Welcome to the age of technology. The current era has been absolutely defined by the development and widespread use of digital technologies. Technology is now deeply integrated into nearly all aspects of human life. As a part of this, so much of human life is spent online. One part of our life experience is lived in the physical world, and another is lived online. Our online experience, is customized and personalized. We prefer it this way, just like we prefer for our life in the physical to be customized and personalized. But there is a massive downside to this. Online algorithms are putting people out of reality.
An online algorithm is a set of instructions that online platforms use to analyze users as well as their online activity, so as to understand their preferences and then use this information to do things like personalize content, suggest items and rank search results. An online algorithm works in terms of input, processing and output. The input is that it takes user data such as any personal info you enter when signing up to a site, your location, your search and browsing history, your online purchases, your likes, your gender, your age, your shares, your comments, timing and frequency of you being online, the watch time you spent on a video or post etc. The processing is that they use calculations and rules to analyze this data. And the output is that they produce a personalized experience for you based off of it.
To give you a few examples of this, say that you went onto Instagram and watched a video post on celiac disease and then liked the video. The algorithm will then start to show you more videos about celiac disease and more adds for gluten free products. Or say that you are traveling to Florida with your phone, due to GPS data and your location based online activity, suddenly all things Florida will appear at the top of search results on your search engines. And you will suddenly see things about Florida when you never really had Florida on your radar before. Or say that your online activity suggests that you have a certain opinion about a political issue. The comments you will see under videos will change to be those that align with your opinion.
Obviously, there are upsides to this. We do get introduced to cool products we would want that we would otherwise miss out on. If we love puppy videos, we see more puppy videos. Crap we don’t like and are not interested in, gets filtered out. We see what is more relevant and engaging, which saves us so much time and effort finding what we need. By analyzing our data to providing relevant information, it makes decision making easier for us. It helps us connect with like-minded people. If there are threats or problems in our area, we are informed about it, which keeps us safer. All of this increases our sense of satisfaction when we are online. And, at the very same time, there is a very significant problem that algorithms are creating.
Algorithms are creating bubble realities built for one. Algorithms act as a filter, a shaper and a personalizer. Everything that exists online (such as news and information, opinions, products, opportunities etc.) is being filtered, shaped and personalized through your own individual algorithm. Because this is the case, you are not seeing, hearing, feeling and coming to know reality. Instead, you are seeing, hearing, feeling and coming to know a reality that has been custom built for you. Most especially based on your own preferences and interests and opinions. There is nothing objective about it. And so, the algorithm that exists on the platforms through which you consume information, is in fact preventing true conscious awareness.
Algorithms and the way that each one of us responds to the content fed to us according to our algorithm, is creating a human society that is deeply out of reality. Algorithms have created a kind of self re-inforcing feedback loop. To give you an example of what I mean, say you post something online, and this gets lots of engagement online. The algorithm will promote it due to this high level of engagement. This leads to even more engagement. Which leads to even more promotion of it. More and more and more people will see this post. Or to give you another example, imagine that you are afraid of snakes and you come across a video about a viper that is responsible for killing the most people on earth. And you watch that full video from start to finish. This increases your fear of snakes. It also tells your algorithm that this is engaging for you. So, you see another video about how to protect yourself from snakes. And you watch this one from start to finish too. After all, you’re really afraid of snakes, so it’s great info for you. This causes your algorithm to show you even more dangerous snake related content. Pretty soon, you are more terrified than ever before about snakes and you are convinced the whole world is full of them. A self-reinforcing feedback loop is a cycle of escalation.
Algorithms also fuel cognitive biases. To try to make it simple with regards to this conversation, you may have a bias towards or against one thing or another. Such as one political party vs. another or one racial group vs, another. Your algorithm will reflect this prejudice rather than challenge it. Or, you may already hold a certain perspective. Your algorithm will show you things that will reinforce that perspective, as well as show you posts and comments from other people who also share that perspective, leading you to believe that everyone agrees with you. Algorithms create ideological segregation like you would not believe.
Algorithms also create conformity effects. People are a social species. They want to belong, fit in, not miss out and be at the top of the social hierarchy. As such, they tend to adopt perspectives, beliefs, behaviors, preferences and trends simply because other people are doing the same. They may even do this despite the opposition of their actual individual truths. Algorithms can boost this herd-like behavior to a whole new level because they take user data and engagement metrics to promote popular content and trends. Better hope these trends harm nothing and no one right?
Algorithms don’t only reflect our preferences, things that tend to make us feel good or better. They reflect what captures our attention and what applies to us. If we recently got a divorce and our algorithm brings up a video of a women who got a divorce too that is talking about how terrible men are and we click like, we will see more videos and posts like it. More and more negative posts about men. And as a result, we will feel worse and worse and worse about men. Our algorithm can get us into a total downward spiral and put us in a dystopian reality that is disconnected from the full truth of reality; every bit as much as it could be used to create an upward spiral and put us in a Pollyanna reality that is totally disconnected from the full truth of reality.
These algorithms are extremely dangerous when you pair them with the fact that social media, which is where most people on earth get their information now, is the wild west when it comes to fake videos and images, misleading or outright false information. The speed at which this dis-information spreads between individuals and is propagated in the mainstream media is mind blowing.
Algorithms are also extremely dangerous when you realize that they can be used to show you what the people with the power to show you things want to show you. Things they want you to become interested in, information they want you to see. As well as keep you from seeing the things they don’t want to show you. Information they don’t want you to see. Products they don’t want you to know about. They can be a tool used for the best interests of those looking to control you.
The reality is that each one of our algorithms is separating us from each other. It is creating little narcissistic bubbles for each one of us. It is putting us into parallel perceptual realities where there is a drastic difference between the reality that one person is perceiving vs. another one is perceiving. This is a direct affront to the mastery of relationship and integration. Rather, it is a recipe for separation, isolation, polarization and opposition. To learn more about parallel perceptual realities and about why they are so dangerous, you can watch my video titled: The Most Dangerous Parallel Reality. Having the world at the touch of your fingers is the promise that the online world offers us. The internet could very well be the solution to the geographical reality bubbles we lived our life in before the internet. But algorithms are contributing to this problem rather than acting as the remedy for the problem.
The idea of an online algorithm may not scare you until you really get that human beings make decisions and take actions based off of the information that we see. Our behavior is the byproduct of the reality we perceive. This means, our online algorithm and the bubble reality it creates, is severely influencing us every day. It is dictating how we think and what we do. It is so important for people to know that the information, the reality being presented to them online, is not a true reflection of objective reality thanks to algorithms.
Rather than believing in the perceptual reality that your own algorithm is creating for you, you need to keep reminding yourself that this perceptual reality that you are seeing online is merely a kind of reflection of you. It is an online picture of you that was painted by digital tech. And it was built to be your own personal echo chamber. We are in a day and age where we need to consciously reach for alternative points of view. We need to consciously open our minds. We need to consciously take a step back and think about information and content we are seeing. We need to consciously influence our own algorithms. We need to think about the WHY behind us seeing what we are seeing online and The WHY behind us not seeing what we are not seeing online.
Especially in the world we are currently living in, never forget that today, what you are seeing online is not a reflection of reality, it is a reflection of your algorithm.
