Algorithmic Audiences

 Audiences' on the Inside

    We are used to being the audience, or have an understanding that somewhere out there, there is a person consuming types of media. I'm sure we all picture a human person behind a screen of some sort, so what about the audience INSIDE of the screen? Algorithms are essentially problem solvers through instruction and are often used to automate a solution. There's a set of instructions used to find the wanted product, and many describe this as recipes and methods/processes. We typically hear the term algorithm when talking about social media and google searches. There is an array of instances where algorithms interconnect through social medias and websites. This leads towards different search results, advertisements, and posts. 

After the class discussion and Ted Talk, I was reminded of what is going through my social networks now. In my past apartment I had a beautiful adopted cat, and fell in love with her. When I had to move into a new place, I had to part ways with Sage and leave her with her rightful owner. Since then, I have searched different shelters around town, and because of that my feeds have been full of cat videos. I can't get on Instagram or Facebook without being met with video after video of cats doing a range of activities, or local shelters posting about cats that need to be adopted. The overload of cat content is due to the algorithm taking one search and applying it to interconnected social media sites. 

Now, I realize this makes me look like a crazy cat lady; however, the way searching one topic one time was able to trigger the floodgates of all things cats was quite eerie.