We scroll through hundreds of posts throughout the day, thinking that we are choosing what we watch. However, scientists think otherwise. They say algorithms are silently training our brains to think, focus, and react in certain ways, and while that might sound like a conspiracy theory, the science backs it up.
To understand this, we first need to understand how the algorithm works. Algorithms are a set of instructions that a platform uses to decide what you see. However, the systems are not designed to show you what is new or accurate. They are designed to keep your attention. What you watch, like, pause on, and share are all recorded and used later to continuously recommend content that is most likely to keep you scrolling.
Over time, this repeated exposure by algorithms begins to shape what you pay attention to. So how does your brain change? Research suggests that people are more likely to engage with fast and emotionally stimulating content that algorithms heavily influence. As a result, we become more used to these types of content, and feel boredom to content that is slower. As this pattern is repeated, the repeated exposures we get influence our preferences.
At this point, it is hard to tell whether the choices we make are really ours. Since algorithms keep on showing the preferences that they learned from our data, we believe that what we see reflects our taste. However, these preferences are not entirely ours. They were shaped and reinforced through repeated exposure to similar types of content. This leads to a situation where we are not fully choosing what to watch, but we are choosing from a limited set of options that have already been selected for us.
Why can this be a problem? This pattern can also affect how we understand information. Since algorithms only show what we prefer, it is hard to encounter a different viewpoint. This can lead to a situation where our thinking can become more limited. So, we may feel certain about the ideas without fully understanding them. We might misinterpret the whole idea, or we may not understand other viewpoints.
It is hard to acknowledge the fact that the system is shaping our attention, preferences, and thoughts. To avoid developing a limited or biased perspective, we need to actively search out different perspectives.
By Juyoun Shon
Works Cited
https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/technology-primer-social-media-recommendation-algorithms
