The news that young people consume is increasingly subject to algorithmic curation. Yet, while numerous studies explore how algorithms exert power in citizens’ everyday life, little is known about how young people themselves perceive, learn about, and deal with news personalization. Considering the interactions between algorithms and users from an user-centric perspective, this article explores how young people make sense of, feel about, and engage with algorithmic news curation on social media and when such everyday experiences contribute to their algorithmic literacy. Employing in-depth interviews in combination with the walk-through method and think-aloud protocols with a diverse group of 22 young people aged 16–26 years, it addresses three current methodological challenges to studying algorithmic literacy: first, the lack of an established baseline about how algorithms operate; second, the opacity of algorithms within everyday media use; and third, limitations in technological vocabularies that hinder young people in articulating their algorithmic encounters. It finds that users’ sense-making strategies of algorithms are context-specific, triggered by expectancy violations and explicit personalization cues. However, young people’s intuitive and experience-based insights into news personalization do not automatically enable young people to verbalize these, nor does having knowledge about algorithms necessarily stimulate users to intervene in algorithmic decisions.

年轻人消费的新闻越来越受到算法的约束。但是，尽管许多研究探索了算法如何在公民的日常生活中发挥作用，但对于年轻人自己如何感知，学习和处理新闻个性化的知识却鲜为人知。从以用户为中心的角度考虑算法与用户之间的交互，本文探讨了年轻人如何理解，感受和参与社交媒体上的算法新闻策划，以及这种日常经历何时有助于他们的算法素养。通过对22位年龄在16-26岁之间的年轻人进行分类，结合演练方法和思考协议与深入访谈相结合，它解决了目前研究算法素养的三个方法论挑战：第一，缺乏关于算法如何运行的既定基线；第二，日常媒体使用中算法的不透明性；第三，技术词汇的局限性阻碍了年轻人表达他们的算法遭遇。它发现用户的算法决策策略是特定于上下文的，这是由预期违规和明确的个性化提示触发的。但是，年轻人对新闻个性化的直观了解和基于经验的见解并不能自动使年轻人口头表达，也不了解算法必定会刺激用户干预算法决策。技术词汇的局限性阻碍了年轻人表达他们的算法遭遇。它发现用户的算法决策策略是特定于上下文的，这是由预期违规和明确的个性化提示触发的。但是，年轻人对新闻个性化的直观了解和基于经验的见解并不能自动使年轻人口头表达，也不了解算法必定会刺激用户干预算法决策。技术词汇的局限性阻碍了年轻人表达他们的算法遭遇。它发现用户的算法决策策略是特定于上下文的，这是由预期违规和明确的个性化提示触发的。但是，年轻人对新闻个性化的直观了解和基于经验的见解并不能自动使年轻人口头表达，也不了解算法必定会刺激用户干预算法决策。