When Algorithms Curate Minds…

Imagine a typical 24 hours without a single speck of sunlight, or a bright sun glaring at you through the window when you are trying to rest. The occurrence of day and night and the synchrony of contrasting phenomena in the natural world underlines the significance of opposing forces in balancing life. Dichotomy exists and thrives in the natural world to the level of an atom. The electrons (-ve) and the protons (+ve) help the atom to achieve neutrality. Humans are naturally disposed to seek a balanced approach in behavior and conduct. Why is it then that in today’s world we are increasingly celebrating polarity be it left or right and have societies always been so fractured?

While preferential bias is not new to human civilization, the polarity spectrum has now left the personal chamber of the individual brain to the realm of social existence. There is an unabashed celebration of bias, prejudice, and hate propagated on platforms that were seemingly created to connect the world. I understand the constriction sometimes people feel in adhering to moral and ethical guardrails, but a lawless society where every human value is mocked at, is a disaster quickly spinning out of hand. The tools and technologies that were initially designed to help us understand the world around us are increasingly determining and controlling how we think.

Globally, over 56 percent of internet users substantially depend on social media for browsing current events while in the U.S. the figure is around 54 percent. Why is it different from a conventional news media source? Remember, the early days of news media channels where straight faced news readers read the news with utmost objectivity letting the viewers decide how they felt about a news story. Sensationalizing a news piece garners more viewership rating but it compromises on the critical analysis of the viewer. When the same news is curated as a social media feed it is further manipulated to evoke stronger reactions from the readers or viewers for greater engagement. It is no secret that social media feeds are algorithm based and by clicking on a certain news that you find interesting you provide a gateway to what kind of content will appear next in your newsfeed.

Facebook and YouTube are the two most prominent social media platforms used by Americans as news sources. Facebook is one of the pioneers in curating algorithmic feeds and with three billion users, it certainly has the greatest outreach and impact. About a third of the US adults rely either on Facebook or YouTube for news. They are followed by other significant contributors like Instagram (20%), TikTok (17%), and X (formerly Twitter 12%).

Independent media is an important pillar of democracy and it helps to establish the right to have differing opinions, which the constitution also guarantees. But in the recent past, this right has been overused. I have often heard theories and opinions from close quarters that could never be factually backed and it alarms me to think how many thousands of such unfounded stories must have been liked, shared, and commented upon by social media users as truth. A study conducted by Soroush Vosoughi, a data scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and his colleagues found that fake news can spread 10 times faster than true reporting on social media. He and his colleagues studied 12 years of data collected from X (formerly Twitter) from 2006 onwards.

Over 20 years back, I was taught in my journalism class that establishing the veracity of a source is as important as the news. That is what differentiates a news from a rumor or misinformation. And there is no place of sensationalism in journalism. Constitutionally, a media publication is liable to lawsuits and heavy penalties if its report is found to be wrong. On the other hand, there is no accountability of any information floated on social media platforms. By choosing to rely on social media platforms and your favorite influencer for news, makes you liable to misinformation. Influencers make a living through online content and their sole aim is to garner the most number of views and reactions. It is ironic how we do not question the credibility of a news source while basing our entire judgement and world view on it. The safest way to find right information is to check multiple news sources, fact check the news, and establish your own understanding.

While lobby groups exist (either left or right aligned ) among mainstream media as well, yet they cannot feed rumors and outlandish theories the way social media does. With AI tools and technologies like Deepfake available unregulated, there is immense chaos and misinformation. Social media algorithms analyze user data such as viewing history, likes, shares, comments, etc., to personalize each user’s feed. To put it simply, whether you are left aligned or right aligned you will leave your social media platforms firmer, stricter, and more biased towards any varying thought or idea. It doesn’t take long for an opinion to become a belief system when each feed is more radicalizing and polarizing than the previous one.

Alarmingly, the effect is not limited to the political world. There is an increasing divide and strong opined stereotypes among users promoting a culture of mockery and cynicism challenging the very fabric of social order. In a society, we coexist and thrive with people who are not essentially alike. Interacting and hearing differing thoughts broadens our perspective to see things differently and builds a midway path. I find it funny that each extreme hails itself as the only side that is correct, missing the very irony that a human body itself functions properly only when the left and right sides align and work together, otherwise the existence is paralyzed and dysfunctional.

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