13 thoughts on “#mscedc My algorithmic play artefact: https://t.co/n2L6TTwenI”

  1. Great artefact, Iryna! Really like the way you have made use of ThingLink with the audio commentary, and the map to plot the location-specific results.

    Fascinating comment on the ‘goggles’ shaping our behaviour and results, and the slightly unnerving quote from Jonathan Rosenberg about how shaping ‘customer’ behaviour is perhaps entirely intentional (even though Google’s search is arguably presented itself as objective or neutral. It brings to mind my own explorations of Coursera where, through the ‘algorithmic play’ activity (and a glance of the privacy policy) my perception of the site was completely changed. Yet, how many algorithmic systems do I continue to use unthinkingly on a daily basis?

    Really nice artefact, and so clearly presented and thought provoking!

    1. Thank you, Michael. Indeed, most of our daily choices and actions are performed automatically. So hardly do we ever notice that we are nudged towards particular ones. It seems to me when the Internet just appeared it was viewed as a free, democratic alternative to television. It’s all the same now, but with more elaborate algorithms.

  2. Hi Iryna!
    I liked your artifact, that was such a cool idea to have so many people from all over to do the same search and see if it changed from the location. I also didn’t know that there was no Google in China. An interesting point about considering if technology is further entrenching the social divide.
    I agree with you about the whole “giving the customer what he doesn’t yet know he wants.” It’s such a bizarre concept but then very in line with all advertizement. Stores put charcoal next to grills, milk next to bread, jeans next to t-shirts, to insight the idea of what you are going to want next.
    I also loved your idea about how its “googles” as it is how we look through it and see the world.
    Really well done!
    Monica

    1. Thanks for your comment, Monica! The fact about China is staggering, indeed. It makes it twice hard for foreigners, because it’s also no google map and other ‘basic things’.
      And right, through their habits and pattern humans can be easily guided and misguided…

  3. Nice thought-provoking piece! I quite like the approach, really cool idea and a clear evidence that there are many different ways of research algorithms (how did you mobilise such network, that’s an impressive effort). And yes, that’s a nice pandemic map 😉. What I find striking is that both Python and Feminism lead to similar results. I guess Python was to be expected, but feminism maybe not so much… it would be interesting to repeat the exercise and ask about not the first five results but, say, the results between 20 and 25. In my exploration of YouTube, I found that the first results are indeed the same when varying the profiles -maybe because of self-feeding bubbles or the powerful interest behind them- but then they diverge later on… but then who looks at results ranked 20-25!

    1. Thanks for your feedback, jfalisse! That was an adventure, to tell you the truth. Also, it was a good time to inquire how my friends were doing during the crisis…
      Maybe it wasn’t explicit from my reflection, but I asked people to send me a screenshot of all search results on the first page. And, as I stated, they were more or less the same. I included only 5 links per location on the map down to the design. Relying on my own experience, I also thought – how often do you read the second page?..
      The homogeneous results for the feminist communities were striking for me as well. Looks like this is not what needs to be advertised. On second thoughts, social communities also have power and dominance, and they are often political too.

  4. Hi Iryna, this was an artefact of global proportions 🙂 and it was great. I was struck by the phrase “Are we talking about technology entrenching the social divides?” which I think still exists. Perhaps this is not the divide that comes from lack of infrastructure (hardware and networking availabilities) but a deeper cultural concept that can either be magnified by technologies or eradicated completely depending, unfortunately, on the interests of the institution behind the service. Having said that, there are always other forces apart from the commercial and cultural (as you mentioned yourself in several replies), such as in the case with China.
    Thank you for your interesting artefact.

  5. Dear Iryna,
    I loved this piece, well done! You have a lot of international connections, that’s great:)
    I too, was surprised to learn that no matter where you are in the world, with the exception of China, you get the same search results which are paid for by the big players like Udemy, code academy, Coursera and Edex with few local deviations.

    As David pointed out in his artefact, the recommender systems are only as powerful as their connections to the big players, big companies who have rich marketing machines or in David’s case, big artists on Soundcloud. The algorithm therefore is mirroring life where money talks and bumps the players up the list.

    In terms of its implications for education, you make a very good point in that most of the big players have a western style of education. A course which has been designed externally and without input from country based teachers and trainers risks creating a western education platform with western values encoded into it, (Morgan & Armer 1988). This will likely fail to meet the educational needs of local contexts. This paper was from our Course Design for Digital environments module
    Morgan, W., & Armer, J. (1988). Islamic and Western Educational Accommodation in a West African Society: A Cohort-Comparison Analysis. American Sociological Review, 53(4), 634-639. Available: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2095854

  6. Thanks for sharing this one Iryna! I’m glad I’ve finally been able to watch it.
    Very profound findings which show just how much Google, Yahoo, Bing and Baidu (among other) search engines have become powerful advertising platforms.

    The old idea that you can create amazing relevant content and it will jump to the top of the search results is well and truly dead and gone. In fact, I can’t quite remember who it was who described Google and Facebook this way first, but they a primarily advertisers. “Search” and “networking” are now not even secondary or tertiary objectives of these platforms anymore.

    This marketing agency agrees: https://www.pageonepower.com/linkarati/google-not-search-engine-advertising-platform
    They claim to have worked out the best formulas for getting your content out there on the search engines.

    Thanks again for sharing your work. Very thought provoking and insightful!

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