Trading Appeasing the Algorithm for Creating Whatever We Damn Well Feel Like
Coddle Aunty Algo!?-What If We Didn't....
Coddle Aunty Algo!?-What If We Didn't....
Earlier this week, in a post on Threads, the Instagram For Business account dropped some (what they're calling) "spicy IG tips" to help users of the Meta platform optimize their content for more views. At the end of this (threet? threat?), the post referred to the algorithm as "Aunty Algo." Instead of accomplishing the "we are the same," "for the people, by the people," message aimed at a younger, assumably Gen Z audience, the result was some super loud "Steve Buscemi with a backwards hat and skateboard" energy.
Unfortunately it's not the first time that this super-cringe, "relatability aimed" marketing tactic has reared its ugly head, and it certainly won't be the last. It’s all part of the ever present game of coddling the machine behind the algorithm, at the cost of our own creative freedom.
The Algorithm is a creation of social media marketing, optimized productivity, and capitalist consumerism, now personified as Aunty Algo.
Any person with access to connective web spaces generally knows what the algorithm is or does-even if we don't actually know how the algorithm does it. And just like every aunt that tries too hard to be your friend, while simultaneously leaving you high and dry when the chips are down, we can't quite break our habit of trying to please her. In fact, focusing content around the topic of hacking said algorithm and making it work to your advantage is an entire niche of content that does really well in terms of views or engagement. Even when the main focus of a piece of an article, reel, or post isn't about the algorithm or its functions itself, ways to grow a platform or brand on social media will almost always mention some type of subservience to the vague system of equation and distribution. On Substack specifically it seems that a lot of posts that do well have titles like "How to be Successful on Substack," "Ways I Make 4k a Month from My Newsletter," "5 Tips Having a Profitable Substack Taught Me."
This makes sense if we think about the fact that content creation has become less about creating what we want, and more about "giving the people what they want"- assuming that the statement of "the algorithm knows what the people want," is a true one, but...
What if we didn't?
What if we didn't assume the algorithm accurately reflects what people want?
Let's take it a step further: what if we didn't limit ourselves to niche, language, products, style, keywords as mechanism to fit in? What if instead we made the art, music, posts, and pieces that we want to create as creators-multifaceted humans, not one dimensional faces of the "brand" we curate for the algorithm to accept or understand who we are.
At the risk of coming across as an Internet Elder, I can't help but think back to the days when social media was actually social, when we were just sharing what we as people were doing, and branded algorithmic optimization wasn't really anyone's focus. When I realize that many people, regardless of actual age, were birthed into an internet existence that never included the experience of just being, I am sad.
What's even more sad, is those of us who DO remember have forgotten what that felt like to post a sandwich one day, a think piece the next, a photo of our newest piece of art after that, and have our online community actually see or engage with it. Being able to share oneself on the internet used to be a deeply connective experience, not a contest to prove how new, now, next we are to sell our product, services, and ourselves to the masses. Where we were once able to be every bit of our natural selves, and connect with those who wanted to know us, and in turn let us know them, we now have to jump through a billion hoops to market our existence as consumable. Whether we like, realize, endorse it or not, this has created a mental effect that has leaked from our machines and into our minds.
I think many of us, myself included, have been trained by Aunty Algo to filter a lot of what we do through the mental lens of a social algorithm.
Because the internet has engrained itself into our society's social construct for the foreseeable future, it's very sneakily trained us to niche ourselves-our personalities, our hobbies, careers, relationships, what we share with others on or offline-down to a point where we feel like we have to be the most categorized and compartmentalized "brand" of we we are on the inside. We take our SEO friendly social media bios, and then reflect them into our personal lives, and then our personalities until we're reduced to feeling like we can only be or live within the snappy phrases or five words that fit into the 150 character definition of who we are. This is a product of capitalism, and as Maurice Harris @bloomandplume of Instagram says in their impactful video series:
Capitalism doesn’t care about your creativity.
For a long time, I avoided writing at all, thinking that people and the algorithm wouldn't care about any written content that I put out.
I was basing this off the 15ish years or more that I spent carving out an online presence of short form or visual content creation. When I did start writing, I centered it around spirituality, which fell neatly into the pattern of spiritual content that the algorithm and my social media audience learned to expect from me. However, I'm not just a spiritualist, and though I've spent a considerable amount of time working in spirituality, I don't always want to talk about theology or spiritual wellness. Today I'm talking about the algorithm and marketing. Tomorrow, who knows. I'm by no means a tech writer, and even though I have a history in professional marketing and social media, it's not the only thing I want to talk about or know how to talk about.
I'm literally just a girl! I want to write, and I want to write every day, which is why I slapped up this newsletter in the first place.
In terms of a first post, this one definitely sets the tone for what I'm trying to do, which is 1) write more, 2) be myself in all the ways that I exist, and 3) explore the possibilities or answers that arise when we look at what we do or are doing, and ask "What if we didn't?"
How do you feel about the algorithm? Has algorithmic thinking leaked into your everyday life? Did you see the post from IG for business, and immediately GAG? Drop your thoughts in the comments :)
Have a topic, post, concept, article, or something else that made you go "Ok but what if we didn't?" that you'd like me to cover in a newsletter post? Submit it here!
Revelling in my own incoherence and very willing to welcome yours. We're complex beings with a hundred voices in our heads. Yum.