My Take | How I learned to stop worrying and got to love social media algorithms
- The big social media giants are no angels, but sometimes, we need to take responsibility for using them in such an intimate way
“Woke” people have turned on social media and their algorithms. It’s true there is much to be alarmed about how they gather intimate information about people and use it to exploit them commercially and politically. After all, if Facebook and Instagram aren’t charging us for usage, it means you – and your data such as likes and dislikes – are their products. Why is Washington so worried about China’s TikTok? It’s because they know what their own social media companies have done with your big data.
But algorithms can also be an invaluable learning tool. Since they are not going away any time soon, I have learned to stop worrying and love them. They can nudge you into forming echo chambers and narcissistic bubbles. But they can also help you explore new worlds and ideas.
A few years back, the end of 2016 to be precise, I was alarmed and intrigued when Spotify sent me a year-end summary of my music-listening activities for the whole year. It broke down the bands and singers I listened to, their genres of music, geographical distributions, whether I prefer music closer to home or the more international types. And Spotify has been sending me annual summaries ever since. They show how my music taste has evolved such as my recent addiction to symphonic heavy metal, mostly from northern Europe and Scandinavia.
They know me musically more than I know myself. Just imagine what Pornhub’s algorithm would say about you after a year of data; that would be too terrifying!
I have derived the most benefit from YouTube’s algorithm. After a day or two of listening to key opinion leaders (KOLs) in Hong Kong’s pro-establishment camp, the site would flood me with links to other “blue” KOLs and their channels.