'At what point does hyper-personalization become incredibly impersonal and detached?'

'Am I my Spotify Wrapped? Spotify's algorithm makes me question its validity.'

Kofi Mframa at USA Today

Spotify Wrapped has seen "major success mainly because of our cultural obsession with self-discovery," says Kofi Mframa. But Spotify's "user-specific algorithm can create echo chambers that feed and refeed the same artists, songs, genres and overall 'vibes.'" When "our listening patterns are largely determined by algorithms" and the "echo chambers they create," Spotify Wrapped can "become less of a reflection of our own personal taste and more of a reflection of whatever Spotify allows in ear's reach."

Read more

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

'Want to save your friendships? Take a page from the Founding Fathers.'

Alexandra Hudson at The Washington Post

The story of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams "illustrates the perils of allowing politics to supplant friendship and provides an important solution: taking political conversation off the table," says Alexandra Hudson. A "reasoned, spirited debate is central to a free and flourishing democracy," but "Jefferson and Adams learned the hard way that politics is not worth ending relationships over." So "this holiday season — and beyond — let's remember the secret to talking politics: Don't."

Read more

'Trump should make Putin wince before they sit down to talk'

Mark Montgomery at Foreign Policy

Donald Trump "must change Putin's perspective that he has the upper hand, or Trump's diplomacy will backfire," says Mark Montgomery. Trump "should therefore formulate a maximum pressure campaign to convince Moscow to accept a good and lasting peace deal." By "keeping his promise to restore 'peace through strength,' Trump can give himself the best possible chance of stopping the bloodshed for good." But "any diplomatic effort will have to confront some unfortunate facts."

Read more

'The UN has generations of Palestinian blood on its hands'

Zena Tahhan at The Nation

In the "case of Palestine, the U.N.'s role, contrary to what many believe, has been catastrophic," says Zena Tahhan. The U.N. has "historically operated as a tool for the imperial and colonial ambitions of the global powers that invented it." Palestinians are "fighting for their survival against an entire postwar global political order." The U.N.'s partition plan "served as the catalyst that set in motion the organized and systematic violent ethnic cleansing of Palestine."

Read more