Dr Kaitlyn Regehr, author of Smartphone Nation, is an Associate Professor and the Programme Director of Digital Humanities in the Department of Information Studies at University College London. As part of Screen Free Summer, she shares how algorithms shape our digital experiences, how they profit from our attention, and strategies to employ to reclaim control.
How many times have you looked at your phone today? Or rather, how many times did you look at your phone to do one thing… only to find yourself 10-minutes later doing something completely different? If you’re a parent, do you know how much time your kid has spent on a screen and what content they have been served? And how content is different from what someone else – or someone else’s kid – might see?
My research team and I look at how these algorithmic process work and then develop tools to take control over them. We start with the premise that almost everything that we consume is regulated. The food we eat. The cars we drive. The medication we take. In the digital space, we don’t have these same consumer protections. We don’t have these same consumer protections – because we are not the consumers here. We are the product. Or rather, our time, and our attention is the product, which is sold to advertisers.
This process is known as the ‘attention economy’. What my research has looked at is the way in which, through this attention economy, algorithms can prioritise harm and misinformation. Because misinformation is often more attention grabbing than the truth and harm – or things that hook into our insecurities – might hold us there just that little bit longer. That extra attention, that engagement, is what advertisers are paying for.
I say this as neither anti tech, nor a pro tech person. I am pro information person. I’m pro information to help people develop an understanding that little screen in their back pocket. That touchscreen, which we stroke, and with this touching develop feelings of love and dependence. That touching that slides us off one app and then – somehow without us even knowing it – seamlessly onto another in a deliciously effortless trance. And it’s not just the phone that cultivates this soothing scroll, but also its applications: the homestead of social media.
In my book, Smartphone Nation, I offer a digital nutrition guide so that people can think about what healthy consumption might look like in order to give people the power to decide. Decide what they want to see. What is it that they want more of? And what do they want less of so that they so that you can move away from being a passive product into being an activate participant.
Here are a few tips to help you become more intentional about your usage:
Actively interact with things you want: Dedicate a half hour a week to training the machine learning by finding content that you want to see – content that you are passionate about or that makes you feel good. Actively search for things you like.
Budget your attention: not every piece of content that is fed to you deserves your time and attention. Your time and attention are money (literally, it’s being sold to advertisers). Don’t watch uninteresting, uninspiring content or content that makes you feel bad or sad. Quickly move past it. And do not like, share things or comment on things that you don’t like. According to ex-TikTok employee Andrew Kaung, even commenting on something you don’t like something, can count as engagement.
Follow people who empower you: Don’t follow accounts that make you feel bad or self-conscious. For example, this might mean unfollowing a model that makes you feel bad about your own body and instead, choosing to follow someone who represents you or who inspires you.
Digital Spring Cleaning. The new spring cleaning is uninspiring cleaning. If it no longer inspires or educates you: unfollow it. This includes ex’s, TV personalities or brands. You don’t need to keep seeing bathing suits if you already bought one and you are back from holiday. Unfollow accounts regularly to clean up your feed and narrow in on what you do want to see.
