Since Matter chose to remove all of their social sharing features, I’ve lacked things to read. As much as they claim to have improved things in getting recommendations direct from Twitter, they really suck. There is nothing better than learning what the people around you are reading to let you know what to take a peek at, and I wish more services understood that.

I have a particular hatred of American politics and its ability to worm its way into everything. Covering all of social media with its poison and then infiltrating everything that large-scale services suggest I should read. However, that issue is much larger than one topic. Matter now surfaces hardly any posts that I want to read, which means I don’t read as much. It is not clear how the recommendations work, but clearly, some people are reading these posts, but that person is not me.

It sounds like I am ripping on one particular service, but I am not. In fact, I love Matter, it is one of the first apps I install on a new phone, but all services seem to do this now. Taking recommendations from too broad a selection of people, or making all the suggested posts human-curated. This may work for some people, but again, not I.

In a world of algorithms and intelligent services, you would think that someone, somewhere would be able to learn what I enjoy reading and recommend me more like it. I would rather not live in an echo chamber, but I want to avoid having to put in as much work as I do to find enjoyable articles. This is precisely the type of useful application new technology should have instead of manipulating people on social media, can’t it just find me things to read… please.