Tuning Recommendations: A Religious Experience
Rituals mobilize people and integrate them into a community that shares a set of values and beliefs about their place in a larger order of things. They are also means of projecting those beliefs both to self and to external world. With most of lives our immersed in the digital world, the virtuality, there’s an overwhelming abundance of information and stimuli which has created a pressing need to diligently titrate the flow and influence of this information into our consciousness. This titration has taken on a religious fervor and has resulted in our online experiences increasingly becoming a reflection of our inner selves.
This isn't just about responding with 'Like' or 'Dislike' or ‘Save’ or ‘Share’ to the information presented to us, it's a modern-day ritual, where each interaction is a signal to the larger collective, a whisper into the ear of a mysterious digital entity that shapes our online experience. Just as rituals in various faiths are performed with precision and intensity, our interactions with information online possess a similar gravity on deeper evaluation.
These rituals reflect a growing consciousness of our digital identity, and our desire in sculpting it.
This evolving digital identity is intricately tied to the algorithms of various online platforms, which act as mirrors reflecting and shaping our virtual selves through each click and interaction. The experiences curated by these platforms are determined by complex recommendation systems. For example, YouTube use watch time and engagement metrics as a part of their system to recommend videos, creating a feedback loop that often mirrors our own biases and interests. TikTok, on the other hand, uses a sophisticated algorithm that factors in user interactions, video information, and device settings, offering a more dynamic and sometimes unpredictable experience. Reddit's upvote-downvote system curates content based on community approval, reflecting a collective decision-making process. Each of the digital entities we play with have their own unique personalities and modes of operation that’s driving their experiences.
Our inputs to the recommendation system are more than mere data points in a computational process or turning of knobs on a machine. They are fragments of our psyche, our joys, our fears, our dreams. Each piece of content we resonate with, or choose to interact with in any form becomes a part of us in, highlighting this flux of thriving exchange between ourselves and the internet.
As we navigate this flux, the thin line between engagement and habituation begins to blur, leading us to a critical examination of our digital habits and their resemblance to addiction. Another line that’s blurring in parallel is that of the boundary of the self and this larger entity that we’re interacting with.
It’s not surprising that the Latin root of the word 'addiction' - 'addicere' - speaks to a state of devotion to something. While devotion can be purposeful and enriching, it also harbors the risk of becoming a mindless habit, a habituation that constricts rather than expand our consciousness. Recognizing this, we must strive to create policies and interfaces which help cultivate a balanced relationship with these systems. It's about engaging with the digital in a more clarifying and intentional manner, one where we lead as often as we follow, ensuring that our digital journey enhances, rather than confines, our understanding and experience of the world.
As the zest grows deeper, heightened awareness and discernment in our tendencies becomes ever more crucial
Unexamined devotion to digital consumption patterns lead us away from personal and collective truths. The digital age, much like the religious fervor of the past, calls for a reformation – a conscious effort to step back, question, and recalibrate our interaction patterns. This is not just about diversifying our digital consumption but about cultivating an awareness that allows us to see beyond the algorithmically-curated experiences. It's about recognizing that our online rituals, while powerful, should not blind us to the diverse and complex realities of the world. It’s imperative we avoid pitfalls of digital dogmatism and embrace a more enlightened digital experience.