Who determines what we interact with?

Endless information on our daily basis is competing for our attention. We all are ready to be overloaded with variety of information online. But isn't surfing on the internet already mean we engage with a constant overloading information that are prepared for us? Indeed, we all have simultaneously accepted old information and kept discovering new ones. If this is the case, decision making takes a major role here selecting what source is the best for us to have a read. Hence I bring out this term based on what we have learned this week--Algorithm, which has a direct influence in this digitalised society by frequently structuring what we see, who we interact with, what kind of online environment are created for us. In addition, another term that is coined with 'algorithm' is data which I agree with its simple definition--millions of numbers. As Gary Wolf has written in his article 'the data driven life', human makes errors, so data collecting is the best way to help us to trace back our partial information which we might have forgotten. To link that back to algorithm, the manipulation of data is done by algorithm which acting as a management tool to coordinate with the present as well as making the revelation of the future.

However, the problem is if we do have our own algorithm OR it's actually the internet itself, making every decision for us. What it might have seemed so obvious to most of the people these days is we never saw some particularly important updates from our friends whereas someone that you barely remember keeps popping up on your newsfeeds on Facebook. Blame edgerank. Edgerank is one of the essential components on Facebook voluntarily prioritize contents in a certain sequence based on your personal interaction with others and preferences. In other words, it's true that algorithm, is really subjective to filter a great deal of information because they select and reinforce the ones at the expanse of others according to the existing patterns of their system. ( Mackenzie, 2006, p.45) To put it simple, several elements to edgerank are affinity (how often one interacts with other users online), weight (types of contents or actions) and time decay (a period to maintain a content on one's newsfeeds. Hence, edgerank can be seen as an asset for social media content glory.

However, regarding to my question, doesn't that mean algorithm has taken control of what we should know? Is it such a constraint for us to read our updates in the first place?

I will leave this for you to answer...

References:

Mackenzie, A (2006), Algorithms: Sequenceand Convolution, Cutting code: Software and sociality, New York 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/magazine/02self-measurement-t.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&

Wolf, Gary (2010) ‘The Data-Driven Life’, The New York Times, <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/magazine/02self-measurement-t.html>

http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2013/12/beware-social-media-content-algorithm-chasers/

http://www.simplyzesty.com/Blog/Article/February-2013/Why-The-Best-Social-Media-Algorithm-Is-Yourself