Shreyas Yadalam Harikishore

Section: IL

Expository Writing 101

02/03/2020

Professor William Schwartz

Algorithms, which are a set of rules, when followed blindly in a sequential manner enables
in the solving of problems. There is a rising significance for these algorithms which can be
closely associated to the advancements in computing. Algorithms which can simply be referred
to as the automation of thinking and reasoning, have the ability to limit the people’s was of
thinking by taking away the responsibilities of making a decision on our behalf. Foer, in his
article ‘Mark Zuckerberg’s War on Free Will’ feels that even though these algorithms are
remarkable ways of logical thinking, they have the potential to alter the behavior of the people
by completely eradicating the free will and removing the burden of decision making.

Facebook confines the people to follow a particular path by confining our thinking through its
paternalistic view which has helped in the progression of its belief in the ‘advancement in the
transparency of individuals – or what it has called, at various moments, “radical transparency” or
“ultimate transparency.”’[CITATION Fra17 \p 60 \l 1033 ]. Facebook has acquired huge masses of
power by using comprehensive sets of algorithms which has eased the process of collecting and
analyzing vast amounts of data. Facebook wants to use the data collected to hold power over the
people thereby leading everyone to live under a continuous threat. This in turn causes everyone
to become highly aware about one’s own self. The constant threat of being exposed can make
people more truthful and accepting to others embarrassments. Facebook’s belief thus forces
people to live a life filled with integrity by not having multiple identities in front of different
people. Therefore, these algorithms facilitate in the collection of personal information which
strips us of our free will and hinders our ability to think for ourselves.

A distinctive feature of algorithms is that it can unearth patterns merely by translating language
by decoding the phrasing of the sentences without understanding the words. Foer states
‘Computer scientists have an aphorism that describes how algorithms relentlessly hunt for
patterns: They talk about torturing the data until it confesses’ [CITATION Fra17 \p 70 \l 1033 ]. It
can be seen that these algorithms aid in data mining, which refers to the identifying patterns in
large sets of data. This metaphor compares data to a victim of torture who confesses information
only the stuff what the interrogator wants to hear which highlights the manipulative nature of
data itself. This throws light on how the interpretation of data is subjected to subjectivity as the
data can be represented to favor the desired outcome. Thus, Facebook could use this to its
advantage and try to influence our thinking ability in such a manner which gives effect to its
vision. These algorithms helps Facebook understand the people’s tastes and preferences and
make selections about what should available to the viewers (people) to see thereby stripping us
of our free will and limiting our thinking ability.

Facebook has carefully planned on how to effectively influence the user. One such strategy that
is employed is The News Feed. Foer states ‘Zuckerberg has boasted that the News Feed turned
Facebook into a “personalized newspaper.”’[CITATION Fra17 \p 73 \l 1033 ]. With this particular
feature, the company’s algorithms sort out the vast multitude of things that a potential Facebook
user would be interested in and present them in a condensed form by providing limited number
of options to the user to choose from (through the data collected by the algorithms). In this case,
the algorithms relieve the users the burden of making decisions and choosing what they like by
making decisions on their behalf and they do so to some extent by using influential
acquaintances a user could possibly have such as friends and family. Therefore, the algorithms
restrict our ability to reason by hindering our ability to segregate though the ever growing
mounds of information.

Facebook gains immense power from these algorithms. In order to build the utopian society that
is imagines, Facebook regularly conducts experiments on its users in order to gather data on the
tastes and preferences of its users. Foer states ‘Facebook is constantly tinkering with how its
users view the world’[CITATION Fra17 \p 74 \l 1033 ] . Through these experiments Facebook tries to
formulate a mathematical relation about the human social relationship and these algorithms help
them conduct experiments on people’s emotions which help in gaining deeper insights on the
behavior of its users. By trying to manipulate the mental state of the users, Facebook is trying not
only to limit the mental state of the users but to shape it in such a way they live according to the
visions that Facebook has about a life of integrity.