There Can Never Be Too Many Cats! Algorithms and Consumer Choice | By Kate Reiner

Photo credit: pikku_rotta

Lately my social media feed, and consequently everyone in my household, is a compendium of cat memes, posts, and reels. And you know what? I’m fine with it. There can never be too many cat posts with which to fill a random dull moment of the day (or a meeting that’s just dragged on for too long!). Similarly, my sister recently showed me a message from her daughter, my 13-year-old niece, which read, “Mom, my phone is listening to you. All of my suggested videos are now about sourdough!" Now, one would think that those pesky content engagement algorithms would have caught on by now and we’d both be seeing all sorts of related product ads alongside these entertaining posts, but thankfully no. 

However, buy one thing on Amazon and you can expect your social media feed to be instantly overrun by ads for the same thing you’ve just purchased. I often find myself thinking, come on algorithms, keep up! Show me something I don’t know I need yet, not what I just bought! It seems impossible at times to understand what these algorithms are up to, but what is rather apparent is that we influence them every bit as much they influence us. By the way, if you need a cat fix before reading on, take a breather and check this one out: 


So where am I going with this stuff about cat posts and algorithms? Reflecting on my social media feed and my niece’s got me thinking about where this complex infrastructure of algorithms fits with Horkheimer and Adorno’s (1993) belief that the culture industry is promoting pseudo-individuality in our culture, and where algorithms may facilitate a departure from that. 

As a byproduct of the culture industry's efforts to predict and manage the content consumers are engaging with, algorithms can easily be seen as promoting pseudo-individuality. However, I would argue that algorithms have facilitated a departure from pseudo-individuality in the way they have replaced a traditional one-way relationship between the culture industry and its consumers with a two-way relationship. As Fiske (2005) suggested, popular culture doesn’t occur in a vacuum controlled exclusively by the culture industry, but rather, is the result of popular and critical discrimination on the part of consumers as well. I believe the concept of individuality works the same way, and that engagement algorithms have effectively amplified the general consumer’s role in influencing the culture industry, and consequently, popular culture.

Hall (2005) referred to popular culture as “the ground on which the transformations are worked” (p.65). The evolution of the culture industry and consumer relationship through algorithms, and the internet and social media being an integral part of what drives popular culture today, is a good example of one such transformation at work. 

As a consumer, I might squawk about the pesky algorithms getting my way or cluttering up my social media feeds from time to time, but I can’t deny their importance, not to mention convenience. There is a small comfort in knowing that when I get bored with seeing the same old content, or content that doesn’t interest me, an update to my feed is just a few new searches and clicks away. 

As a communications professional, I also must appreciate the ways that algorithms have made our work more dynamic, providing data insight that enables us to disrupt a trend or create a new one. To me, that’s not indicative of pseudo-individuality, but instead, a form of empowerment for content creators and consumers. 

As a communications professional and/or academic, how do you feel the use of algorithms has hindered or benefited our field of practice? As a consumer, how do you feel they’ve hindered or benefitted your social media or internet experience? 


References
Fiske, J. (2005). Popular discrimination. In R. Guins and O. Z. Cruz (Eds.), Popular Culture: A Reader
(pp. 215-222). Sage Publications.  

Hall, S. (2005). Notes on deconstructing ‘the popular’. In R. Guins and O. Z. Cruz (Eds.), Popular Culture: A Reader (pp. 64-71). Sage Publications.  

Horkheimer M. & Adorno T. W. (1993). Dialectic of enlightenment. Continuum. (Original work published 1944)


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