I’m feeling some kind of way about the fact that everything we interact with online is driven by algorithms. By that, I mean that the music we listen to is recommended via playlists, the videos we watch appear served up on YouTube’s homepage, the memes and jokes we see are the ones that appear in our various newsfeeds and “for you” pages. Every time we’re just ‘browsing’, we’re being handed content that has been chosen by an external entity - and it's usually chosen to best catch our attention so we can keep looking at our feeds (and ads) for as long as possible.
I’m wondering how much I’m missing out on the internet, simply because some algorithms determined that I might prefer other content instead. I’m thinking of the millions and millions of songs that have
never been listened to by anyone on Spotify. There has to be some fantastic music in there, but it’s unlikely to ever be served up to me or anyone else.
"But Rebecca, you don’t have to rely on what is presented to you; use the search bar!" I hear you say. Which is all well and good if I’m searching for something in particular, and if that philosopher’s stone of content appears at the top of the search results. We have been conditioned to
only look at the top few results of any search, God forbid we ever look at page two of Google. (If Google even paginates its results anymore - as I wasn’t sure I just checked, and yes it turns out it does still.)
I don’t like how it feels to know that the content I’m consuming (and mildly enjoying) has been chosen by something with an agenda other than my enjoyment. Whether that goal is to sell me a product, or make me a product, or to influence my views of the world, or to keep me distracted and numb. It doesn’t really matter what the goal is, only that it most likely has not been made with my best interest in mind.
Now, I’m not saying it's time to revoke all social media and reject basic search functionality. Algorithms are probably what led you to reading this after all. It’s difficult to remove something from your life when there’s billions of dollars being spent to make it as addictive as possible.
At this point though it's fair to ask: why don't I have this feeling with other forms of media? You could object that people only make the larger budget art (think shows and movies) because they are investing to get a financial return.
But there’s a difference between a movie studio saying “hey another superhero film is exactly what our wallets need” and a social media algorithm saying… well, not much actually, as they’re not involved with making anything content-wise. Maybe that’s the issue. With movie studios, at least the creators are being paid, albeit probably poorly, and with profits mostly going to investors. But online, the creators are paid so much less - if they’re even paid at all. We’ve been conditioned to create something and post it online only if we think it will get enough views - if the algorithm determines that it’s an acceptable tool it can use to get someone else to keep looking at somewhat unrelated ads. The film studio asking for Iron Man 15 still has to put some personal investment in. The social media algorithm, however, is working with such small scales that there’s no risk in an individual scenario, and it’s working with an unfathomable number of instances simultaneously.
Maybe I would feel better about things if the tech giants put more investment into the content being given to them for free. Would I feel better knowing that Facebook invested financially in a particular posts' creation, or that YouTube footed the costs for another slow motion video of a balloon full of water being burst? Who knows. What I do know now though, is that the current online landscape seems quite dystopian and exploitative, and I don’t have an answer for how to resolve it. Anyway, like and subscribe.