For example, Tiktok, Instagram, etc. all have an “algorithm”. But what is that? Who creates it?
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An algorithm is just code, which tells a computer to do something, given some inputs. Facebook engineers wrote an algorithm to decide which posts to show you on your home page – it doesn’t serve you the newest posts, it tries to figure out what is most interesting to you. Tiktok’s algorithm decides what videos to put on your For You page.
the algorithm tracks the habits of its users for product placement and ad revenue
if it sees you scrolled for 2 hours and liked a picture of a cat, a motorcycle and baseball caps but you spent an extra 2 minutes looking at motorcycles then its going to manipulate your feed into sending you more content of motorcycles.
Eventually when ads are added to your timeline, there will be an ad for motorcycles or if motorcycles are grouped into a broader category of maybe “guy things” then you’ll receive ads tailored to an audience that their targeting to purchase one of the products from the “guy things” group.
It will also use your front facing camera to send you ads with people who have some varying degree of resemblance to you.
If youre black, you will see more ads with black people in them. If youre asian then you’ll see the same etc etc.
Not to mention your browser history and whatever permissions it has to snoop through your phone.
An algorithm is just a fancy word for a series of repeatable steps. A recipe is a kind of algorithm. The way you were taught to do long division is an algorithm. Generally it’s a term used in technical fields, predominately computer science, where the steps are usually wriiten and executed as code. But with AI and tools like Power Automate algorithms are being built with little to no code by every day people.
An algorithm is just a set of instructions.
Brushing your teeth can be set out as an algorithm (each of the steps), or making a sandwich.
Usually when we talk about algorithms we are talking about parts of computer programmes, which take in data and give out data in return.
In terms of social media, when we talk about “the algorithm” we mean all the complicated computer programming that figures out what posts to promote, what to suppress, and what to share with which.
The relevance of calling it “the algorithm” is that – unlike in the early days of the web – these decisions are made automatically, by internal systems, based on rules developed by the software engineers. And they’ve got to be very effective at achieving their desired outcomes (usually maximising revenue by encouraging engagement).
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Let’s pretend you have a BIG crush on someone, and no scruples at all. But you know you can’t just march up to them and tell them you want to be with them because you know that will be a huge turn off.
Instead, you bide your time. You watch their behavior. You notice they spend a lot of time looking at the pictures of their friend’s kids. They like to watch videos about cats. They like to research travel to Egypt and Jamaica.
Armed with this knowledge, you try to make yourself relatable. Next time you’re around them you’re like “Hey check this out – my cousin sent me the greatest picture of her kid. Ooops, that’s a picture of my cat, but here’s the kid picture.”.
Then you casually mention you’re saving for a trip of a lifetime, but you’re not sure where to go – Egypt, France, New Zealand, or Jamaica.
Ideally – your crush now realizes you have shared interests and things progress from there. Being extra creepy you keep gathering information about them and refine what you show them over time.
That is EXACTLY what the algorithms of most social media do – they look at what you ifnd interesting and measure your “engagement”. Maybe you spent 10 minutes on Facebook yesterday but today they showed you a video about mountain climbing and you spent 2 hours watching. Tomorrow you WILL see more of that, plus ads for gear for climbing, etc.
These algoriths are HIGHLY adaptive. If you suddenly decide to stop eating cheeseburgers and start to work out your ads will switch from fries to free weights rather fast.
And remember that bit where I mentioned 4 travel destinations instead of 2? That wasn’t an accident – it will continually throw out new options of things to show you trying to refine you down as far as possible for ad targeting. And you are willingly giving it to them when you use social media.
Edit: speeling
An algorithm is a set of instructions or steps that a computer can follow to solve a problem or complete a task. It’s like a recipe or set of steps that tells a computer exactly what to do to process information or solve a problem.
Algorithms are created by human programmers who have special skills in writing computer code. They write the instructions for the algorithm, which is then programmed into a computer so that it can follow those steps automatically.
In the case of social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram you had mentioned, the algorithms they use are incredibly complex. They take into account things like what kind of content you’re interested in, how long you look at each video or photo, and who you follow or interact with on the platform. By analyzing all that data, the algorithm can figure out what sort of content is most likely to keep you engaged on the platform and show you more of that content in your feed.
The algorithm is created by computer scientists who work for the company that owns the platform. They spend a lot of time and effort researching and testing different algorithms to make sure that the platform is showing users the most useful and relevant content possible.
In general, an algorithm is a repeatable series of steps that can reliably bring you to a solution. Borrowing when subtracting in mathematics is an algorithm that most of us learn early in our lives, for example.
When people refer to “the algorithm” these days, they are commonly referring to the processes happening behind the scenes of companies that are collecting our data and looking for patterns in order to more effectively direct-market to us. Statistically, people who enjoyed content X will also enjoy content Y and are likely to be in the target demographic for product Z, so content Y and product Z begin to show up in your feed as promoted posts. All of the browsing data and even things like how long your phone lingered on a certain advertisement before you scrolled past are taken into the formula and it then spits out what would be the most effective things to promote to you. Many people believe that it can also involve using your microphone to listen to your conversations for specific words, but the sad truth is that while I suppose that’s possible, in most cases that isn’t necessary because we already give up so much information in so many other ways.
An algorithm is a strategy for solving a problem – it could be a math problem; deciding what stories to show on a social media feed; figuring out how to display a picture on a football scoreboard; or something else. Algorithms are portable between computer languages so their distinct from computer programs, which are algorithms made functional.
A good analogy is that algorithms are like a sketch in a home design book – it gives you a picture of what a house looks like and general design features.
Programs are like detailed blueprints for a house – they can be used to tell a specific computer how to set everything up to run the algorithm, how to build the house in a specific location.
Running programs on a computer are the house. They are a specific instance of the design.
Any set of instructions are an algorithm, so basically a recipe is an algorithm for different foods
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