Sacrifices to the Gods of the Algorithm

Once upon a time, the Mexica (less accurately, but better known as Aztecs) performed human sacrifices to their gods. Extracting someone’s heart from their chest with an obsidian knife was considered one of the proper ways to show religious devotion. After all, the gods fed on blood. So, if you wanted to keep receiving the gods’ blessings in the form of rain, a good harvest, and things of that sort, human sacrifice was just what the doctor ordered.

Unless you hang out with some seriously odd folks, today most people agree that ripping hearts from people’s chests is a rather impolite thing to do; a disturbing superstition from a dark, bygone era. In light of the mainstream consensus, it’d be easy to assume human sacrifices to bloodthirsty gods are a thing of the past.

Not so fast.

It is true that no one drags captives to the sacrificial stone on top of a pyramid anymore, but maybe deities have just changed address. Maybe, they still gorge on human suffering. Maybe, gory sacrifices are still performed on a daily basis. You don’t believe me? Let me introduce you to social media algorithms.

It is more or less an established fact that algorithms on just about any social media platform you can think of have figured out that when people are angry, they are more likely to engage with the content. Since engagement is the One True God that all forms of social media worship, it goes without saying that algorithms follow one cardinal rule: put in front of people whatever gets them as angry as possible, whatever bring their outrage to a boiling point, whatever stimulates their hatred, their fury, their desire to lash out.

If anyone pours their heart and soul into creating high quality content, they’ll typically see a few responses. But if they write some dumb crap fanning the flames of the political divide, they’ll immediately reap ten times the engagement. Part of the reason is because the gods of the algorithms don’t even bother showing to most users what they don’t think the people will engage with. To confirm this, a whole bunch of individuals reached out to me telling me they only see anything I write on the rare occasions when I post anything remotely controversial. And I’m clearly not a unique case in this. The same is true for everybody. But also, most consumers of social media, like moths to a flame, only get their typing fingers engaged when they are angry, thereby feeding into the algorithm’s prejudices.

How does this relate to human sacrifice? The gods of the algorithms demand regular sacrifice in the form of human suffering. Specifically, they demand that you offer rage, hatred and anger to the machine. Bring out the very worst of you, and type it on the page. Only then will the gods of the algorithms be satisfied. Rage is literally the algorithm gods’ favorite food. Ripping people’s hearts worked for a while, but cleaning up all the gore was messy business. Rage, on the other hand… delicious and spotless. No blood and guts to deal with in the aftermath. So, if you think the old time Mexica were weird for gathering at the feet of pyramids to see people ripped to pieces to honor the gods, think of how weird we must appear when on a daily basis we login to pour our darkest emotions in the unholy cauldron feeding the deities of the algorithm.

This doesn’t apply just to social media audiences but also to its high priests, the content creators striving for success. What they offer as sacrifices is their willingness to sell themselves, to sell a certain image in order to receive the algorithm’s blessings. Over time, I have met many successful creators. In light of this experience, I can safely say that I don’t think it’s a strict requirement to be a self-obsessed narcissist, but it certainly helps. While there definitely are some notable exceptions, the majority of people who ‘make it’ are hungry ghosts desperately in need of attention. And because of it, they are willing to go to any extreme in order to get it.

Call me crazy, but I find the prize not worth the price. Don’t get me wrong. I flex in front of the mirror as much as the next guy, but I thrive on the very thing that the algorithm finds intolerable—radical honesty. This is less because of ethical reasons or high-minded principles, and more because—selfishly—I don’t enjoy how selling a fake image makes me feel. In social media, much like in dating, you can reap rewards for being fake as hell, but the rewards of that game are not worth it to me. Having sex with a ton of hot women or making bank thanks to social media stardom is not quite so valuable if I have to practice some serious self-delusion to avoid throwing up when I look in the mirror.

Having said that… perhaps, I should repent. My bank account could use a boost. Maybe, it’s time to write some political hot take. The algorithm gods are clamoring to be fed their daily dose of rage. Let’s not make them wait.