A big question these days is if we consider ourselves to be in control and safe on the internet. Most people would think that they are in control, since they can choose what to do on the apps on their phone, or when to get off the apps. However, in reality, people are in less control over themselves than they think.
In order to have a successful app, the programmers must make it so that the user enjoys their experience on the apps, and that the user will come back. This is common knowledge, but what most people don’t know is that the programmers are actually also in control of not only how you feel about the app, but they are also in control of your emotions, what you think, and what you do. For example, if people are watching YouTube videos, they are getting new thoughts and feelings about certain topics. Different videos can give the user different feelings and opinions. However, what most people don’t realize is that the YouTube algorithm, the process that gives users certain videos, is actually what is giving the user those feelings. The way that the user watched those videos in the first place was when the YouTube algorithm recommended that video to them. This shows that the user is in less control of their thoughts and emotions as they assumed.
Many other apps use their own algorithms to get the user to spend more time on the platform, and the usual way of doing this is tracking what the user likes to see. For example, if the user likes to watch cat videos on Instagram, Instagram’s algorithm will give the user more cat videos to watch in order to get the user to stay longer. The way this can be detrimental is if the algorithm recommends the user a post that encourages bad behavior, and if the user interacts positively with the post, the algorithm will keep recommending the user similar posts encouraging the same bad behavior. What this shows is that an app can cause a good-minded person to change the way they think based on what the app recommends to them.
In conclusion, we are in less control over our actions than we thought. The internet and the apps it provides us are a very large part of our lives, and we interact with it every day. What we see on the internet can change our minds on various topics and can definitely shift our beliefs through the various algorithms that are present in those apps.