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What’s Your Algorithm?

INSTRUCTIONS:

Activity: Social Media: What’s Your Algorithm? Social media can be considered anti-social in that it promotes highly differentiated monolithic social groups rather than broader socialities like a city-wide community. Open a social media app or site that you use often (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit etc.). What are the top items in your feed? What ads are you being fed? Take a screenshot from your feed and plop it into a Word doc (it’s ok if the feed is in another language other than English). Then write a paragraph about how someone might interpret your feed and ads through a racial lens. How does race show up in your feed if at all? What does it mean if race doesn’t show up at all when it’s so prevalent in the current news? What are other ways that race/ethnicity are not depicted but connoted in things like food, music, and clothing in your feed? If you are not based in the US, what are the other ways that racial/ethnic difference can be interpreted in your feed?
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