The digital user might believe the world is at their fingertips, but what they see is more tailor-made than they realize.
Technology, social media and the internet are ever-present in our lives, yet the world remains disconnected from an informational standpoint. With almost all adults using the internet daily, the digital divide is nothing like what it used to be. The divide remains as prominent as ever.
The digital divide created a knowledge gap between individuals who had access to the internet and those who did not.
Over time, the population of the online world grew as more and more people familiarized themselves with the future of technology. In 1991, the launch of the World Wide Web marked the beginning of a new era and paved the way for our current online platforms to flourish.
Behind this new way of accessing information, algorithms were used for communicating and finding entertainment.
The functionality of algorithms continue to be reinvented as the internet evolves and expands. Early algorithms presented information to users chronologically, impersonally and through immediate “friend” connections on social media. Now, they feed information through relevancy instead of recency and specific accounts.
What was originally a default system turned into an interactive part of social media. For example, Facebook uses over 100,000 different factors to curate the media for one individual feed alone, which supports the idea that much of what we see online is determined by an algorithm.
No two For You Pages, or FYPs, on a platform are exactly alike. The time you spend looking at a specific post, your likes, the accounts you follow and what you show interest in are accounted for by the platform. Pop-up surveys are also implemented into TikTok, giving users the option to provide feedback on whether they enjoyed watching a video. This only adds to the information the platform uses to shape an individual’s algorithm.
When using a search engine such as Google, it provides prompts as you type, giving ideas based on past search history and other factors. The ideas presented to one user may be completely different than the ideas presented to another, even if they are typing the same sentence or inquiring about the same concept.
Similarly, the advertisements, news alerts and suggested posts seen online and on social media platforms vary from user to user. Geographic location, age, gender and other basic demographics can filter information on our screens.
In this way, the digital divide has not disappeared, but instead evolved to fit modern times.
The problem is created when a personalized feed begins to feel like a true representation of reality and what is happening in the world.
Two people can sit next to each other, scroll through the same platform and walk away with completely different ideas of what is happening around them. Neither person necessarily has less access to information than the other, but they are simply being shown different versions of it, shaped by their own algorithm. Differences in what we see shape our understanding of the world, narrowing our exposure to content outside personal interests.
We are constantly surrounded by information that reinforces what we repeatedly engage with, leaving us with fewer opportunities to encounter other viewpoints, perspectives and important news or information.
As the technological access gap slowly closed, a new one opened. The digital divide has changed, and there is no end in sight. The internet may put the world in our hands, but algorithms decide how much of the world we can actually see.
Aleni Bender is a junior studying organizational communication at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Aleni about her column? Email/tweet her at ab285023@ohio.edu@aleni_bender
