You Think You're Reading the News. In Fact — the News Is Reading You

Morning. You open the feed

Seven in the morning. You pick up your phone. You open a social network. You scroll. You think you are seeing the news. What is happening in the world. What is important. But what you see is not the news. It is a personal newspaper that the algorithm assembled specially for you. In the last few seconds. On the basis of everything it knows about you. Your neighbour opens the same social network at the same minute. He sees something different. Completely different. Different topics, different emotions, a different reality. You live in the same building. But in different information worlds.

How the algorithm decides what you will see

The algorithm does not think about what is useful for you. It thinks about one thing — how to keep you in the app as long as possible. Because the longer you are in the app — the more advertising you see. The more money the platform earns. Everything else is a tool for achieving this goal.

What the algorithm knows about you

It knows which post you stopped on three seconds longer than usual. Which one you scrolled past without reading. What you liked. What you liked, but immediately un-liked. What you commented on. What you wrote in a comment and deleted without sending. How many times you returned to one and the same post. It knows the time of day when you react most emotionally. Which topics provoke anger in you. Which — anxiety. Which — joy. And it knows exactly that anger and anxiety keep you in the app longer than joy. Because an angry or anxious person scrolls further in search of answers. A happy one closes the phone and goes to live.

What happens to your reality

Imagine that you stopped a few times on posts about rising prices. Not because it strongly worries you — the topic just came up. You lingered a second longer than usual. The algorithm recorded it. Decided — this topic hooks you. Started showing more posts about prices. Then about the crisis. Then about how everything is bad and will get worse. You see this again and again. You begin to think — the world really is collapsing. You scroll further in search of information. The algorithm is pleased — you have been in the app for forty minutes already instead of ten. Your neighbour, the same morning, stopped on posts about travel. His feed fills with beautiful places, inspiring stories, tour offers. He thinks — the world is full of opportunities. You read the same social network. You live in different realities.

The filter bubble. What it is

This is called a filter bubble. The term was introduced by researcher Eli Pariser in 2011, when he noticed that his Facebook feed had stopped showing posts from friends with different political views. The algorithm decided he was not interested in this — because he rarely reacted to them. The bubble is built gradually. Imperceptibly. The algorithm removes from your feed what you do not react to. It leaves what you react to strongly. Over time you see only what confirms what you already believe. The opposing point of view disappears. Not because it does not exist. But because the algorithm decided — it does not hold you.

Real consequences

Brexit, 2016. Studies showed that supporters of the United Kingdom leaving the EU and opponents lived in absolutely different information bubbles. Each side was convinced that its position was obvious and most people agreed with it. Both sides were in shock at the result of the vote. Because each saw only its own reality. US elections, 2016. Facebook internally acknowledged — the algorithm amplified emotionally charged content because it received more reactions. This meant that provocative, angering, frightening posts spread faster and wider than balanced and analytical ones. The pandemic, 2020–2021. YouTube’s algorithms recorded that people who watched one conspiracy clip, with high probability, watched the next to the end. The system automatically recommended ever more radical content — not because it wanted to radicalise anyone, but because this content held people longer.

• YOU DO NOT CHOOSE WHAT TO THINK. YOU THINK WHAT THE ALGORITHM CHOSE.

This is the most bitter truth in this whole topic. You are convinced that your views are the result of your own analysis. That you read different sources. That you think independently. But if for the last two years your feed was shaped by an algorithm — your views were shaped by the algorithm. Not maliciously. Not specifically against you. Simply because it showed what you reacted to most strongly. And over time you began to react more strongly to precisely what it showed. This is a closed loop. You react — the algorithm remembers — shows more of the same — you react even more strongly. Getting out of it is hard. Because for that you need to notice that you are in it.

What the algorithm does to your emotions

In 2014 Facebook conducted an experiment. Without the users’ knowledge. They changed the algorithm for 700,000 people — one group was shown more negative content, another more positive. The result: people who saw more negativity themselves began to write more negative posts. People who saw positivity — positive ones. The platform managed the emotions of 700,000 people. They did not know about it. When the experiment became public — a scandal broke out. Facebook apologised. But the technology did not go anywhere. It simply stopped being an experiment and became the standard work of the algorithm.

How this relates to Article 22 of GDPR

The algorithm that decides what you see makes automated decisions. Without human involvement. Decisions that significantly affect you — your views, your mood, your understanding of reality. Article 22 of GDPR says: you have the right to an explanation of the logic of an automated decision that significantly affects you. A social network’s algorithm affects you significantly. Every day. Every morning when you open the feed.

The bottom line

You think you choose what to read. In fact — the algorithm chooses what to show you. On the basis of what angers you, makes you anxious, holds you. Your feed is not a window into the world. It is a mirror that shows you a magnified version of your own reactions. Again and again. Until you begin to consider this magnified version reality. Two people. One social network. Two different worlds. The difference between them is only in which buttons the algorithm pressed. And the algorithm presses them not for you. For the advertiser.