Student Research Guide SPQ25/ Effects of Social Media Algorithms on Democracy and Public Health

• Social media companies make nearly all their money through ad revenue. 
• Ad revenue is made through user engagement. 
• Users are more likely to engage in polarizing or harmful content when compared to a non-harmful alternative. 
• Social media companies are incentivized to show content that is against the users' best interest. 
• All users are affected by social media's engagement bias.
• Bots take advantage of unregulated algorithms and are inequitable because not all have the ability to use them.
• Bot activity spikes drastically during major elections. 

Advice: It is very difficult to find concrete proof of anything regarding algorithmic bias on social media. The secrecy that algorithms are granted is a major issue but an easy part to get stuck on when doing research. By looking at the incentives for social media companies, what we engage in, and the laws in place, I felt I was able to coherently connect the dots and write a convincing essay. Try not to get too caught up in the lack of information and keep an open mind. My research took me in a much different direction than I was hoping to go in, but in the end it was all worthwhile.

The lack of transparency kept me in the "hypothetical" space and it was frustrating to know that none of what I'd write about would ever hold up in court, but I now believe that is the very reason why algorithms are not made public. It is a topic that I feel will only be getting more worthwhile, but if concrete proof or an easy explanation is needed for you to write an essay, then the effects of social media algorithms may be difficult to write about.

Reflection: I went into my research planning to point at examples of proven biases in social media algorithms. This very quickly became difficult when I realized that none of the major social media companies have algorithms that are available for public viewing. It didn't come as a surprise to me, but with how often social media companies are in the news or major CEO's are being questioned in court, I figured we had made some meaningful progress in regulating these companies. What I found wasn't some conspiracy about how tech companies are trying to fry our brains or examples of people embedding something in algorithms to push a certain agenda, but a much simpler explanation that does not take a conspiratorial mind to understand.

Algorithms do not have the capability to know how we feel when we watch a video. All they know is if we watched a video or not. Sure, we have the ability to "like" content, but neither social media companies nor content creators are paid through likes. This means there is no inherent profit incentive within an algorithm to show us content we truly enjoy aside from giving us a sense of autonomy over the content we see. There is plenty of reason to believe that social media incentives are actually opposed to public health, which I find to be enough to call for regulation. These companies' engagement-based incentives and our curiosity-based engagement is a problematic combination that does not steer a society (especially one reliant on modern tech) in the right direction and there needs to be a change. My learning on the topic is something I will continue to carry with me and the glaring issue of misaligned profit incentives in online media is something I hope we find a solution for.