ABSTRACT

This article conceptualizes algorithmic consumer culture, and offers a framework that sheds new light on two previously conflicting theorizations: that (1) digitalization tends to liquefy consumer culture and thus acts primarily as an empowering force, and that (2) digitalized marketing and big data surveillance practices tend to deprive consumers of all autonomy. By drawing on critical social theories of algorithms and AI, we define and historicize the now ubiquitous algorithmic mediation of consumption, and then illustrate how the opacity, authority, non-neutrality, and recursivity of automated systems affect consumer culture at the individual, collective, and market level. We propose conceptualizing “algorithmic articulation” as a dialectical techno-social process that allows us to enhance our understanding of platform-based marketer control and consumer resistance. Key implications and future avenues for exploring algorithmic consumer culture are discussed.

摘要

本文对算法消费文化进行了概念化，并提供了一个框架，阐明了两个先前相互冲突的理论：（1）数字化倾向于液化消费文化，因此主要作为一种赋权力量，以及（2）数字化营销和大数据监视做法往往会剥夺消费者的所有自主权。通过借鉴算法和人工智能的批判性社会理论，我们定义和历史化现在无处不在的消费算法中介，然后说明自动化系统的不透明性、权威性、非中立性和递归性如何影响个人、集体、和市场水平。我们建议将“算法表达”概念化为一种辩证的技术社会过程，使我们能够增强对基于平台的营销人员控制和消费者抵制的理解。讨论了探索算法消费文化的关键意义和未来途径。