Are Algorithms Shaping Culture?

Think algorithms are changing and shaping us? It’s probably the opposite and that’s exciting.

Photo by A Chosen Soul on Unsplash

Everywhere in our digital world, algorithms dash hither and thither through the aether. From our workplace apps to streaming services and social media platforms. Many a pundit suggests that the algorithms are changing us, that our agency and freedoms, are being decided by algorithms. Yet, perhaps, they aren’t. Quite the opposite.

Maybe we’re the ones reshaping and changing the algorithms. At least in Western and more democratic countries and perhaps even in more autocratic nations where they may be operating under the illusion of algorithmic control of their societies.

I argue here, in a condensed form, that in the face of human culture, algorithms aren’t changing us as much as we might think, that through culture itself, the algorithms will likely serve us more than they serve machines. Which is actually quite wonderful.

A good framework to consider this from is through the lens of German sociologist Hartmut Rosa’s theory of social acceleration and resonance, with a sprinkle of ideas from anthropologist David Graeber and sociologist Clotaire Rapaille’s cultural archetypes and code-breaking.