Reading 4 - Lauren Arnold

While I was reading “The Power of Algorithms: How Software Formats the Culture,” I began to really re-question my own identities I display for myself on my social networking. First, I realize that I did not really understand that the only way the Internet can process all of the information that we as users put out there is through the “process of algorithms.” Algorithms are defined as what make a “key role in decision-making.” Essentially these are what control our media. In my “Communications Culture and Identity” class, we are looking at how “Muted GroupTheory” is a discussion that describes how those with popular opinions tend to shut out the group with the less popular opinion and the opinion that goes along with it. In the same way, I feel like those on the Internet who do not post the opinion that is the most popular (or posted the most) is not caught by the Internet’s algorithms the most and; therefore, these kinds of people have their opinions muted as well. This led me to question a lot of ethics behind the Internet usage and those in power behind the Internet’s intentions. Just as the article suggested, a “humanist perspective is necessary to understand how it all works.”

The part of the article that caught my attention the most was the statement, “our actions generate a flow of messages that modify the inextricable mass of interconnected data, subtly changing our shared memory.” This message was incredibly scary to me. I realized that every single piece of information I share on the Internet was potentially not actually mine to claim. Which can become a contradictory statement in itself, because we all like to view our social networking sites as forms of creating our own identities. To think that we are not the sole manipulators of what we expose of ourselves is terrifying, and honestly makes me feel like I am a vessel of the capitalist society. As I share one idea, it becomes exploited into some other form of a “meme,” and then these memes make up huge cultural depictions of popular interests. I do not think that this is fair and is also not a very accurate way to depict ourselves through cultures. I think it becomes exploitive of those in culture who are already surviving within survival of the fittest, and again muting out others through dynamics similar to the “Muted Group Theory,” I discussed earlier.

I wish that there were a more honest alternative way to gather data and not make it so manipulative towards customers in these social networking sites. I think that we could receive many more honest pieces of work from others, not so much pieces that are copied.
Here is an image I found on the internet describing how algorithms work in today's society. I disagree with parts of the image as it states "experiment," I do not thing that the algorithms on the Internet ever experiment the outcomes. They may experiment the coding behind it, but I doubt the affects as much as needed.