2. • “Electrical information devices for universal, tyrannical womb-to-
womb surveillance are causing a very serious dilemma between our
claim to privacy and the community’s need to know. “
-Marshall Mcluhan
3. What are social media algorithms?
• What most social media sites run off of today
• Surveils most of your online activity
4. What Does That Mean?
Surveilling and collecting data such as:
• What sites you visited recently
• What sort of content you search for
• Things you post, like, or dislike
5. The Bubble
• Most algorithms are like a virtual space bubble, if you will. In this
bubble, there is content that you’ve recently searched/interacted
with the most. This is your “Relevant content”.
• Downfall: If you are a techy or someone who does a lot of research,
your bubble becomes inefficient because there is too much
information.
6. • In other words, social media algorithms only show us the content
online that is relevant to us, or at least what the algorithm thinks is
relevant to us.
7. Take Facebook for example:
• When Facebook was first launched, its newsfeed was
chronologically organized.
• Downfall: It became a wall of spam as users were constantly
posting things (sometimes even unnecessary things) to get the
most attention or “likes” on their posts.
8. • According to Facebook, they want their users to be fed content
they actually care about. In order to ensure this is happening,
Facebook constantly alters their algorithms.
9. What do Facebook Algorithms Pay Attention to?
• How often you interact with a post
• How often you (as well as everyone else) hidden that post
• The level of engagement the post has received, and so on.
10. • Besides monitoring all of that activity, Facebook also scans all of
your activity for the week including:
• Who you requested to be friends with
• What pages you liked
• What groups you belong to
11. • Also according to their algorithm, it ranks all the content being
posted on Facebook based on what you would find relevant and
important.
12. So Why Does This Matter?
• The Internet used to be a place where you were connected with the
whole world. Not anymore. This process of Algorithms and ranking
content, shapes not only our experience online, but our lives as
well. This automated process is picking the content that we see.
This could be problematic since most things on online are bias, or
opinion based.
13. • Algorithms not only affect what we see/read online, but how the
media will twist stories in order to catch our attention, or be
“relevant” to us, and what we normally browse through. Since
algorithm stick to the same kinds of content being posted, we
aren’t really challenged by new ideas in any way, we don’t even get
to see the content being edited out by this process.
14. • For more information view this video
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhC-a8SsEQM
15. Citations
• Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2016. <http://
www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2016/04/20/what-do-social-
media-algorithms-mean-for-you/#7298ef74895f>.
• Getcreativesm. "Can You Explain the Facebook News Feed
Algorithm? | #TellMeTony Ep. 2." YouTube. YouTube, 24 Feb.
2015. Web. 27 Sept. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=DhC-a8SsEQM>.
• Oremus, Will. "Who Really Controls What You See in Your Facebook
Feed—and Why They Keep Changing It ." Slate Magazine.
N.p., 03 Jan. 2016. Web. 27 Sept. 2016. <http://
www.slate.com/articles/technology/cover_story/2016/01/
how_facebook_s_news_feed_algorithm_works.html>.
