Feel of Algorithms

"This book explores the cultural shift in society that promotes and relies on affectively charged technology relations. Bringing together relatable first-person accounts of what it means to experience algorithms emotionally alongside research developed across anthropology, sociology, media and communication studies, and science and technology studies, The Feel of Algorithms reveals how political-economic processes are felt in the everyday, as we learn about the digital geography of fear and the current lack of collective resources to build algorithmic systems. Minna Ruckenstein builds on the notion that everyday practices are not merely subject to algorithmic logic; rather, people actively respond to and live with data and algorithms, ranging from actualtechnical operations to their imagined effects. The pleasures, fears, and frustrations come together to produce a blueprint of how such systems should be combined with human aims and efforts. The narrated emotional reactions are not simply individual responses; they tell a more generalizable story of structures of feeling and related attempts to live well with algorithmic systems. The Feel of Algorithms demonstrates that human capacities and aims need active fostering in the algorithmic era. The structures of feeling aid in recognizing troubling practices, but they also call for alternatives that are currently ignored and suppressed"--
Why do we feel excited, afraid, and frustrated by algorithms?The Feel of Algorithms brings relatable first-person accounts of what it means to experience algorithms emotionally alongside interdisciplinary social science research, to reveal how political and economic processes are felt in the everyday. People’s algorithm stories might fail to separate fact and misconception, and circulate wishful, erroneous, or fearful views of digital technologies. Yet rather than treating algorithmic folklore as evidence of ignorance, this novel book explains why personal anecdotes are an important source of algorithmic knowledge. Minna Ruckenstein argues that we get to know algorithms by feeling their actions and telling stories about them. The Feel of Algorithms shows how taking everyday algorithmic emotions seriously balances the current discussion, which has a tendency to draw conclusions based on celebratory or oppositional responses to imagined future effects. An everyday focus zooms into experiences of pleasure, fear, and irritation, highlighting how political aims and ethical tensions play out in visions, practices, and emotional responses. This book shows that feelings aid in recognizing troubling practices, and also calls for alternatives that are currently ignored or suppressed.