In the beginning, there was just a simple click. So, you meet your future lifelong partner via social networks? Sounds familiar? Sure. How many of your friends are still hanging out in night clubs in order to meet someone? Or buying newspapers in search of a proper job? Yeah, almost none of them if you are over a certain age. But, isn’t that natural? Why should we waste our time in pubs or reading papers? Instead of knocking on closed doors, we should click, and the virtual, online door will open.
So, the cyberlove story begins with a simple click and flows toward a happy end. But, the untold secrets of that story are not so idyllic. Once you clicked, the algorithm will give you “the offer you can’t refuse”. Just click once and the search-engine machines, consisting of robotic spiders will open the doors of online perception for you. Behind the doors, the world consisting of your queries will appear.
When you, like a football fan, type: “Champions league”, the search engine algorithms would generously offer you an endless array of the champion league’s clashes. You are a football fan and, for you, this is the offer you can’t refuse. But wait! Do you want to watch that much football? You maybe want to play great free sex games instead. The thing is, in 2020 and onward, it will be hard to discern if that decision is authentically yours or it was influenced by an algorithm made by a nerd in SiliconValley. Think about it. As you can see, the algorithm starts to build your own world but according to the measure of invisible robots-crawlers. In some ways, you’re becoming an AI molded by their own rules.
The imagination of the algorithm is structured by divisions
As a, let’s say, a Liverpool fan, you probably despise Man Utd, and if you turn your feeling toward Man Utd into a click, after a clicking-session, you may end up thinking that Man Utd is the worst product of humankind ever. In fact, the algorithm is searching for diversity between two notions. Hence every notion is two-sided. Crawlers will create a giant web of content to defend one side. In the end, the outcome can be horrific, because as we all know, not only the football clubs compete. The governments and policy-makers do so as well.
The truth is out there
Man Utd is undoubtedly not the worst product of humankind. But if the algorithm creates a web of lies that is structured from a never-ending content that tries to make you believe this, in the end, you will become faithful. Consequently, the “objective truth” belongs to the past. Nowadays, everyone has their own truth. Even when you read a measly JerkDolls game review, you will get an influenced side trying to get you, if we can’t get any more obscure with our examples. And the algorithms serve to develop those menageries of different truths.
Law of the market instead of the law of common sense
Social networks gradually decline to be a savior of lonely teens. The large business stole the show. The ads molded people into simple visitors. The more visitors see the ad, the more money the business will get. A very simple equation.
Future click can destroy us, but not inevitably
We can bet that large businesses will do everything possible to keep us online. If you plan to delete your Facebook account, the crawlers will target you with a bunch of articles on “how to” delete your FB account. If you start to read it, you won’t go anywhere. You created a vicious circle. On the other hand, you can stop clicking anytime. The more people stop clicking after the initial click, the less large businesses will post their ads on their social network profiles. In those cases, the algorithm will turn into a bouncer that would tend to kick the visitors out of the networks. You always have one-click more. Think about using them wisely.
