Thinking about the Algorithm

Some strange things have been happening to my Facebook feed recently.

A friend was over and was talking about his recent switch to an electric car. He was getting used to charging up at night on the economy rate and describing how he managed on longer journeys. He spoke of putting the car on the charger in various service stations for a short boost, while having a cup of tea and a break. He asked me had I ever considered switching over myself, and I spoke about the high initial costs but how, in the longer run, it might be worth thinking about, the way fuel prices are rising.

Since the conversation, my Facebook feed is full of advertisements for electric cars and different models. Garages are sending me ads to book a test drive.

I put up a post a few months ago about my favourite book of the year so far, which I read during my summer holidays – Allen Levi’s ‘Theo of Golden.’ Now all these book clubs are sending me posts about books to read and, if you liked ‘Theo of Golden’ here are ten more books you should read next.

I was discussing a shopping list with my wife, and how I needed to get some new socks. Suddenly, the feed is full of suggestions about thermal socks, about Alpaca wool, about every conceivable kind of socks that can be bought online at unbelievable prices.

We were talking about the drop in temperatures over dinner one evening and, suddenly, I get all these ads about electric blankets and thermal hoodies, that can be charged and put upon your person at various levels of heat to ensure that you feel warm throughout the day if you are working from home.

There’s a sense in which the phone in your pocket is, somehow, listening in on your conversations and generating all sorts of activity on your social media to persuade you to buy things, or invest in something you had never considered before. You think to yourself, how bizarre that I was talking about this thing a few days ago, and now every day your phone is ending you advertisements, reels and videos about ways in which this thing is the answer to all your problems.

It makes the Orwellian prophecies from 1984 about how “Big Brother is watching you” seem very real. We can feel a little bit spooked about how these conversations, and the content of previous posts, can be picked up upon, manipulated and dropped in various forms into your feed.

I was talking with a friend recently about how disconcerting I find these things. He knows much more than I do about them and spoke about the algorithm. Social media has clever ways of knowing what your interests are, and dropping stuff in there so you might be tempted to buy things you don’t need, or be influenced by people who post content online to scratch an itch you never knew you had.

How can the church use these things to promote the values and love and teachings of Jesus to a world that is hungry for spiritual things?

Perhaps there are ways we can be smarter or more intentional in the ways that we post content. Do Blogs engage people’s attention any more? What about podcasts? My own in-house expert on these things, my fifteen year old son, tells me I should post and record podcasts on a YouTube channel rather than as an audio file. Given that it has taken a number of years to manage to record podcasts and post them at all, it sounds like I need to go back to the drawing board.

I suspect I’ll be getting advertisements on my feed soon about courses teaching these things to technophobes, and how it will send our church onto the next level of communicating effectively!!

This coming Saturday, the church will be decorated for Harvest Thanksgiving at 10am and any contributions of flowers, fruit and greenery are welcomed, alongside help with the decorating process. On Sunday at 11am, we look forward to welcoming Reverend Philip McKinley from the Diocese of Meath and Kildare to preach at our morning Harvest, and our neighbour and friend, Reverend Lucy Burden, from Mount Merrion at the evening Harvest service at 7pm. That service will be followed by a Harvest supper in the hall.

We would love to see you there and hope you can join us.

Much love to everyone,

Jono.

Listen to the latest episode of ‘Bitesize Chunks of Faith’