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Is My Data Profile the Same as Me?: Behavior, Representation, Inference, and Algorithmic Knowledge

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 A person stands beyond successive layers of traces, data, models, and predictions, revealing how each representation captures something real while remaining smaller than the life it describes. Is My Data Profile the Same as Me?: Behavior, Representation, Inference, and Algorithmic Knowledge Explore how behavior becomes data, data becomes representation, and algorithmic inference turns partial traces into models of a person. Where Does the Data About Me Begin? Suppose I search for Nietzsche, watch a lecture, skip another video, buy a novel, listen to a song, and then spend several days reading about an entirely different subject. I experience these actions as parts of a life. A computational system can encounter them differently. Depending on what a service records, some actions may become queries, clicks, viewing times, purchases, ratings, skips, or other interaction data. Already, a distinction has appeared. The action and the record of the action are not identical. A search occu...
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Do Recommendation Algorithms Discover Our Preferences or Help Shape Them? - Exposure, Feedback, and Preference Formation

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 A person’s earlier choices shape what appears next, while each new response returns to the system as data, forming a continuous loop between preference, exposure, and behavior. Do Recommendation Algorithms Discover Our Preferences or Help Shape Them? - Exposure, Feedback, and Preference Formation Explore how recommendation, exposure, and user behavior form feedback loops that can blur the boundary between observed and underlying preferences. Does an Algorithm Simply Observe What I Like? Suppose I search for Nietzsche once. A system records an action. Depending on the service and its design, that action may become one of many signals used to rank, retrieve, or recommend later content. If Nietzsche-related material appears again and I select it, the system now possesses another observation. The sequence can continue. At first, this seems like straightforward learning. I have a preference, my behavior reveals it, and the system becomes increasingly accurate at predicting what I will ...
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Are My Preferences Really Mine? - Choice, Personalization, and Algorithmic Influence

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 A person stands before two paths, one shaped by familiar recommendations and the other opening toward unfamiliar possibilities, questioning where preference ends and influence begins. Are My Preferences Really Mine? - Choice, Personalization, and Algorithmic Influence Explore when algorithmic influence becomes part of autonomous preference and when personalization begins to constrain our choices. When Does a Recommendation Become My Choice? Imagine that I search for Nietzsche once. Afterward, I encounter more lectures, quotations, books, and videos about Nietzsche. I click on some of them. The system now has additional evidence that Nietzsche-related material is relevant to me, and similar material may appear again. At first glance, the sequence seems simple. I expressed an interest, the system responded to it, and I chose among the resulting recommendations. But where, exactly, is my preference in this sequence? The first search may have reflected an existing interest. The later ...
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What Happens to Shared Culture in a Personalized World? - Algorithms, Commonality, and the Public Sphere

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 Many people receive different streams of information while a shared public space remains between them, raising the question of what a society must still encounter together. What Happens to Shared Culture in a Personalized World? - Algorithms, Commonality, and the Public Sphere Explore how personalized information environments reshape shared cultural experience, exposure diversity, and the public sphere. What Happens When We No Longer See the Same Things? For much of the twentieth century, large audiences often encountered overlapping cultural and informational materials through newspapers, radio, cinema, and broadcast television. This did not mean that everyone received identical information or interpreted it in the same way. Media systems were divided by geography, language, class, politics, ownership, and editorial selection. Yet mass communication could produce substantial areas of common exposure. Millions of people might encounter the same election debate, sporting event, tel...
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Does an Algorithm Tell a Story About Who I Am? - Digital Traces, Prediction, and the Algorithmic Self

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 A person moves forward while digital traces from earlier choices remain behind, forming an incomplete portrait that follows but never fully becomes the person. Does an Algorithm Tell a Story About Who I Am? - Digital Traces, Prediction, and the Algorithmic Self Explore how digital traces become predictions about who we are, revealing the gap between algorithmic profiles and changing human lives. What Does a Single Search Say About Me? Suppose I search for Nietzsche today. I may be studying philosophy, checking a quotation, writing an article, or simply following a moment of curiosity. Tomorrow, my attention may move to astronomy, an ancient language, a novel, or something entirely unrelated. For me, the search belongs to a particular moment and has a particular reason. A digital system, however, does not need access to that private reason in order to register an observable action. What remains available to computational processing is a trace: a query, a click, a viewing history, a...
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