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TechnologyThe dominance of the male gaze in social media algorithms
I feel like this is a topic that we, as feminists in a modern age, should do more to talk about, understand, and counteract.
The power of social media in shaping attitudes and normalizing viewpoints cannot be understated. The United States has one of the highest levels of social network penetration rates in the world; 70% of Americans hold a social media account, like and comment on content posted by others, and send private messages. (source)
A majority of Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat users say they use these platforms on a daily basis (source) Check out the usage rates lower on that page; for Facebook users, about half of users check multiple times per day, while slightly under 1/3 of Twitter users check multiple times per day.
For younger users, the trend is more noticeable:
73% of 18- to 29-year-old Instagram users say they visit the site every day, with roughly half (53%) reporting they do so several times per day.
I'm interested in finding good sources on TikTok usage - how many hours per day people report using it, and the ages of those users. Anyone want to help?
The point:
Feminists have long acknowledged that representation in media is important; in fact (whether rightly or wrongly) 3rd-wave feminism made media representation a cornerstone issue. It seems incoherent to me that so many can accept that representation in tv shows, movies, and pop stars can have a major impact on people, and yet disregard the ways that algorithms used in social media platforms will also impact its users.
I have never downloaded TikTok or used it, but one thing I've noticed about all of its suggested videos when I have seen it advertised is that it so commonly features young girls (aged 13-17) in videos to get people to click. This is the same with Instagram reels; it seems like the majority of my suggested vids are teen girls who are doing makeup, making faces at the camera, doing short skits while wearing really sexualized clothing, etc.
The easy answer for this is that people click on those videos, so those videos are promoted to drive engagement. However, I'm curious about this. Are women also really the ones clicking on these videos? Or, are we getting bombarded with this messaging because of the behavior of males who are on these platforms?
The question I'm interested in asking is, how, as women, can we exist on networks where we can turn off these algorithmic suggestions to focus on young female bodies? Existing in the real world, where male sexualization is pervasive, is exhausting enough.
I'm in my 30s and I just don't want to be bombarded with videos of teen girls all day. Is that so unimaginable? Does that preclude me from using social media entirely?
edit: The Wall Street Journal addresses filter bubbles, in the context of young women who continually encounter upsetting content on TikTok that encourages eating disorders and self-harm: link
I think it's a very interesting look at the topic of users wanting to control the algorithms.
I had to take TikTok off my phone, because I quickly got addicted to it, but before I did, I noticed a few things. The videos sent to me were not videos of teen girls. It was women my own age (genX), and most of them were doing comedy. As I tuned the algorithm, I got more and more content from lesbians. I rejected content from trans people, and eventually they stopped showing up on my feed.
There are two viewing options, the “For You” page is where the algorithm-derived vids show up. The other option are the creators you’ve selected. After I while, I stopped watching the “For You” page, and just started following the creators my favorited creators followed.
That’s when the content got really good, and I was spending two hours a day on the fucking site.
To your point about who’s driving clicks, I see young women in real life objectifying each other in a half ironic sort of way, so maybe something similar is at play online? For example, I’ll see women at school dances pretending to grind on each other the way men grind on women, and I’m not even sure if it’s just a joke anymore.
I honestly don't know either. The sexualization of (straight) female friendship was soooo confusing to me as a teen.
The easy answer for this is that people click on those videos, so those videos are promoted to drive engagement.
I know a photographer who has a YouTube channel with videos that get millions of views. He specifically picks out young, attractive women to appear in his videos. He says he's uncomfortable with it, and I believe him. The thing is, he's clearly not uncomfortable enough and not willing enough to part with the benefits for him to stop doing it.
The question I'm interested in asking is, how, as women, can we exist on networks where we can turn off these algorithmic suggestions to focus on young female bodies?
I don't know that there's a readily implemented technological solution that identifies content in which the focus on young female bodies is genuinely gratuitous and doesn't push down such results where they're genuinely relevant to young female people and their bodies. They are real people, not sexual objects. Like any other demographic, they want and deserve to have easy access to content featuring people like them, going through things they go through. They don't deserve the double punishment of content for them to being harder to find because society views them as sex objects.
I feel like this is an example of trying to solve problems with tech whereas tech isn't the best solution. People like the photographer I know need to be willing to take a stand. The culture of treating girls and young women as sex objects needs to go. No amount of algorithms is going to fix that.
I don't know that there's a readily implemented technological solution that identifies content in which the focus on young female bodies is genuinely gratuitous and doesn't push down such results where they're genuinely relevant to young female people and their bodies.
I guess my point is, that I want to exist on a network where the demographic that is catered to is NOT young women and their bodies. I don't think that's cruel or exclusionary; I just want to interact with people who are my own age. I'm not interested in content about being a young woman because I'm not one anymore.
Is the answer creating separate social networks? I'm fine with that - I think spinster.xyz is a great idea and I'm so glad that it was made, although I could be better about checking it.
I suppose the answer might be that anything algorithmically driven is going to default to focusing on sexualized young female bodies, because that's the overwhelming interest of many people online. I've begun to think of platforms as analogous to tv channels - they have an embedded viewpoint that their content caters to - reddit, for instance, obviously caters to a younger, male, nerd-driven culture. Maybe I am within a filter bubble and there are female-focused "channels" that I'm just not tapped into. I just can't tell.
It would be great if you could select which other users' browsing behaviors were used to form the algorithm that feeds you suggestions. That way, it would be easier to exclude mens' browsing preferences, or people who you know you disagree with.
I find the TikTok algorithm respects my wishes and interests; yes, I think the content you describe appears on the FYP for all new users, but you can kind of train the algorithm to not show you that stuff anymore. It tends to listen when you click “not interested”, and it’s quite good at pinpointing what you’re interested in. I never ever see anything related to restrictive dieting or contemporary appearance; just cooking ideas and honestly, radical feminist ideas about beauty and examples of beauty in different cultures and time periods.
I have a really different experience on Instagram. No matter how much I say I’m not interested in cosmetic surgery posts or XYZ celebrity, they tend to show up. It’s the same with ads for companies I don’t like. I don’t know whether it’s because I am a young woman and so are loads of my friends/followers on social media, so maybe a majority of young women engage with the content and Instagram therefore shows me more of it.
I feel like it should be a option, when you’re signing up to social media, to tell the platform what you’re not interested in specifically - e.g., diet culture, what I eat in a day, cosmetic surgery, sexualised posts, etc. etc.. I think this would really help it be a more positive space. But it would result in a loss of profit for the companies, so I would be surprised if we saw this happen any time soon.
Instagram is the main offender of this for me, too. I guess that they are more advertising-driven, and will show you ads whether you're interested or not.
The Tiktok you describe sounds interesting and fun! I think the main issue is not responding to those types of videos with your attention. Does tiktok track eye movements when you use the app?
I completely agree about ads, and I know that Facebook FINALLY allowed people to opt out of advertising related to pregnancy or alcohol after someone wrote an article about how terrible an experience she had on the platform after having a very traumatic miscarriage. They also finally modified post settings so that users could mark them to not show up in those memories things. With the alochol thing, I can't imagine how terrible it could be if you were an alcoholic trying to quit, getting nothing but alcohol ads.
TikTok does not track eye movement. You can verify this by checking that nothing changes when you cover up the front camera.
BTW i use one of these little slidey stickers to keep my front camera covered up except when i specifically want to use it, because you just never rlly know: https://www.amazon.com/Slide，Ultra-Thin-MacBook-Accessories，Protect-Privacy-Security/dp/B08PKWFCMR/
I love those stickers, I've never seen them before. Thanks!!
I err on the side of paranoia with apps and monitoring.
Better safe than sorry. And no problem! (i use the little slidey sticker on my laptop, too)
Yes - my experience of TikTok is really positive. It shows me nearly everything I am interested in and very little of what I am not. I get not everyone will want to go through the process of training the algorithm, though. I don’t think it does track eye movements, but I’m not sure.
It’s so insane that anything owned by the Zuckerberg empire requires probably thousands of people begging them and writing well-articulated arguments to them just so they are given the option to hide certain content. Like, in any other context - like a shop - you could complain about the service and expect to be treated seriously. With FB and other online giants, we’re lucky if we get to speak to a real person at all.
Have you heard of the concept of technofeudalism?
It's the idea that as our world moves online, we move from our ostensibly democratic governance towards a feudal environment. The feudal system grants power to those who own the resources, while everyone else lives on the land and works it as serfs. The idea of technofeudalism is that as our world moves online, we grant sovereignty to the owners of the private tech companies who provide the resources (servers, software, communication methods), while we exist as mere users, whose rights are not defined or are defined by the owners of the resources we're using. As our world becomes more and more online, avoiding using those resources becomes unavoidable.
One argument is that technofeudalism is even supplanting capitalism as the primary mode of organizing our society; I am not sure the answer is so clear-cut, I think it's more that they are co-existing together.
I feel very convinced by the technofeudalist argument. Facebook now has its own judicial system that exists outside of governmental oversight (link), which has a lot of power for controlling speech, even in countries beyond America - sometimes more power than the government has in the countries where people are impacted.
Hey, no, I'd actually not heard of this before your comment! I find this really interesting though and I think I am convinced. I've been reading about it since you mentioned it.
I think there is a big portion of people that don't use the internet very often and surround themselves with other people like them, but they don't realise how much of a given it is for the younger generations (18>). The internet and social media are closing in from both ends - from the companies' end, as they become more advanced and expand their reach using their profits, and as it becomes more and more of an ingrained part in young people's lives. It starts right from when kids are given iPads by their parents and it's not going away any time soon.
I think it needs to be spoken about more - especially when it's clear that the report/ban/delete structures for several social media platforms are flawed if not outright immoral.
Yes exactly--these are the things you're SUPPOSED to be interested in, and it's defeating the purpose of the owners of the platforms to let them know you're not.
I hardly ever see those kinds of videos. I don't use tik tok but the instagram reels I see are usually about art, environment, and cooking. I do see a lot of reels trying out those filters which I have little interest in so I just swipe past it without watching. Do you have a new account? Why are you being targeted with this kind of stuff while I never see it?
That's a good point, I must have clicked at some point. It seems to always be teen girls with really brightly colored makeup / e-girl outfits, talking to the camera. I could see how maybe I would have clicked once if they had really artistic makeup that I wanted to see close-up.
But now, it seems to firmly believe that's the only content I want to watch. I don't have the chance to retrain it because that's all my Reel suggestions are. The only hashtags I follow (which, it seems like that's what they would draw from to tailor content??) are related to plants and art.
Try clicking 'not interested' for the videos you don't like. It doesn't always work right away but those videos seem to decrease over time.
This is my assumption I can’t prove it but I believe male users drive social media by lurking to stalk women’s photos and a lot has to be done (and is being done) to “fix” this problem. I follow hashtags like #creative or #art and ig will push what is essentially softcore porn to me. It gets pushed to me because it means thousands of other users interacted with the content and the algorithm thinks I would like some softcore porn as well because I follow the same hashtags.
This is completely different from targeted ads. For the most part my targeted ads are spot on, they fit my interests and aren’t pornographic. My suggested reels fit my interests as well. But I think when it comes to clicks, men are driving it. I spend 1/5th of my time on ig blocking and reporting porn bots. These bots view your stories and steal your photos to create new bots. The bots look for photos of women (or girls) looking sexy in some way, it doesn’t have to be you undressed, you just have to be thin, young and “hot” and they will clone your profile and add a porn (or phishing) link. Men see a new sexy female profile viewing their stories and then follow that profile and use the porn link which generates revenue to the company.
I don’t know if social media can serve two masters: women who want to use social media in a constructive way and men who want pornography and sex trafficking.
The bots sound like a nightmare. It is so infuriating to have your likeness stolen and used without your consent. This seems like a problem that women have online, that men are totally unsympathetic to.
In your experience, are those porn bots taken down? It seems to me like the reaction of most men to this situation is that women/girls are "asking for it" by having their pages public. It's a great example of how women are blamed for not protecting themselves from abuse, rather than blaming the abusers (I'm betting that in this case, it's because it would be difficult to track down the abusers). It's also a great example of how women are driven from the public sphere by attaching a sexual quality to their participation.
I don't think social media can serve 2 masters, they have to pick a side. In my mind, they've chosen the side of men.