The Domination of Social Media Algorithms

How do social media algorithms work? And what’s the role of AI in the process?

When you hop onto Instagram, a variety of posts flood your explore page. If you’ve been using Instagram for a while, these posts cater to things you are interested in. Over the ages, these algorithms have become scarily accurate. So much so that users of Tiktok and Instagram debate whether or not the apps directly track the users themselves. Conspiracy theories of social media sites listening to users through microphones or seeing them through their cameras began to arise after algorithms became “too” accurate.

However, a few posts that stray from your interests still end up on your explore page or appear as native advertisements. This occurs across the social media spectrum. With our current technological capabilities, could this be a flaw in the algorithm or is this intentional?

If you like a post, share it, or save it to an album, posts similar to the one you interacted with will pop up on your feed. Simple right? It doesn’t end there. Instagram uses machine learning to give you the best user experience. With Instagram’s 2022 algorithm updates, the changes range from increasing the number of suggested posts on your feed to removing or deprioritizing posts with watermarks from other apps. Additionally, the updated algorithm runs the post through software, detecting objects within the image and keywords in the caption. This allows the algorithm to show more relevant content on a user’s feed.

Essentially, the algorithm is a pyramid. Each level of the pyramid has its own set of interests, which ultimately influences you at the top of the pyramid. The top of the pyramid revolves around your interests directly — the posts you like, save, or share. The second layer revolves around the people you follow. What are their interests? What posts do they like? The content that strays from your main interests still ends up on your page because it captures the interests of the people you follow instead. The final layer revolves around the people that follow your followers.

The algorithms bridge the gap between human behavior and emerging technologies. Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a large role in this process by interpreting data and outputting the most likely response for each given input. If you interact with a post, the data of the post’s likes, shares, and saves are sent through a system that then returns content similar to that post.

Social media platforms use AI to track performances. Instagram added a new feature for business pages in which you can view your page’s insights to track the traffic, likes, and shares of your posts. Additionally, AI technology makes marketing on social media easier. Now, social media platforms offer paid advertisements, which leverage the platform’s algorithms to promote businesses to certain demographics or audiences. The systems aim toward the users who will return the most engagement with the advertisements.

Can you hack an algorithm?

If you’re a content creator wanting to grow your engagement, you’re probably wondering how to “hack” the algorithms to work for you. While there are many tips and tricks to catching the algorithm’s attention and sending your content to a wider audience, it’s almost impossible to dissect the algorithms. Social media platforms constantly change their algorithms to better the user experience and to keep up with our tastes and preferences as users.

However, social media algorithms weren’t always like this.

In 2011, Facebook implemented its “Top Stories” feature. The new feature shoved top-rated stories to the forefront of users’ feeds. This sparked a change in other social media platforms to get rid of the “chronological” feed and switch to one that caters to the user specifically. However, in the minds of users, this often resulted in recent posts from friends and family getting buried under posts that are prioritized by the algorithm.

The outrage behind social media platforms removing the “chronological” feed pressured the companies to revert to them in 2022. Therefore, the users still hold some power in the decisions these social media companies make. A good note to end on is revisiting why these systems were created: to better the user experience.