3 ms·
I think the effect of social media in general is way bigger than the effect of the ranking algorithms specifically. The "serial pleasures of checking for likes
by panic 9y ago
I think the effect of social media in general is way bigger than the effect of the ranking algorithms specifically. The "serial pleasures of checking for likes and other forms of micro-recognition made suddenly meaningful by the acute insecurity" (as the article so eloquently puts it) have a much bigger impact on how we choose to present ourselves than the news articles and ads we are shown, for example.
- sesqu 9y agoI potentially disagree. I think the impact of social media's reward cycle is major, but not directly on the user's identity - rather, I believe it causes significant feedback into non-algorithmic filtering (and from there to the algorithmic component, as the organic part is presumably valued by predictors). World-view, then, is shaped by the algorithmic filters and detailed by the performances of others on social media, but the effect on identity is circumspect. So I would say that the algorithms are more important, because they define the environment that parameterizes normalcy. Identity forms mostly asocially, and it is not interactive.