Do Social Media Algorithms Control Your Life?

Note: Media literacy is an expanded conceptualization of literacy that includes the ability to access and analyze media messages as well as create, reflect, and take action, using the power of information and communication to make a difference in the world.

From time to time I feel compelled to write about an issue, because of its wider consequences. This is such a case. This article/blog grew out of a conversation with one of my tech clients, surrounding the upcoming Media Literacy Week Oct 23-29, 2023, and my thoughts on the issue.

A question I hear again and again -  Does the internet expand your mind or make you narrow-minded?

We know that the content you like and see on a given social media app isn’t random - it’s designed and curated content specifically made for you. Now that is important to remember - Algorithms are curated content and becomes made specifically for you. These internet algorithms are designed to keep you using the social media app for as long as possible, and that happens by what is called  “suggestive algorithms learning”. This means that what you like to watch, is registered, learned, and stored.  Then it is fed back to you as more suggestions for a particular type of content to be shown to you again.

Seems all good, right? Is it?  Well, these recommendation algorithms can help you feel you have been seen and heard; and they can help build community too.  Yet it can have an insular effect on you too. That is to be unaware, or unconscious, or ignorant due to a lack of interest in what is going on around you in other areas of life - in the people, cultures, or ideas outside of one's own experience. Potentially this can trap you in a filter bubble where all you know is content served to you by the algorithms, content that reinforces only what you believe, and eventually controls what you have access to.

So to help keep this from becoming spooky or creepy, let’s look at what an Algorithm is. Basically, it is a math formula. Formulas are a set of instructions to solve a problem.

When applied to social media, an Algorithm was to solve the problem of what to engage with on social media. It is estimated that 500 hours of video is uploaded to the YouTube every minute, that being 720,000 pieces of content every day for a person to have to decide between, and that is if they are using just that one platform alone. The job of the algorithm was to search and find potential content that would appeal to you amongst the billions of content possibilities out there.

Therefore, the range of content that you choose to continue to engage with is what the Algorithms continues to feed you along with Advertisement determined by the number of engagements by the suggested Algorithms. It is a business that will in return extract time, revenue, and profits from you, this extends also to include everyone else that you share that data and apps with. We can see how eventually direct social trends and even political outcomes can be deduced. That would include any passed-on and repeated misinformation.

 That brings me back to my question of whether the internet expands or narrows your mind.

It is then the conscious or unconscious choices you choose to engage with that decide. Algorithms that their clues from YOU, and what you choose to engage with. Therefore,  before engaging with content or apps, you may want to consider looking at it through the lens of how much it enriches and nurtures you and your life.

Who do you follow and like on social media? That matters because it all contributes to what you will be able to be presented with by the Algorithms. That becomes the material you use to shape your world and how you will be presented in it. Algorithms can only show you what you are interested in, yet there is so much more out there that can enrich and expand your being in the world. Algorithms if not consciously managed can limit your ability to find ideas, new solutions, or ways to do things. Research shows people can get trapped by the filter bubble or what they call the “echo chamber” You may know it as a reducing value,  which reinforces what you already think or believe.  We see this most prominently displayed in disputes over hot topics like politics.

We students of critical thinking,  we must ask ourselves, how can we think critically about something, if we are not being challenged by all the information and facts vs bias and misinformation?

Real interaction on an interested subject, means it cannot be one-sided in content. argument or critical assessment is needed to see the whole.

This goes for Algorithms too.  You are looking to find balance in your life, and this has to do with breaking down that “echo chamber” within your thinking.  Algorithms, they are not in control, you are. Understanding that Algorithms are far from perfect, given people do not live linear lives. Algorithms if unchecked can lead to radicalized thinking, or worse could affect your health and well-being.

Understanding that we are Consciousness the ability to think and govern thought, gives us that power over to Algorithms. Let us be aware of the benefit of the  Algorithms as a tool in service to us, but we must manage how that tool is used.

So to begin that process of management ask yourself: “What content do I allow myself to see? And more importantly, why am I seeing it?

If you have a chance to like or share information off an app or a site, you want to think about what you are sharing - is it to encourage well-being in your audience, or is it to amplify a position?  Know that sharing information off an app or a site not only affects what you see but also what is on everyone else feed. We have a responsibility as to the content we share.

Therefore, to break out of the bubble you may need a new perspective – Try face-to-face or telephone conversation with others about what’s going on in their lives or what they are doing in moving their lives forward.  You may want to read several genres of books (banned books are a hot topic now). You may try getting out in nature be it a walk around the block; the neighborhood; the seashore; or the mountains. You may be surprised at what you encounter using these few hacks. 

Lastly know it is not always about consuming content, but also about the conscious content you are creating and sharing with others.  Be mindful of your conversations with your audiences, if it is online be conscious of how you portray yourself, are you seen as one dimensional, or is it as a multifaceted individual with quality and edifying content, that can stand the test of time?

Social Media Algorithms is not the control of your life unless you choose not to be operating consciously on your choices and your ability to respond to those choices.  

Your life and the World Viewed are conscious reflections on your  World View. Algorithms Recommendation can align with managed choices to live life Consciously and Strategy, as part of a healthy balanced lifestyle.

Works Consulted

Dictionary Definitions from Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary - Algorithm.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/259477/hours-of-video-uploaded-to-youtube-every-minute/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3RKsY2H-NE

Side note: August 1989 Detroit Michigan  Eleventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence poster