However, algorithms are not always pictured as “bad” or controlling. The same person may talk about algorithms as problematic in the context of one platform but not seem to have a problem with a similar mechanism on another platform. Some algorithms are regarded as useful, while others are seen as obtrusive. For example, while Nora is worried about the Facebook algorithm controlling too much of what she sees, she says that, “with regards to Google, I think that is an algorithm I would actually place my faith in.”43 When I probe her about her reasons for having faith in Google but not in Facebook, she says she is struggling to find an exact reason. Perhaps, it is because Google is search, she speculates, or because Facebook somehow
feels much more intrusive because the things they are intruding on is really personal things that really could mess someone up [. . .] Whereas Google, it is just a search engine. When you go to Google you already have an idea of what to find.44
Affective Landscapes
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