The Wall Street Journal created one hundred bot accounts on TikTok, each with different interests, and then watched what happened.
“A Wall Street Journal investigation found that TikTok only needs one important piece of information to figure out what you want: the amount of time you linger over a piece of content. Every second you hesitate or rewatch, the app is tracking you.”
Click on the above image to watch the video. It’s a must-see and it’s only 13 minutes. The fact is that every social platform uses algorithms to keep you on the platform as long as possible. Those algorithms figure out what you like to consume and then feed it to you. Not just the ads, but all content. When you see news items, it’s the kind of news that you’ve indicated you want to see. When you see posts, they’re from people that you’ve demonstrated you want to hear from. And when you see ads, it’s for things that you have searched for, recently bought, texted about, or driven to a store to buy.
Algorithmic science needs more attention paid to it. We’ll be dealing with how to do this ethically for Duel, but there needs to be a broader discussion as soon as possible because the impact, as the WSJ investigation points out, can be severe, even deadly for people in at-risk groups that suffer from addiction, depression, eating disorders, etc.
Basically, algorithms are playing the role of a parent feeding an infant. It spoon-feeds us our favorite foods, makes changes as our interests change, and only cares about one thing - that we stay engaged no matter what.