Social media platforms have complicated algorithms which propose information or advertising according to the users’ interests. For instance, the work of those algorithms can be easily seen in TikTok by watching an interesting video. The app can categorize the topics and propose similar videos to maintain the attention of the user. To prove this theory, I started to watch many videos about ice-skating. Consequently, every third video on ticktock was related to this specific topic. When I scroll down ice-skating videos without watching them, they start to appear rarely in my TikTok field. The same algorithm works when I start skipping interesting videos and watching something I did. It becomes difficult to return videos that I like as the algorithm follows all my actions.
Instagram and YouTube have the same algorithm system, and the proposed advertising is usually based on past Google research. For instance, recently, I have been looking for a new pair of shoes, and a huge number of advertisements started to be shown while watching videos on YouTube or while watching stories on Instagram. Moreover, some algorithms have the ability to remember audio, and while talking to someone, the systems catch different product names, and promotions can appear in the social media field. On the one hand, this technology might be helpful as people can see different information according to their interests. Moreover, advertisements might not be disruptive and sometimes propose needed products. However, as long as phones and other gadgets might hear what people are talking about and send this information to the artificial intelligence which produces algorithms, it might be scary for some people, and the trust level might decrease.