Our Algorithm, which art in Server,
Optimized be your name!
Thy Data Center come!
Thy Ad Serving be done…
Question: Did I just pray to the algorithm?
Yes, I jokingly prayed to an algorithm in the initial parody of the Lord’s Prayer. What about in the above screenshot?
If you are having any difficulty seeing/reading from the above image, I’ve quoted the text below. It involves a (mostly) sarcastic interaction with a friend. We both acknowledge that Facebook (Meta) is tracking/monitoring our posts and serving us ads accordingly. Living in this reality, I attempt to get something, a blessing perhaps? Read the text of our interaction:
FRIEND’S POST:
“Facebook keeps targeting me with ads to create a virtual husband. Apparently purchasing a load of 1970s Harlequin romances off of Amazon makes me its ideal audience. No! All I want is to eat my ice cream in peace and read stories of misunderstood millionaires who are borderline controlling and lack basic communication skills.”
MY REPLY TO FRIEND’S POST
Clicking Like to see if Facebook can score me some eBook deals, preferably sci-fi or literary fiction
Question: Again, did I pray to the algorithm? If not a literal prayer, did I perhaps have a prayer in my heart, manifested in my word choice?
I’m seeing this online more frequently. Or, am I just noticing it more now? In another Facebook group I frequent for hikers, people routinely post a question for the group, and they add a picture to their post which often has no direct relationship to their stated question. They admit it, saying: “Adding a picture for the algorithm.” Some people even call the algorithm “Algo” for short. To me, that sounds vaguely endearing; think Jesus on the cross addressing the Father as Abba.
More and more it seems, even in our personal interactions, we’re all behaving like mid-level marketing execs and C-suite wannabes. We tailor our word choice, add rich content, images, and video, not out of love for friends and family, but out of obeisance to the largely unseen but undeniably (and effectively omnipresent) digital forces in our lives.
Question: Are we praying to the algorithm(s) in our lives?
Question: In what ways do you seek to appease algorithms and benefit from your relationship with them? (Think: God of the Lost Keys)
Let’s have a thought exercise in the comments below. But remember and be wise! Algo is watching. You might also revisit Janey’s excellent post from earlier this year: ChatGPT v. The Holy Ghost. Thank you for reading!
Wheat & Tares 
In my post above, I assume readers have a basic understanding of algorithms. As a supplement, Merriam-Webster Dictionary broadly defines algorithm as: “a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem or accomplishing some end.” Sounds like a gospel/list of commandments/plan of salvation to me. Pretty much all the recent examples MW cites involve computers/internet, and reveal everyone from social media platforms to landlords attempting to use algorithms, or game other’s reliance on them, for profit.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/algorithms
I have been interested to see people in grief who talk/pray to their deceased loved ones by posting on Facebook. There seems to be something about putting it “out there” that maybe the deceased loved one can see it (I am guessing they don’t have their phones with them though?). In reality I think it is more to do with processing grief and how recording something helps us, like a journal. Just a public journal instead. But maybe the Algo will answer them?
Since I don’t FB, Insta or others, I pretty much manage my YouTube shorts Algo. If I am seeing videos that I get bored of then I make sure to scroll through them instead of watching. It takes a minute, but it catches up pretty quick.
A Guest essay in yesterday’s NYTimes recounts the sad suicide by a young woman who relied on AI therapy.. now you know what I know.
I was on a Facebook group years ago for discussing childhood abuse. One woman posted about a recurring dream she kept having about bathrooms. As we discussed this, with various suggestions as to shame being behind it and others sharing that they also had dreams featuring bathrooms, suddenly the site was swamped with ads for bathroom fixtures. This was in the early days of algorithms so many of the women were confused as to why the ads suddenly changed from normal things women might buy to being swamped with ads for toilets, sinks, shower heads, and so on as if we were all remodeling our bathrooms. Algo kind of goofed on that one because books on dream analysis would have been far more appropriate. But Algo keyed in on one word in the discussion and totally botched the context.
So, warning, do not rely on the great God Algo to actually answer your prayers in any logical way.
“If [algorithms] know how to give good gifts, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”
Fascinating ideas! Okay so, ‘praying’ to the algorithm could also be called manipulating the algorithm. The algorithm manipulates the human’s news feed. The human learns to throw in a picture “for the algorithm” or to scroll past videos they aren’t interested in, to get the algorithm to put different stuff on the feed. The human knows it’s there, and knows the algorithm is controlling what is presented to the human, so the human takes steps to teach the algorithm what to present. It’s circular, to some extent.
‘Praying’ to the algorithm is asking the algorithm to serve up (or stop serving up) particular content by taking the actions the algorithm has taught humans such as liking a particular post or using particular words in a discussion.