Attention and Engagement

So, if we recognize that there is bias in the algorithms that can then create filter bubbles and potentially polarization, why haven't steps been taken to address the situation? The short answer: money.

Attention

In a world where information is abundant, where we are overloaded and overwhelmed with information on a daily basis, attention is the scarcity (Caulfield).

Algorithms are being used by social media platforms and news organizations to keep our attention focused on their websites. These and other digital platforms have discovered that the best way to keep us engaged with their websites is to promote sensational, divisive, or outrage-inducing content. Emotional responses are what keep us clicking, liking, commenting, and sharing—when trying to capture attention, our anger, fear and disgust are a signal in the noise. “People tend to react more to inputs that land low on the brainstem. Fear and anger produce a lot more engagement and sharing than joy. The result is that the algorithms favor sensational content over substance” (McNamee).

Engagement

Tobias Rose-Stockwell, a writer and technologist focused on ethical design, explains how emotional reactions are strong indicators of engagement, and how divisive content that captures our attention will be shown in our feeds first. We then share our moral judgments with our own followers, creating what he calls “outrage cascades” that dominate our conversations online.

Indeed, in their report on “Information Disorder,” researchers Wardle and Derakhshan emphasize that: “Social networks are driven by the sharing of emotional content. The architecture of these sites is designed such that every time a user posts content—and it is liked, commented upon or shared further— their brain releases a tiny hit of dopamine (13).

The most notable example of this idea? Most of our content feeds and timelines are no longer sorted chronologically or by relevance. Instead, the decision about which content to show us is instead based on how likely we are to engage with it.

Polarization for Profit

Leading scholars in this field have argued that digital platforms are using algorithms to promote polarization for profit. That is, corporations use these algorithms to engage and outrage, to knowingly cause divisiveness and polarization, ultimately for one simple purpose: to sell ads. In other words, these platforms have used “massive surveillance of our behavior, online and off, to generate increasingly accurate, automated predictions of what advertisements we are most susceptible to and what content will keep us clicking, tapping, and scrolling down a bottomless feed” (Tufekci).

For a fascinating explanation of this, watch the following TED Talk [22:47] from Zeynep Tufekci, techno-sociologist and Associate Professor at UNC School of Information and Library Science:

Note: Turn on closed captions with the subtitles button or use the interactive text transcript Links to an external site. if you prefer to read.

Sources

Caulfield, Mike. “Attention Is the Scarcity Links to an external site..” Hapgood, 4 Feb. 2019.

Crawford, Matthew. The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2016.

Graphics: “This Will Make You Cry Links to an external site.,” “Chronological vs. Engagement Feed Links to an external site.,” and “Basic Sorting Algorithm Links to an external site.” by Tobias Rose-Stockwell Links to an external site. are licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 Links to an external site.

Image: “Boy Mobile Phone” Links to an external site. by Andi_Graf Links to an external site. on Pixabay

McNamee, Roger. “How to Fix Facebook – Before It Fixes Us Links to an external site..” Washington Monthly, Jan/Feb/Mar. 2018.

Tufekci, Zeynep. “It’s the (Democracy-Poisoning) Golden Age of Free Speech Links to an external site..” Wired, 16 Jan. 2018.

Rose-Stockwell, Tobias. “How to Design Better Social Media Links to an external site..” Medium, 13 Apr. 2018. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 Links to an external site.

Rose-Stockwell, Tobias. “This Is How Your Fear and Outrage Are Being Sold for Profit. Links to an external site.” Medium, 14 July 2017. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. Links to an external site.

Wardle, Claire, and Hossein Derakhshan. “Information Disorder: Toward an Interdisciplinary Framework for Research and Policy Making Links to an external site..” Council of Europe, 27 Sept. 2017.

“We’re Building a Dystopia Just to Make People Click on Ads: Zeynep Tufekci Links to an external site.” by TED Links to an external site. is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Links to an external site.

This page "Attention and Engagement" by Kaela Casey is  licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License and is a derivative of "The Attention Economy Links to an external site." and "Algorithms and Polarization Links to an external site." from Introduction to College Research by Walter D. Butler, Aloha Sargent, and Kelsey Smith  licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License,  published by Pressbooks.