</title>
<link>//www.raultaveras.online/articles/20231030-ws-channels-rss/</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<author>[email protected] (Raúl Ernesto Taveras Franco)</author>
<guid>//www.raultaveras.online/articles/20231030-ws-channels-rss/</guid>
<description>WhatsApp rolled out &#34;channels&#34; worldwide on September 13, 2023, following the popularity of a similar feature in Telegram introduced 7 years prior. Through channels, users can subscribe to one-sided chat feeds and receive updates from individuals or organizations directly to their devices. While some see this as a way to get us closer to the information we want, I argue channels make reliable information harder to find and verify, compromising transparency.</description>
<content:encoded><![CDATA[
<p>
WhatsApp rolled out "channels" worldwide <a href="https://blog.whatsapp.com/whatsapp-channels-are-going-global">on September 13, 2023</a>, following the popularity of a similar feature in Telegram <a href="https://telegram.org/blog/channels">introduced 7 years prior</a>.
Through channels, users can subscribe to one-sided chat feeds and receive updates from individuals or organizations directly to their devices.
While some see this as a way to get us closer to the information we want, I argue
channels make reliable information harder to find and verify, compromising transparency.
Additionally, I believe they are a merely a symptom of the declining quality of the internet
and represent a redundant reinvention of technology available and perfectly functional for the past 25 years.</p>
<div id="outline-container-headline-1" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="headline-1">
How channels are bad for information transparency
</h2>
<div id="outline-text-headline-1" class="outline-text-2">
<p>Channels, as explained before, are essentially chat feeds that allow the owner to send messages one way without receiving a barrage of disscussion in return.
As chat feeds, they present a number of barriers to information transparency. </p>
<p>
First, they are limited to users who have subscribed to them within specific messaging services.
Because of this, old information can only be retrieved through the user interfaces and search engines these companies provide, which are not designed for retrieval past anything but a couple of months.</p>
<p>
These limitations mean the original information is vulnerable to being irretrievably lost.
If the companies that provide these services go under or shut them down, the original information effectively disappears from the face of the Earth.
On the other hand, governments can and sometimes do ban access to these systems, and companies themselves are perfectly capable of banning individual users. In these scenarios, the information still exists in servers somewhere, but it's as good as nonexistent for the affected people.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-headline-2" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="headline-2">
If channels are so bad, why are they so popular?
</h2>
<div id="outline-text-headline-2" class="outline-text-2">
<p>In the information age, we want to receive direct information from those whose content we find valuable.
We find ourselves migrating to channels for our information not out of preference but out of necessity, a response to the alarming decline in the quality of information readily available online, a phenomenon colloquially termed "ensh*ttification."</p>
<p>
It used to be, back in the 2000s, when Google rose to fame, that if a user typed a search into the box and hit enter, they'd find just what they were looking for.
Tens of thousands of varied, often independent results would come up, written by real people from all over the web.
Now, many people find navigating the web so frustrating <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20230605171506/https://www.pcmag.com/news/when-will-chatgpt-replace-search-engines-maybe-sooner-than-you-think">they stopped doing it at all</a>, instead using tools like ChatGPT to find answers to their questions.</p>
<p>
What changed?</p>
<p>
First, websites realized that Google and other search engines could be gamed. They could write articles in ways that would give them a much higher chance of appearing in the first few results.
This practice is called search engine optimization (SEO). The importance of appearing first is that most users click one of the first few results on their searches, and almost none go past the first page.
Corporations therefore had much to gain from driving clicks to their websites, and they had resources to invest into SEO, leading to content design that favors clicks instead of information quality. There is even <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20231002123158/https://www.wired.com/story/google-antitrust-lawsuit-search-results/">evidence Google changes search terms</a> without user consent, in order to place paying results up in the list.</p>
<p>
The result? The same couple of websites show up at the top of every results page, filled with formulaic articles that may or may not contain any useful information.</p>
<p>
Furthermore, since the advent of AI in the 2020s, sites are employing AI to write a large number of their articles with little editorial oversight. These superficial, content-lite articles often don't even contain the answers people seek, making finding actual information more like looking for a needle in a haystack.</p>
<p>
This isn't all. To maximize revenue, corporations also sell ads. As with search results, the purpose of ads is to be clicked, and websites employ every conceivable tactic to elicit clicks. In-text and popup ads transformed the simple old internet websites into virtual minefields, disrupting the user experience even more. </p>
<p>
Therefore, channels emerge in a context where information is harder to come by as individual freedom of navigation is curtailed by corporate practices.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-headline-3" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="headline-3">
How these issues have been solved for 24 and a half years
</h2>
<div id="outline-text-headline-3" class="outline-text-2">
<p>Channels are a flawed attempt to solve the modern internet's greatest problem.
However, they do nothing more than reinvent the wheel, rediscovering a service that has existed since 1999.</p>
<p>
Enter RSS (standing for RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication), a simple system for users to follow their favorite sites and be automatically notified when they post something new. </p>
<p>
Here's how it works. Users can employ their reader of choice to subscribe to a website's feed. The reader will then download the site's contents and link to the source posts.
When there's a new post, the reader automatically updates.
Many websites directed at a broad audience, such as newspapers and blogs, have RSS feeds. Even YouTube channels are themselves RSS feeds.</p>
<p>
In essence, RSS feeds fulfill the roles that individuals expect from WhatsApp and Telegram channels. They allow users to follow individuals and organizations and receive updates directly from the source. They boast several advantages over channels, however:</p>
<ul>
<li>RSS feeds point straight to the source, which means there is no risk of information loss even if the reader is discontinued. It also means corporations cannot manipulate the information sent by feeds, even if they wanted to. </li>
<li>Since the user isn't beholden to any single program, they are free to tailor their experience to match their unique needs and preferences, including those with special visual or auditory needs.</li>
<li>RSS feeds further allow the user to organize the influx of data in ways that fit them, allowing them to curate them by folders, groups, and tags, as well as saving their favorite articles. </li>
</ul>
<p>Some good RSS readers include <a href="https://feedly.com/">Feedly</a> for the web and mobile and <a href="https://www.rssowl.org/">RSSOwl</a> for Windows, Mac and Linux (which I happen to use).</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-headline-4" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="headline-4">
Conclusion
</h2>
<div id="outline-text-headline-4" class="outline-text-2">
<p>
WhatsApp and Telegram channels exist because the internet has become a much more hostile place to find information, as websites are flooded with premade, AI-written articles filled to the brim with ads, popups, and subscription requests. They attempt to solve this by providing a direct means for one-way communication, but they do so in a way that leaves information vulnerable to irretrievable loss and manipulation. The creators of RSS had already solved this problem in 1999, even before the advent of search engines. In light of the challenges posed by current internet practices, it may be time to consider adopting this technology once more.</p>
<p>
Feel free to follow my RSS feed with your favorite reader at <a href="http://www.raultaveras.online/index.xml">http://www.raultaveras.online/index.xml</a>!</p>
</div>
</div>
<div id="outline-container-headline-5" class="outline-2">
<h2 id="headline-5">
A good video that addresses the topic of search engines:
</h2>
<div id="outline-text-headline-5" class="outline-text-2">
<ul>
<li>Enrico Tartarotti. (2022, November 25). What Happened to Google Search? [YouTube]. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48AOOynnmqU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48AOOynnmqU</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
]]></content:encoded>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>