Feeding the algorithm

• AA16
• Affected

Algorithmic controls intended to feed the algorithm with information of user preferences. Many social media enable this in the form of a ‘like’, ‘favorite’ or ‘recommend’ item. In the context of social software, such features serve the double function of informing the algorithm and informing other users of the software. For example, users using the like function in Twitter (illustrated with a little heart shape) are aware that other users are notified about this action, in particular the author of the message (see Figure 2). The latter is important for users [5] and the algorithmic output relying on ‘likes data’ may not be on top of the mind for users. As a result, the control may not help with building an accurate mental model of the algorithm [9].