How Algorithms Decide What We Read
When I was a kid, I saw my grandparents buying novels, magazines, and newspapers regularly from the small shop at the end of our street. At the same time, I also saw my dad using a local library to borrow more books. Once they had all their books at home, in the evenings or on weekends everyone would discuss the stories, the authors, the genres, and what they liked or didn’t like. Just through these conversations, awareness about certain books would spread, and it often acted as a form of marketing for new or lesser-known books. It also allowed people to explore a wide variety of genres they might not have discovered otherwise. Reading was not just personal; it was social and organic. But now, in the age of modern technology, it feels like algorithms are deciding what we read. It shows us what is popular, trending, or similar to what we have already read. That means we might miss out on genres, authors or stories outside our usual patterns. The surprise element of stumbling upon so...
