To the Editor:
Re “Algorithms With Agendas and the Sway of Facebook,” by Farhad Manjoo (State of the Art column, front page, May 12):
For as long as there have been writers, editors and publishers, we have let other people decide what news we read and what news we don’t. On the Internet, we can choose a news source we believe to be objective, find a source that will tell us only what we want to hear or leave it to chance.
Somehow, however, people are appalled that Facebook, a social networking site, might be manipulating an algorithm that is supposed to tell people what news is important—as though an algorithm is some sort of totem of objectivity or that measuring how many people are clicking on one story or another is an indication of newsworthiness in the first place.
That is shocking.
MARTIN FISHKIN
Brookline, Mass.
Note from KBJ: Many people are going to be shocked when they get to heaven (or hell) and find that there is no Facebook. Then again, maybe hell just is Facebook, and nothing more.
