{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053","title":"If...Then Algorithmic Power and Politics","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"2017054909","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053","id":"1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053","uuid":"1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053","title":"If...Then Algorithmic Power and Politics","normalized_title":"ifthenalgorithmicpowerandpolitics","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"2017054909","isbns":["2017054909","9780190493042","9780190493059"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":211,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/If...Then%20Algorithmic%20Power%20and%20Politics","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/1d3bd28e-c1ba-4af2-8580-60b32ef26053/search"},"page":{"printed_page":114,"pdf_page":124,"physical_index":124,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"77b57a499190dfd67d736afba54f30f55e708617e674a1de8e734faaba632a43"},"chapter":"IF...THEN","content":"Using the notion of the imaginary to describe what the encounters between people and algorithms generate is not to suggest that people’s experiences of algorithms are somehow illusionary. Quite the opposite, they are “real.”55 Algorithms are  not just abstract computational processes; they also have the power to enact material realities by shaping social life to various degrees (Beer,  2013; Kitchin & Dodge, 2011). When Rachel finds herself “clicking consciously everyday” to influence what will subsequently show up in her news feed, the algorithm is not merely an abstract “unreal” thing that she thinks about but something that influences the ways in which she uses Facebook. Similarly, Lucas says his awareness of the Facebook algorithm has afected not just how he posts but also how he responds to others. As Lucas explains:\n\nI know that, if a friend of mine posts something they are passionate about, I will go out of my way to “like” and “comment” because I know that will programmatically “support” them and hopefully put them into more people’s feeds because EdgeRank will give them more points for my participation.56\n\nLucas’ willingness to go out of his way to like his friends’ posts and enhance their visibility echoes some of the findings in recent work on social media surveillance. As Trotier and Lyon (2012) have shown, Facebook users engage in “collaborative identity construction,” augmenting each other’s visibility through practices of tagging, commenting and liking.\n\nUsers’ perceptions of what the algorithm is and how it works shape their orientation toward it. Several of the participants reported having changed their information-sharing behavior “to make it work best for the algorithm,” as Kate put it. The practical engagement with social media platforms as lived-environments implies developing tacit knowledge about the underlying logic of the system. While most technologies are designed in such a way that people do not have to know exactly how it works (Hardin, 2003), people tend to construct “mental models” and theories about its workings as a way of navigating and interacting with the world (Orlikowski & Gash, 1994). Despite explicitly pointing out that they did not know what an algorithm is, most participants had more or less elaborate theories about what algorithms are and ought to be. In the case of Facebook, for example, Kayla says she has “no idea what the algorithm is” but suspects it works in response to all the data tracked by the platform. Similarly, Michael has “no clue what the actual algorithm is” but still had a clear idea about how best to construct a status update in order to increase the likelihood of geting his posts widely distributed.\n\n114\n\nI F . . . T H E N","previous_page":113,"next_page":115}