The rise of algorithmic moods

Being away from social media taught me something important about the algorithmic influence on our emotions: If they are powerful enough to change our minds, they can change our moods too. Here’s how.

Jan 22, 2024

Don’t forget to check out this week’s list of Things I’m Noticing at the bottom of the newsletter. Thank you to those who have supported my work. If you’d like to consider becoming a paid subscriber, you can do so here.

This is a note for anyone who spends way too much time online or has thought about spending less. Consider sending this to someone who needs a taste of what it’s like to unplug or needs some language to describe a familiar but unnamed feeling.

I recently noticed something interesting happening inside me after I stopped scrolling on social media for an extended period of time. I noticed myself feeling more and more bored. When I went a notch deeper, I found a new curiosity I wasn’t aware of before. I found myself wondering about things I haven’t thought deeply about before. I started to reflect more. I noticed more creativity. And I noticed that I could hear my own voice more clearly. Most of all, I started to notice what happens when an algorithm isn’t watching my every move and is no longer making choices for me.

In my curiosity, I started to look at the ways social media companies use addictive algorithms and social validation features to shape our lives online. I wanted to know how algorithms change our minds and our moods. I think this matters more than we realize.

Now, I don’t mean to suggest that, bar-none, something sinister is going on here. I’m a tech-optimist because I think technology has the power to transform our lives if —and only if— the benefits to our quality of life outweigh the costs to our wellbeing. I don’t think these companies intended to destroy our attention, disconnect us from each other, and make us feel more sad, mad, skeptical and afraid. But this seems to be a widespread impact of consuming user-generated content in large volumes. But, why?

One of the most noticeable changes I experienced after taking time away from my screen devices was the impact this fast had on my mind and my mood. I wouldn’t say that I was addicted to digital drugs, but they certainly took up a lot of space in my life. In a lot of ways, I was dependent on screens to distract me and I felt myself drawn to screens as an emotional substitute for my real needs, such as feeling my feelings, engaging in critical thinking, true self-reflection, and being other-focused. Instead of taking the nutritious route and feeding my brain and body a healthy social-emotional diet, I found myself consuming and desperately seeking out the cheaper and quicker forms of connection.

When I was using (and over-using) screens, I found myself being drawn to emotionally charged content on social media. Without thought and without interruption, I found myself passively scrolling, almost like a lab rat trying to find the cheese in some elaborate maze. However, I was never completely aware of what I was there to do and what I was needing from it, other than as something to keep my hands busy and my brain on auto-pilot.

For many years, I justified the time I was spending online as being in “work-mode”, rather than being honest with myself, which is that I was using it as a reliable way to numb, to escape, and to disconnect. Scrolling online became a way for the parts of me that needed connection to finally feel plugged into something. Attaching to the algorithm meant having less attachment resources available for those around me. My time, attention, and energy was being re-routed into something that could never seem to satisfy my unmet needs for closeness and connection.

While scrolling online, I often experienced guilt and shame on top of these other impacts, too, which I know are common participants in addiction and dependency. However, as I started scrolling less, the guilt and shame started showing up less often too. When the fog of shame and guilt cleared, I started to notice something else. I started becoming more clear-headed and I could hear my own voice again. It was almost as if the algorithms had subtly (or not-so-subtly) influenced my mind and my mood.

Algorithmic moods

I think we can imagine how the internet, and its web of apps and algorithms, changes our minds for better or worse. But have we really considered the various ways it changes our moods? Algorithms influence our moods, too, by analyzing our online behaviours, preferences, and interactions.

Through tailored content recommendations and personalizing the user experience, algorithms shape the information we encounter, gradually and subtly influencing our beliefs, emotions, and decision-making (or, in other words, how we think, feel, and act). Whether curating our social media feeds, suggesting entertaining content, or guiding our whole experience online, algorithms create a personalized digital environment that decide what we’re exposed to.

The constant reinforcement of algorithmically determined stimuli has been said to be a contributing cause of emotional polarization by impacting our stress-threat responses. It may even be playing a role in shaping long-term cognitive and emotional patterns, thereby influencing the way we think and feel over time. Our moods are dynamic, naturally shifting in various ways over time, so I wonder what happens when moods become shaped or determined by algorithms. An algorithmic mood benefits these companies more than they benefit us. I think we’re seeing the current impacts of that now.

Algorithms have become an integral part of our daily lives, changing the way we consume information, make decisions, and even perceive the world around us. If algorithms are powerful enough to shape culture and sway groups of people, they are powerful enough to shape each of us individually.

As you can see, one of the more intriguing and, at times, disconcerting aspects of algorithmic influence is their potential impact on our moods. This raises several critical questions that demand careful consideration:

Can an algorithm change how we feel?

Algorithms, with their ability to analyze vast amounts of data and predict user preferences, have the potential to impact our emotional state. Through tailored content recommendations, personalized strategic ad placements, and social media algorithms, they first influence our emotions and responses by shaping the information we encounter. Then, it pushes you content it knows you will engage with.

Here’s how it happened for me: When the algorithm succeeds in maintaining my attention, the repeated exposure to emotionally charged content subtly began to influence my mood. I started recognizing a shift in my emotional state, noting heightened levels of excitement, suspense, or even anxiety as a result of algorithmically-driven content recommendations. Though algorithms aim to enhance and customize user experience, they can also significantly impact individuals on an emotional level by steering them towards content that elicits specific feelings and responses.

How does an algorithm change our mood?

Algorithms often rely on machine learning and data analysis to understand an individual’s behaviour. By tracking our online activities, preferences, and interactions, algorithms can curate content that aligns with our existing emotional state or nudges us towards certain feelings by analyzing our patterns and habits. This can manifest through targeted advertisements designed to evoke specific emotions or algorithmic content curation that reinforces pre-existing beliefs.

Here, it’s important to distinguish between a feeling and a mood; they differ in duration and intensity. Put simply, a mood is a long-lasting emotional state made up of a set of feelings over time. For example, sadness is an emotional state whereas depression is a lasting mood containing consistent and persistent sad feelings. Okay, I digress. This is all to say that when algorithms have this ability to curate a consistent emotional landscape and evoke predictable emotional responses within us over time, they also have the power, when they are engaged with frequently enough, to capture our minds, influence our emotional state, and therefore create long-lasting moods.

Is it dangerous for an algorithm to influence our mood?

Now, this question is interesting to me. In a way, the digital sphere is an environment of its own. As we interact with our environment, whether in real life or online, we can expect to experience a range of emotional reactions and stress-threat responses. Algorithms would be dangerous to the extent that they consistently expose us to stressful or threatening content or information. In any environment, that would be dangerous.

Another potential danger worth noting is in the subtle manipulation of our emotions. When algorithms tailor content to elicit specific reactions, there is a risk of creating echo chambers that reinforce existing beliefs and emotions, limiting exposure to diverse perspectives. These are called filter bubbles and they are incredibly bad for our social, emotional, and mental health! This can lead to emotional polarization, where individuals become increasingly isolated within their own emotional bubbles, potentially fostering extremism or negatively impacting mental health.

Are algorithms making us more lonely, anxious, angry, distracted, stressed, and depressed?

There is a mounting body of evidence suggesting a correlation between increased algorithmic influence and negative impacts on our mental, emotional, and social wellbeing. The personalized nature of algorithmic content, while aiming to enhance user engagement, inadvertently creates echo chambers which isolates us within our own social-emotional spheres. This isolation, coupled with the constant exposure to carefully curated content that may not reflect the complexities of real-life experiences, can contribute to feelings of loneliness and alienation (I’ve felt this a lot the past year).

In addition, the pressure to conform to algorithmic expectations, coupled with the addictive nature of social media platforms, can fuel anxiety, distraction, and even lead to heightened stress levels. As algorithms increasingly dictate our online experiences, it is important for us to scrutinize their role in shaping not just our digital interactions but also our personal wellbeing.

The pervasive influence of algorithms on our daily interactions extends beyond shaping our preferences and moods; it has the potential to impact fundamental aspects of our physiological responses, including stress and threat responses. Algorithms, with their capacity to analyze vast datasets, could tailor content to evoke specific emotional reactions, potentially altering our stress responses over time. The constant exposure to algorithmically-driven stimuli, designed to maximize engagement, may desensitize us to certain stressors or, conversely, amplify our perception of threats. This nuanced manipulation could reshape how we interpret and respond to stress, potentially influencing our overall wellbeing.

This may come as a surprise, but I’m actually a tech optimist. For centuries, technology has enabled us to solve problems and help us lead healthier and happier lives. While technology and the algorithms they deploy play a vital role in enhancing our lives and the user experience, their potential to influence and even dictate our moods raises some red flags for me.

In all of this, one question still remains. To what extent are our emotional states and our moods true human responses and how much of them are being shaped by algorithms outside of our awareness?

If I’m being honest, I’m still trying to find a more aligned way forward. I know with clarity that being away from social media was good for my wellbeing and I really hope we start to take a closer look at how technology gets in the way of real connection.

Through these periods of rapid change and as technology starts to influence how we do this whole being human thing, I hope we preserve the most important elements: physical presence, closeness, discretion and discernment, and being emotionally available.

Nothing will ever beat the real thing. Nothing.

Take care,

Jake

Things I’m noticing this week:

Rabbit introduced a new AI companion called r1, which is an alternative to an app-based operating system designed to be the simplest computer; an AI pocket companion that’s faster and more actionable than chat-GPT. It’s a first-of-its-kind technology and I think our smartphones will have AI technology built right into its interface before we know it. Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, called it the most impressive tech unveiling since Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone.
This episode of The Ezra Klein Show which talks about How To Discover Your Own Taste; it also references how algorithms influence our personal ideas of what we like and don’t like— fascinating!
Over the last few weeks, I celebrated my birthday (I went to go see Madonna!) and I became an uncle to a healthy and beautiful baby boy! Lots of change and good things happening offline.
My podcast, This Isn’t Therapy, was featured on a list by CBC, Canada’s national broadcaster, as one of the top podcasts of 2023! We were so thrilled when we got the news— you can check out the article here!
And lastly, the song Me & U by Tems has been a staple soundtrack song as I navigate a new season of growth, change, love, care, safety, and home-making with my partner, Matt. You keep me so solid and I love you so much xx