Content Prep, Documentation, Content Posting, New Findings
I decided to take a break from posting last week to focus on my exams and projects for other classes. But for the past two weeks, Iāve been doing the same routine of preparing content for my accounts, posting them on a scheduled basis, and then documenting what happens after.
Recently, I found that my āvlogā account has been getting more and more interactions lately and a few people have started to follow that account. It turns out that even a couple of my friends managed to find it through their recommendation page! Whatever, Iām doing on that page seems to be working in some sort of way which is interesting. Funny enough though, my mental health one, which I thought would catch the most attention, isnāt doing so well with actual users but with bots. Every time I post, I find myself drawing in the attention of social media bots, which aim to mimic the interactions of actual users based on coded information regarding the algorithm and the type of content that is most popular within large communities. Now Iām curious as to why, despite being a content āpopularā within the algorithm, this account isnāt doing as well as my vlog one. I plan to research more about Instagramās algorithm and what users are more geared towards on various platforms.
Iāve also begun thinking more about the algorithm and what other aspects of it could affect it based on human interaction. I found that time is also a factor in what affects our algorithm; the time that we spend interacting with a particular type of content. Ever had a moment on TikTok where you accidentally played a video in the background while doing something and itās just replaying over and over again? Do you watch them over and over on purpose? Do you watch YouTube videos completely or partially? Do you stare at photos and scroll through the comments while youāre on a post? It turns out that the amount of time you spend and replay a video causes the algorithm to consider it as the type of content you are possibly interested in whether you like it or not. This happened to me on multiple occasions; one where I ended up watching a haunted video multiple times because I could not, for the life of me, figure out what happened and kept scrolling through the comment to see what I should be looking for. That week, I was stuck on haunted-TikTok and could not get out of it until I ended up requesting that āI no longer want to see similar postsā. Now, Iām working on another challenge to see if the time I spend on certain content affects what happens with my algorithm. Iām also getting help from my little brother and sister, to see if anything similar happens to them.
I also kind of want to delve into information regarding algorithms and censorship, and if thereās a possibility of developers or moderators depicting the content that is being pushed out to usersā social media based on the regulations amongst different countries (or social media platforms even). From the example I received from Sharla, I began thinking more about censorship and the idea that the developers/moderators/government can choose what can be available amongst platforms for their users to see and interact with. This can affect a pretty good portion of the algorithm and its data.
Other than that, Iām pretty much just going to continue the same social media routine and hope that I end up on more recommendation pages, gather more data, experiment, and do some more research.