Algorithms define the information we consume on social media
Alejandro Rodríguez, professor at the UPM, analyzes the impact of algorithms on social media and how they define the information we consume. He also reflects on recent decisions of institutions to abandon platforms such as X (formerly Twitter).
12.02.2025
On social media, algorithms have different purposes: collecting data on user interaction, storing content, categorizing it, and prioritizing the information displayed, among others. This way, each social media has a method of displaying information. Instagram, which pivots fundamentally on visual elements such as images, is not the same as TikTok, which focuses on videos, or X (formerly Twitter), which is a more textual network.
In addition, according to Alejandro Rodríguez, professor at School of Computer Engineering in the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid “different social media usually have a wide range of target audience and the type of content and form changes.” For example, LinkedIn is a platform oriented towards work environment, while TikTok or Instagram focus primarily on entertainment. But in general, there are two common characteristics to all social media platforms: “the personalization of content and maximization of time that the user spends on the platform. And it is here where algorithms play a key role in social networks.”
In this sense, the characteristics of each social media can significantly influence the functioning of the algorithms and their objectives. “Analyzing some of the main social platforms we could conclude that Facebook and Instagram use an approach based mainly on interest, retention and relationships while Tiktok quickly learns from the user's preferences, focusing on maximizing retention.”Regarding the information we consume, the UPM professor assures that “algorithms do not influence it but rather define it.”
This way social media makes use of all the information they can collect from us to show us what they think will interest us the most. To arrange it “they use all the information - that we really give them voluntarily -, for example from our profile, data related to what we do, where we live or our interests to the multiple interactions we have on the social network.”
Finally, this personalization that social media algorithms apply to optimize the user experience “can lead to the creation of bubble filters or echo chambers. This occurs when algorithms prioritize showing content that is aligned with the user's interests, beliefs, or previous behaviors, which reduces exposure to different or contrary perspectives. As the content shown reinforces existing ideas, the user may have a distorted view of reality, believing that their opinions are the majority or the only ones.
New developments in social media: “It would not be unusual to have videos that summarize the content of written news”
Social media are adapting to new technologies, algorithms and, in general, to how society changes. This is the case of some social networks that try to minimize the so-called fake news. In this context of improving the review of content that the platform can offer, it is expected, according to the professor of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, “that algorithms can also identify and limit harmful content automatically, as well as start to introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms that allow the generation of automatic content such as subtitles, summaries or images (for example, avatars). In this way “it would not be unusual to start having videos that summarize the content of written news, images or videos. In addition, technologies such as augmented or virtual reality could end up being the new form of interaction with social media and their users.”
Institutions abandoning X (formerly Twitter) due to its anti-democratic nature
Many institutions have begun to abandon X, as the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) has recently done in the Spanish university context. According to the professor from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid “institutions are sovereign in deciding which social media, platforms or networks they are presents on and in reference to certain social media such as X, he states that “although their integrity and neutrality are being questioned by certain institutions, they are still majority networks and much more powerful loudspeakers than other alternative platforms such as mastodon of Bluesky”. In this sense and from the point of view of dissemination of information. “I believe that these initiatives will not allow messages from these institutions reach as as wide audience as X can offer them and, therefore, they limit the scope of their messages, reducing the diversity of perspectives in public debates”, he concludes.