Digital Colonialism: How Algorithms Control Our Attention and Shape the World
Colonialism used to be about taking over land stealing resources and forcing people to do what you want.Things have changed now. Today power comes from information, data and algorithms. Many experts call this reality "digital colonialism." Social media has created a kind of public space. When a famous person posts something it can reach millions of people instantly. Then people start liking, commenting, sharing and making memes. It looks like its all happening naturally. Algorithms are actually behind it. These algorithms are designed to keep people for as long as possible.They often show us things that make us angry, scared or excited. As a result more people see these things and users think they are choosing what to look at. Really the algorithm is controlling what they see. The core of this system is the "attention economy." Here getting and keeping peoples attention is the valuable thing. The data from users time clicks, responses and behavior is used to sell ...