Subjectivity and algorithmic imaginaries: the algorithmic other

Abstract

The notion of algorithmic imaginaries has been affirmed as an important heuristic to understand the functioning of social media algorithms through the account of users’ individual and collective experiences. Yet, the relationship between algorithmic imaginaries and users’ subjective engagement with social media, considering the personalised circulation of content on these platforms, demands further expansion. To fill this gap, the article introduces the notion of the algorithmic other, conceived as complementary to that of algorithmic imaginaries. Building on small-scale qualitative research on everyday online news consumption in Italy, we show how users engage in ‘othering’ the algorithm(s), which we describe as a process of counter-subjectivation that users enact in response to their own individuation as digital and data subjects. We explore the main dimensions of this process, arguing that it represents a by-product of the intense personalisation of their everyday user experience.