By: Maddie Schmidt
The other day, I was scrolling on Instagram and came across a reel compilation of funny fails. I watched the whole video, which was at least two minutes long. After spending so much time watching that one video, multiple other fail videos popped up on my feed. My algorithm recognized what I was interested in and produced similar videos for my viewing pleasure.
Algorithms have snuck their way into our lives, to the point where I hardly think about what my social media is pushing at me. However, it should be at the forefront of our minds.
We live in a time where individuality is highly praised and sought after, but how much of what influences our personalities and self-expression has been curated by algorithms? If we’re not careful, our individuality will no longer be discovered; it will be engineered.
Algorithms give us the illusion of choice. The fact that our feeds are personalized can feel empowering and satisfying, as though we are the ones selecting what we view online. However, for the most part we only see what our algorithms want us to see. Only by searching for something specific are we actually choosing what we ingest as a consumer. Otherwise, we are only viewing what social media predicts we will enjoy, based on the content we interact with.
This means that over time, if gone unchecked, our perspective can become increasingly narrowed. We are not really choosing from infinite options. We are choosing from curated ones.
Not only does the algorithm choose what we get to view online, but it also guides our personal tastes. I wouldn’t know or care about even half of the music I listen to, the fashion choices I make, or the political opinions I formed if I didn’t first see or hear about them through my social media. Even my sense of humor has been shaped by the algorithm.
If we truly were dictating our own consumption, then we wouldn’t all quote the same viral videos and hop on all the same trends. There are trends that wouldn’t have existed at all without social media.
One example is the Sephora 12-year-olds who started posting their “get ready with me” videos online. The next thing we knew, Sephora was bombarded by young girls terrorizing the employees and wrecking the products in the store.
This odd cultural shift in young girls becoming obsessed with skincare at the tender ages of 10 to 12 probably wouldn’t have happened in the same way if their algorithms weren’t pushing this content and making them want to hop on the trend.
Trends used to thrive from broad cultural appeal, but now algorithms can identify small audiences that will engage with niche content. Since those algorithms push the latest micro-trends on us, they can feel like a widespread movement. Because of this, algorithms don’t simply reflect culture; they steer it.
Social media algorithms also impact us psychologically and play a part in shaping our identities. Often times, when we post online, we are not being genuine. We are posting what we think will gain the most attention or receive the most positive feedback. I know I only post the highlights of my life and hide away the parts that aren’t so aesthetically pleasing.
We often feel validation through the amount of likes we get or the number of positive comments we receive on our posts. We post the parts of our personality that we think will perform well.
Sometimes, this causes us to adjust ourselves to fit into trends, and the different facets of social media that normally we would not think twice about. Our identities become something that we optimize for engagement. We begin viewing our acceptance through our social media, not through our in-person interactions.
This causes us to prioritize our “brand” instead of our actual identity, which should be discovered through our real-life experiences, not through algorithms.
Algorithms are not all bad; they can have positive effects, such as helping us discover new hobbies and niche communities that would otherwise remain unknown. They can expand our access to information, new ideas and creativity. I have made plenty of cool and interesting discoveries through my algorithm that aren’t harmful just because they were curated by my algorithm. In fact, some of my favorite hobbies, such as drawing and reading, have been pushed by my algorithm, and I am grateful to have access to such content.
However, we do need to be aware of how much our tastes and personalities are shaped by algorithms. The danger is not in the algorithm itself, but in blindly following it. The different facets of our personality should not be created wholly by what we consume online, nor should we place too much importance on how we are viewed on social media—by how much we “fit in” to our algorithms.
Our self-value and uniqueness should not be determined by micro-trends or by whatever “aesthetic” we want to adhere to. Maybe the real question is not whether algorithms have taken our individuality, but whether we are aware of how much of ourselves we are outsourcing.
