There's a problem with "trending"

It’s Time to End ‘Trending’:

The first problem with “trending” is that it selects and highlights content with no eye toward accuracy, or quality. Automated trending systems are not equipped to make judgments; they can determine if things are being shared, but they cannot determine whether that content should be shared further. Facebook’s trending section is fully automated.

I think even my five year old has just about figured out that quantity rarely equals quality, but she’ll probably forget it once she’s a teenager.

How have we managed to turn the internet into the world’s biggest high school popularity contest?

About Adam Tinworth

Adam is a digital journalism analyst, trainer and consultant. He started his career publishing newspapers for the children on his street in the 1980s, edited student magazines in the 1990s, and then spent a decade as a business journalist. In 2006, he moved full-time into digital journalism development. Since 2012, he's been trading as an independent consultant, and has worked with everything from national and international newspapers, to small local charities.