If this were not an assignment there is NO way I would have done it. As my husband would say… I am very impatient. If a website has too many pop ups, and honestly that’s 2 or more for me, then I would just exit out of it and find an alternative. While the instructions were clear, the way information was presented made it challenging to decipher where to channel our attention.

I found this week’s videos and readings interesting. I recently had a conversation with my grade 8 robotics class surrounding their action participation in AI online. Regardless of whether we want to be or not, we are deeply engrained in the media systems we use simply by being digitally present. I think because, generally, algorithms make things simple for us, we don’t question them. Ads that cater to our likes? Great. ‘Buy it now’ buttons that make shopping easy? Perfect.

Harris (2017) discusses how controlled our lives our due to algorithms. Companies are competing for our attention online and whichever once is more successful in getting our attention translates directly into profit. After watching Harris’ TedTalk I found myself reflecting on how algorithms have impacted me. There are apps such as H&M or Aerie that offer in app only deals, and a lot of the time you have to open the app to see what savings you could get. What a smart marketing ploy. Also by shopping on the app, you can share items directly through any other social media platform.

I enjoyed watching The Social Dilemma (you can watch it on Netflix). What I enjoyed most about it was how the creators represented the effects of relying on affirmation through likes/media feedback. I also found it really interested when the algorithm was ‘discussing’ how to try and ploy teenagers back online. I often question some of the things created…. what the purpose is other than to make people feel bad. Some examples of this would be read receipts, top snap chatters (you can see who other people snapchat with the most), askfm, and more. These things suck in audiences but do little to bring joy to their lives. It’s challenging to think about how we can combat this because I truly don’t think that we can. We need to be aware of it and go from there.

References

Harris, T. (2017). How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day. [Video]. TED.

The social dilemma. (2022, October 6). In Wikipedia.