>[!trailhead]- trailhead → *last updated [[2026-08-06]]* >- *difficulty*: 🟡 moderate difficulty; this trail is tended-to, but may be unclear. >- *elevation change*: `↗️` moderate change; this trail may deal with complex topics. >- *summary*: the internet is an increasingly strange place to be! >- *last major overhaul*: [[2026-08-06]] ^edc67a >[!directory]- >![[3. algorithmic distortion and cyber sociology.base]] ## living by recommendations “[[{3.1} the algorithm is a giant system|the algorithm]]” has become popular shorthand for the way platforms expose us to content, and [[{3.1a} algorithmic amplification, repression, exposure, and inequality|amplify]] or repress certain users, themes, and ideas. we use it to describe a giant system of features, learning models, and policies that shape our experiences on the internet. paradoxically, “the algorithm” can make our digital worlds feel both bigger and smaller: we’re hyper-fragmented by personalized self-perpetuating content feeds *and* content itself is becoming more [[{3.1a1} algorithmic monoculture|homogenized]] as algorithms reward sameness and predictability. this has irl implications, especially as institutions and politicians are now also [[{3.2a2} activists and the establishment have changed their online vs offline positions|very online]], and usually [[{3.1a1a} algorithmic monoculture is memeifying our politics|shitposting]] to appease recommendation systems. ### algorithmic manipulation is intentional another concern about the culture of cyberspace having real life consequences is “algorithmic radicalization”, wherein platforms recommend progressively fringe or extremist content that drives users into conspiracy theories or violence. part of the mechanism that allows this is [[{3.1b1} media manipulators exploit data voids by capitalizing on missing data and the logic of algorithms and search engines|manipulation]] of [[{3.1b} data voids are gaps in information online|data voids]]. … ## digital doppelgangers the maturation of smartphones, social media, and remote work / schooling have driven more people to be more online. but you can’t just *be* online: [[{1.2a1a3} digital embodiment requires writing yourself into being]]. you exist in cyberspace as whatever you write, record, program, and interact with there. choosing which parts of your irl self make it online requires [[{1.3} partitioning, performing, and projecting]]; you create a kind of [[{3.2b} your online presence is a doppelganger|digital doppelganger]] of yourself. in doing so, we choose which pieces of ourselves to express, and which pieces of ourselves to repress – the same mechanism by which we develop [[{1.3c} the shadow]] of ourselves. *there is you, and there is not-you*. but there is also [[{3.2b1} the machine-made doppelganger is our real digital doppelganger|the machine-made doppelganger]]: data collected and [[{3.2b1a} platforms own our digital identities|owned by platforms]] that show how we actually are online. ## mirror world and online politics [[Klein, Naomi - 2023 - Doppelganger|naoimi klein]] extends the doppelganger to describe the way worsening political and cultural divides manifest and spread online. it’s as if we’re in a [[{3.2} we're living in a doppelganger culture where we act as other to people's beliefs|culture shaped entirely by opposition]], where we are the mirror, the inverse, shadow, of each other’s beliefs. discourse has become such a fun-house version of itself, that it’s as if we have entirely different ideas on what constitutes [[{3.2a} we don't just disagree on the shape of reality, we disagree on who is in reality|reality]] at all. …