Algorithm Influenced

A few days back I watched a movie named, “The Social Dilemma”. The movie talks about the effects of social media on our minds. As I have some experience of how algorithms on social media work and I have even worked on similar things, I can definitely say that information shown in the movie is absolutely on point and correct. There might be a little exaggeration in the movie at certain places, but I think the movie really leaves us with something important to think about. Perhaps the movie is 10 or 20 years too early in the world. It may be the current reality at some places, there are evidences which suggest that, but from what I have observed, the issue has not yet started to show its severely adverse effects. That’s the reason why it is important to talk about it right now before the situation goes out of our hands.

Now, Let’s understand what issue am I exactly talking about?

You might have heard the word, “Algorithm” a lot. The algorithm is just a set of rules or steps with which something works. For example, there is an algorithm with which we start a car, fly a kite, walk, eat, and so on. An algorithm is whatever we do from start to end to successfully perform a task. So, everything around us that is running successfully follows a certain Algorithm. The same is the case with the Internet and the utilities on the internet such as social media platforms.

Internet is a beautiful invention, platforms like YouTube, Facebook are providing us the opportunity to befriend, communicate and socialize with a person sitting thousands of miles away from us with just a tap of a finger which was unimaginable three or four decades back, but something has changed now. New intelligent algorithms are developed which are capable of learning and updating themselves as per the user who uses them. These algorithms can recommend you things in your feed by learning how and on what you spend your time.

This should be good, right? Is it though?

The problem is, these algorithms are essentially driving such platforms towards negativity and hatred. How? To give you an example, if two men/women are fighting in the middle of a busy road or a bazaar, people stop and watch it or if someone runs into an accident on the road, people come and watch it. It is not that people have any bad intentions behind it or they are being happy about it, but it is human’s primitive instinct to focus on probable danger to his/her life. So, we are more likely to focus on negative things than positive ones. The same goes for the internet, we are more likely to engage ourselves in negative content than positive. We are spending a lot of time watching negative things on the internet. The algorithm being unaware of what is good or bad for you is continuously recommending those things to you in your feed. The algorithm doesn’t understand what is good or bad, it only knows where it can get more of your attention, where it can get you engaged, what are the things you find interesting so that it can recommend those to you and sneak in ads now or later. It is continuously monitoring your behavior and trying to improve itself in its job of keeping you more and more engaged.

So, what’s wrong with this? Don’t we know what is good or bad for us?

This is where the real issue pops up. The movie I mentioned earlier talks about how such algorithms affect our mentality, our decisions, our personality in the long term.

Let’s take example of the current hot issue in India, farmers’ protest. Let’s say, I do not have enough information with me to support or oppose farmers’ protests. So, I choose to remain Neutral. Then, on some day, I come across some post or video on Facebook or YouTube, which is in support of or opposing farmers. I, being curious, read or watch that post or video. I find it convincing. I have some opinion about farmers’ protests now but still, I choose to be silent. I forget about it and exit. Next time I open Facebook/ YouTube I see a few more such posts or videos, I read/watch them as well. They match my opinions now. I find them validating my opinion. This means I end up thinking the opinion that I have, must be correct. Slowly I am becoming a supporter or opposer of farmers’ protest. The algorithm has recorded all this activity. It now is slowly understanding where I get more engaged. It then starts to recommend me more and more such videos. I engage in all of them. More and more validation for me. I feel a need to express how correct I am. I express this feeling on the same platform and some other neutral person in my network comes across this post supporting or opposing farmers’ protest and now he is also trapped in the algorithm. The same thing repeats and I end up surrounded by people on social platforms who share the same opinion as me about farmers’ protests which strengthens my opinion more and more. Now, let's consider a neutral person far away from me, has come across a post that is supporting, opposite of my stand, on farmers’ protest. Now, the person and those in his network are more likely to share an opinion opposite to mine and my network, sooner or later through the same process. This is called polarization. Now, we have two groups which have a different opinion about farmers’ protests. Then, it is just a matter of time when this difference of opinions turns into conflict. None of this would have happened if the algorithm hadn’t meddled in.

This is just one example. There are reports that the same thing has happened at many other places. Also, this is just one of the issues with these algorithms. There are several other complicated issues associated with them.

There was this one sentence in the above-mentioned movie that really got to my roots, it goes something like this, “Maybe people born before 2000, are the last ones in the world to know the difference between a world with and without the internet.”

We were able to notice these issues only because of those who have experienced both worlds. We are still able to see that algorithms which are running certain platforms have affected us because we understand what would have happened if the algorithm were not there but sooner or later, we will have a generation who is born and brought up completely in the algorithm. Currently, world is not dominated by them but soon it will be and if the problem persists, there won’t be any way back for them. Maybe people won’t even know where they are trapped. They would only see conflict and hatred everywhere and end up thinking it is normal, this is how the world is.

Then, who is the culprit here?

The answer is nobody. We can not blame anyone. Nobody did anything with the intent to harm anyone. Sometimes it is hard to predict what algorithm would learn, how it would turn out, even to the developers. It is just happening, dot! There are people who understand the severity of the issue and are working on it. But the thing is, nobody can develop an algorithm that can differentiate good or bad for a person at a given point in time. There are billions of people in the world every one of which is unique, has a unique mind. There is nothing that can predict what is good for someone at a certain point of time. The only thing that we can do is be aware of what are we dealing with here. We should always choose what we see instead of watching everything that is recommended to us. Mark certain things as, “Not interesting”, or “Hide certain things” or always using the search bar to reach what you want to see and not see what is already there in front of you when you are online. Decide what you want before coming online rather than coming online and then deciding what you want.

The irony is I am expressing my opinion about these algorithms inside these algorithms itself, but I am aware that this opinion is not algorithm influenced for sure. I guess this is what my point is. We just need to be aware of how much of our opinions or views or conclusions are algorithm influenced.

~Kunal Ghanghav.