Social Media Algorithms and Decision Making in the Digital Age

Abstract

Free will and decision making in today’s digitalized world seem to be a farfetched fact due to the constant lobbying of intelligent systems on the human thinking. Algorithmic-decision making or simply known as ‘algo-rithm’ is the process of analyzing input data and processing that information to make decisions. Giving AI the power of decision making introduces thereof a number of challenges, one of which is driving the human decision making itself and eroding their free will. More specifically, these algorithms impact the decision-making process of individuals and pass forward messages based on analyzing one’s behavior and content consumption; thus, determining which content to spam all over one’s feed on digital platforms. In this paper we are going to limit the scope of this research onto data privacy, taking a special focus on selling cookies to third parties, as well as looking at how algorithms impact user awareness and decision-making ability from an ethical perspective.