It’s 6:00 a.m., and your alarm on your smartphone just dragged you out of sleep. Still groggy, you reach for your phone and open Instagram without thinking. The screen lights up, and at the top of your feed is a hilarious skit video from an account you don’t even remember following. Meanwhile, a close friend’s post from overnight is nowhere in sight as you scroll. Why did a random skit steal the spotlight from your friend? The short answer: the algorithm. In the digital world, a mysterious formula is always working behind the scenes, deciding what you see, hear, and even what routes you take on your morning commute. As Kanye West once rapped, “No one man should have all that power,” yet every day we unknowingly hand a lot of power to lines of code. Before you panic and toss your phone, we will break down what this means.
So, What Exactly Is an Algorithm?
Don’t let the word algorithm intimidate you. An algorithm is a set of instructions; think of it as a recipe for a computer. Just like a recipe tells a chef how to cook a meal step by step, an algorithm tells a computer (or app) how to solve a problem or make a decision. Instead of “Mix two eggs and flour,” it might be “If a user liked post A and ignores post B, show more of A than B.” Algorithms are invisible pieces of code that run all around us, guiding everything from search engines to social media feeds. Every time you do a Google search, check Facebook or Instagram, or use GPS navigation (Google Maps or Waze), you are interacting with an algorithm.
In plain terms, an algorithm is like a helpful (and sometimes overzealous) personal assistant living inside your apps. It watches what you do, what you click, watch, or ignore, and then makes guesses about what you might enjoy or need next. The more data it gathers about your interaction with the app, the better (in theory) its guesses get. Unlike a human friend, it’s not doing this out of the kindness of its heart; it’s following the rules its programmers gave it, obsessively so, and because these algorithms have so much data and computing power, their influence can feel eerily all-knowing. It’s as if the algorithm is a little digital genie, granting wishes you didn’t explicitly make. But is it magic? Nope, just math and logic wrapped up in code.
The Invisible Feed Curator Back to your morning Instagram scroll: why did that skit video appear first? The answer lies in Instagram’s feed-ranking algorithm. Instagram doesn’t show posts in simple time order anymore; it uses AI to guess what will interest you most. Instagram openly admits that when you refresh your feed, “the photos and videos we think you care about most will appear towards the top”. In other words, Instagram’s algorithm curates your feed like a personal editor, picking and choosing posts for you. It looks at your past behaviour, which posts you liked, commented on, and how long you watched that hilarious skit clip, and tries to predict what will keep your eyes glued to the screen. If you have been double-tapping lots of skit videos lately, the algorithm notes your soft spot for skits. So next time you open the app, boom: more skits, front and centre. It’s like a friend who noticed you always laugh at skits, so they keep handing you more. Helpful? Sure, if you love skits. But maybe not so much if it means you miss your best friend’s vacation pics buried lower in the feed. This is how the invisible curator works, rewarding whatever content you engage with and quietly downplaying the rest.
Other social media work the same way. Facebook and TikTok, for example, are constantly fine-tuning what appears on your screen. TikTok’s famed For You page learns frighteningly fast. Watch one DIY craft video all the way through, and suddenly you are served a dozen more. You might start to wonder, “Is my phone psychic or listening to me?” Probably not, it’s just the algorithm picking up on every like, share, pause, and scroll. Over time, it creates a digital profile of your tastes. The result can be a feed tailor-made for you, which is cool, but it also raises a question: Who’s really choosing what I see, me or some code?
This “curated by code” experience can feel empowering on a good day (all my favourite content in one place!) or a bit unsettling on a bad day (why am I stuck in an echo chamber of the same stuff?). It’s a double-edged sword. You get content you enjoy, but you might also get a narrower slice of the world and remember that theme: “No one man should have all that power.” Well, no single human is picking your posts, but one algorithm kind of has the power to shape your reality online. Food for thought as you sip your morning coffee.
The Online Shopping Temptations
By late morning, you take a work break and decide to browse for new sneakers on an online store. You click on a nice pair of shoes. Instantly, the site bombards you with “You might also like…” suggestions: socks, sportswear, that limited-edition jacket that would totally complete your look. It’s like stepping into a shop where the salesperson immediately pulls out five other items you didn’t ask for. What’s going on? Algorithms, again.
E-commerce sites like Amazon are masters of recommendation algorithms. They use your browsing and buying history – and compare it with millions of other shoppers – to predict what else you might want. That’s why the moment you view those sneakers, the site knows which accessories or similar styles often tempt people with similar taste. Sometimes it feels helpful (“Oh, I do need new socks, thanks!”), Other times it’s temptation overkill. But there’s no denying it works: by some estimates, about 35% of Amazon’s revenue is driven by its recommendation engine. In other words, those “Customers who bought X also bought Y” and “Recommended for you” sections aren’t just fluff – they’re powerful selling machines.
Think of these algorithms as personal shoppers that know your size, colour preferences, and the fact that you lingered on that leather jacket twice. They never tire, never forget, and they’re programmed to upsell you gently. Every click is a clue. Did you scroll right past the jackets but spend time reading sneaker reviews? The algorithm notices and pivots to showing you more sneakers. It’s all designed to keep you browsing and buying a little longer (and it often succeeds).
Before you know it, you have a few items in your cart. Maybe you buy, maybe you don’t. But one thing is almost certain: if you don’t purchase those sneakers, you haven’t seen the last of them. Which brings us to…
That Creepy Feeling: When Ads Follow You Around
Lunch break is over, and you’re back to work, but later in the afternoon, you open a news website. Lo and behold, there’s an ad on the side of the page for those same sneakers you were looking at earlier. You smirk and think, “Alright, my phone is spying on me now.” It might feel like that, but what you are witnessing is known as retargeting ads, another algorithmic trick of the trade.
Retargeting (or behavioural retargeting, if you like fancy terms) is an ad that follows you around the internet based on what you have shown interest in before. Remember that breadcrumb trail of data you left when browsing the shoe site? A piece of code (a “cookie” or pixel) tagged along, and now the advertising algorithms are using it to remind you “, Hey, you liked these sneakers, maybe you want to buy them after all?” It’s the digital equivalent of a store salesperson popping up wherever you go, saying, “Still thinking about those shoes?” Strange, right? You’re not alone in feeling that way “Creepy, scary, and irritating” are common ways people describe this phenomenon.
Here’s how it works behind the scenes: when you visit the sneaker page, that site quietly plants a small tracking cookie in your web browser. Advertising networks check for those cookies. When they see one saying “this user looked at Product X,” they bid to show you an ad for Product X. Thus, as if by magic, the very item you left behind reappears in front of you. Sometimes it’s helpful, maybe you forgot to buy and appreciate the reminder. Other times, it feels like you are being stalked by your desires. There’s a fine line between “Oh, cool, just what I needed!” and “Uh, why is this ad everywhere?!”
This kind of targeted advertising can blur the line between helpful and invasive. On one hand, you see ads for things you actually might care about instead of totally random products. On the other hand, it’s a bit unnerving to realise how much of your online actions are tracked. Surveys show a majority of people find personalised ads and content at least somewhat creepy, One study found that about 75% of consumers feel that way. We like being shown things we are into, but we hate feeling like we are being watched. It’s a classic love-hate relationship, facilitated by algorithms working silently in the background of nearly every website you visit.
The Algorithm in the Passenger Seat
Work’s done for the day, and it’s time to drive home. You fire up Google Maps or Waze, or Apple Maps for traffic updates. Almost immediately, the app suggests a route that’s 7 minutes faster than your usual way. Great! You follow its turn-by-turn directions faithfully, like it’s an all-knowing co-pilot. This detour takes you through some residential backroads you have never seen before, and interestingly, you notice a whole line of cars also being routed the same sneaky way. Suddenly, a quiet neighbourhood street is as busy as a mini highway at rush hour. If the locals peek out their windows, they might be muttering curses at the navigation algorithm that sent the horde their way.
For the most part, navigation algorithms are a godsend. They’ve probably saved you countless hours by routing you around traffic jams and closed roads. We have grown to trust them so much that many of us wouldn’t dream of driving in a new city without digital guidance. But every now and then, following the algorithm leads to a quirky or frustrating experience, like ending up on a gravel path because Maps thought it was a legit road (oops), or following a one-way road.. It’s a reminder that these algorithms, powerful as they are, aren’t infallible. They optimise for what they are told to (fastest time, shortest distance, etc.), and sometimes that single-minded focus can lead to unintentionally funny or even aggravating outcomes.
If you’ve ever argued with your GPS (“Are you sure about this route?”) or chuckled when it proudly announces “You’ve saved 2 minutes” while delivering you into a weird back alley, you know that feeling. Still, more often than not, we obey the voice on our phones. In this relationship, the algorithm usually has the power, and we willingly go along for the ride.
Your Algorithmic DJ and Couch Buddy
After a long day, you’re ready to relax. You plop down on the couch and open Netflix, hoping to find a good movie or show. Almost instantly, Netflix presents a personalised row of “Top Picks for YOU.” Huh, how did it know you were in the mood for a quirky rom-com tonight? Meanwhile, your roommate asks Alexa to play some music, and Spotify starts a “Discover Weekly” playlist tailored to her taste, it is full of surprisingly spot-on song suggestions.
It’s not a coincidence; it’s algorithms at work again, this time serving as your DJ and video curator. Netflix and Spotify don’t have tiny elves picking content for each user; they have sophisticated recommendation engines analysing your past behaviour. Netflix’s algorithm, for example, looks at what you have watched, what you binged versus stopped early, what genres you seem to gravitate towards, and even the time of day you watch. It compares your patterns with millions of others. If people who love the same kind of movies as you, Netflix says, “Hey, you might like this too!” Netflix has reported that over 80% of the shows people watch on Netflix come from algorithmic recommendations rather than direct searches. Think about that, the vast majority of what you end up watching isn’t chosen by you scrolling and browsing; it’s something the algorithm puts in front of you, and you go, “Eh, sure, play.”
There’s a running joke that sometimes Netflix seems to know you better than you know yourself. The truth is, these algorithms don’t truly know “you” as a person; they know your data. They know you watched 3 hours of sci-fi last week, but they don’t know why you love sci-fi or that you watch it because it reminds you of childhood time with your dad. They detect patterns, not the human story behind them. Still, when those patterns are accurate, the illusion is that Netflix or Spotify can read your mind. It’s both impressive and a little spooky, and it underscores our theme yet again: so much power to shape our choices resting in the hands of inscrutable code.
Helpful, Creepy… or Both?
By the end of the day, you have experienced dozens of algorithmic decisions steering your behaviour, most likely without even realising it until now. Your social apps decided what news or posts you saw. Shopping sites suggested what to buy. Ad networks reminded (or pestered) you about things you left behind. Your maps app chose your path home. Your streaming services picked your entertainment. Algorithms quietly orchestrated a huge part of your day, like an invisible stage manager directing a play. How does that make you feel?
For many of us, the answer is complicated. On one hand, it’s super convenient. We are living in a time where you can have a personalised experience everywhere: only see content you enjoy, get product suggestions that save you time, hear music you are likely to love, avoid traffic snarls, etc. It’s as if each of us has a team of servants catering to our preferences, except those servants are algorithms crunching data. When things work well, we hardly notice the algorithmic influence at all; life just feels easier. In those moments, the algorithms are our helpful digital sidekicks.
On the other hand, there’s that slight chill down your spine when the digital predictions get too on the nose. It can feel creepy when your apps seem to anticipate your next move or desire. There’s also the concern of what you might be missing out on. If everything you see is filtered by what an algorithm thinks you like, are you stuck in a bubble? Maybe you are not seeing that opposing viewpoint post, or that new genre of music, or that product you’d never search for but might need, simply because the algorithm didn’t deem it your “thing.” As users, we have this weird relationship with algorithms: we trust them deeply, yet we’re also wary of them. We are aware, at least vaguely, that these systems can be biased or make mistakes, or that they’re ultimately controlled by companies with their agendas (usually to keep us engaged and spending).
Remember that phrase “No one man should have all that power”? It resonates here. No single person decides what you see on Instagram, TikTok or which route Google sends you on, but in a way, a single algorithm (created by a small group of people) holds a heck of a lot of power over many people’s daily lives. One tweak to YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, and creators around the world see their view counts change. One change to Facebook’s news feed algorithm, and publishers either thrive or wither. It’s incredible and a bit unsettling that these invisible systems wield such influence. Unlike a human, you can’t argue or reason with an algorithm; you can only try to game it or adjust your behaviour in response. That power dynamic is something society is still coming to grips with.
So, is it all bad? Not at all. The point of this little journey isn’t to make you fear algorithms, it’s to make you aware of them. The next time you find yourself glued to a social media feed or scratching your head at an eerily well-timed suggestion, you will know it’s not fate or omniscience at play, but a bunch of code crunching data about you and millions of others. Love what the algorithm serves you? Great, enjoy it fully (you’ve essentially trained it to know what makes you happy). Feeling creeped out or confined? There are ways to shake things up – follow a new type of account, clear your cookies now and then, take a different route on purpose, listen to a random genre of music, in short, surprise the algorithms and broaden your horizons beyond what they expect.
In the end, algorithms are tools created by humans, and like any tool, they can be used for good, ill, or something in between. They don’t truly “rule” us, but they do quietly guide us, and it’s on us to stay conscious of that. So the next time you wake up and grab your phone, you will be a little more mindful that an algorithmic curator is arranging your digital world. You don’t have to live in fear of it, just live consciously alongside it. After all, no one algorithm should have all that power over you… Unless you let it.
