Like, Share, Comment: Does the Algorithm Control Us or Do We Control the Algorithm?
Social media is a constant perpetuating loop of likes, shares, and carefully designed posts. It's fact and fiction. It has so many layers from degeneracy to high brow culture. Sadly, there is a monster under the bridge: algorithms. We know these complex programs process our every interaction, manipulating what we see and influencing what we post.
Being Brutally Honest Here...
Let's be honest and support my biased opinion acknowledging how easily we lessen ourselves by trying to make the algorithm work for us. You know, I bet that somewhere, there will be more than one school boy, mortified by his mother's bikini dancing posts on instagram or tiktok. Praying that none of his school teachers have subscribed to her onlyfans. That strong desire for likes, shares, comments and followers is the algorithms pavlovian conditioning—a dopamine kick. Have you seen the cyber beggars? Adults and kids alike, are reducing themselves by performing like trained dogs in public for handouts, streaming live from their apps. There's a founder effect going on! It's distilling the world, refining its narcissists and crazies into dense concentrations or thickets! Social media promote them, and the young and impressionable imitate them. Humility and dignity doesn't attract the algorithm, this is the generation of ego!
Seriously...?
Yes, but, what's disturbing is seeing questionably aged girls mimicking the sleaze! Where are their parents? Expecting them to smash the next big 10k threshold? Confident the stripper routines from uncle Keith'll pay off? Besides that, self harm groups exist; yes, groups for self harm. Harm as in, openly encouraging kids to share their mutilation pictures! The algorithm doesn't hide juicy internet vigilantism or simply sweep Russian anti-Western propaganda under the carpet; no, stuff that will show up on Netflix as that unwatched documentary you nearly put on your watch list. On the same note, do any of the major apps crack down rigidly on nasty echo chambers or the borderline insta-porn? Er, no, but, let me just say; if everyone suddenly drew a cartoon character with big boobs or a huge todger and posted that on instagram, warnings would fly like pronouns at a university campus! Before social media the following sentences would have been anathema:
- I identify as a horse and my neo pronouns are horse/horseself
- This is my truth and you can't change it
- Black people cannot be racist
- A woman can have a penis
I innocently joined a facebook group years ago, and I noticed how more and more of the members were praising Putin, while others shared anti semitic conspiracy theories involving zionism and The Balfour Treaty. I was fascinated because it was bonkers. Pretty much everyone believed they had awakened, spiritually, and were, in fact, enlightened. Truth Seekers. Self proclaimed spiritually awakened and openly discriminating against Jewish people. Well, the algorithm didn't rush in to stop that nonsense either! We see brave women who promote body positivity under the constant barrage of cruel comments on visual platforms packed with perfectly curated photos of chiselled physiques, it does create a sense of inadequacy for them, but they soldier on. Then again, it all comes down to what we upload, right? The general idea is that all systems process our societal biases, reflecting back at us, a bit like what we see with AI chatbots. Body beautiful posts influence poor self image, and give rise to copy-cats, as well as opposition. Popularity and influence is not necessarily like clicking alone; public health and politico-religious influence does factor-in. The capitalist right-wing spend a fortune on social propaganda. Social commentators like Katie Hopkins will attack individuals for being overweight or unemployed. YouTube is packed full of such right-wing radicals, who criticise anything progressive or non-Christian. They practice their special art: 1) select and frame non right-wing targets, 2) build strawmen effigies and burn them with ridicule. It's just preying on the most vulnerable among us. Turning Point America recieves millions of dollars of funding by many right-wing groups who branch into other influential circles. So much social narration is right-wing, for example, there is Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder and Charlie Kirk for starters, then Candice Owens, Jordan Peterson and Triggernometry and Yinka That Guy, who is great at cherry picking, not to forget GBN News, Farage and Tommy Robinson to name a few. This culture war is ongoing.
So, yeah, wouldn't you have guessed it? Social media can cultivate loneliness and isolation? We connect to mere representations of other people, who are also hiding behind their own respective screens, a kind of masquerade. Interaction is not like chatting to a stranger on a park bench. Posting on social media, be it on some popular platform, or writing your own blogs, comes with a contract. For most people, success on social media is usually achieved in many incramental, contactless payments from your soul, until your broke.
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Search engine algorithms can also restrict access to information, down prioritising, burying valuable, rich perspectives and elevate biased content paid-for with money. A family member working in marketing told me I should write a blog daily; uncover search engine optimised keywords and use them to my advantage, write to meet the trends of the algorithm! I found a sadness in this! Naively shocked by the hoops to jump through, it made blogging a doomed venture, because no one sees or cares—only the popular kids to get noticed!
'I just want to write for creative reasons, when it feels right,' I said. 'If I force out a daily blog, it'll compromise my thing, because I like to share my thoughts not manipulate markets, you know?'
'That's the way it is now, so. . . you'll never be seen, then, Gaz,'
Breaking Free from the 'Like' Trap:
We're not powerless are we? Imagine all the marginalised eccentrics and maybe insane people in society converging, that is what is happening, it starts on-line and then it spills over! Here are a few examples of a few that spilt over, from across the world, many of them, refute logic or deny scientific evidence and/or reality, such as irrational flat earthers, transgender pronoun dogma, incel misogyny and otherkin madness, for example: I met a dragon queen, of the otherkin. A fiery woman, ignore the pun, who told me the otherkin are an ancient family living among humans who can physically transform into creatures that were hundreds of feet tall. Today, they are a recognised group, why? Why has the internet made things nuts? Because we are a crazy species.
Humanity can reclaim the algorithm by being critical consumers, many of us creating weight as a united front! If we doubt content and unfollow all negative and pretentious content; we discourage the algorithm to promote it? Becoming obsessed with popularity is an addiction. Dopamine gratification pollutes creative flow. That desire to level up means gamification has taken over. Our own rules and customs on instagram, for instance, such as following back out of courtesy, as well as follow groups or paying for followers will twist the algorithm. You might see terrible accounts with thousands upon thousands of followers! If we only follow what resonates with us, and sidestep the poop, no games, call out fakery and ignore low quality content, we'll attract genuine content, true creatives. Maybe we can't achieve this balancing? What you think?
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Maybe mum's in bikini's are genuinely expressive artists; selection of swimwear, as well as music choice and choreography make a powerful combination.
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