Digital Metamorphoses: How Might Personalised Targeting Algorithms Influence Social Identity and Affect Autonomy?
Abstract
In a time when technology enjoys an everyday presence in our
lives, understanding the implications of the digital world is
crucially important. This is especially so with personalised
targeting algorithms (PTAs), which are increasingly present in
facilitating our digital activity. In this thesis, I consider how
the overt recommendations of PTAs might influence social identity
and affect personal autonomy. In doing so, I consider how PTAs
reflect the traditionally-understood mechanisms for forming and
maintaining social labels and, consequently, social identity.
This leads me to characterise overt PTA-generated recommendations
as a type of social label. I draw on this characterisation when
subsequently considering how PTAs interact with personal
autonomy, and how they might promote or
hinder it. Ultimately, I conclude that PTAs can both undermine
and enhance autonomy. In particular, PTAs can undermine autonomy
by eroding our self-trust and effecting a transfer of authorship
to the recommendations made by PTAs. However, PTAs can enhance
autonomy by providing us with greater personal insight and
prompting our processes of critical self-reflection. These
questions are highly significant for understanding how we can
maintain personal autonomy while coming into constant contact
with PTAs.