Do social media algorithms erode our ability to make decisions freely? The jury is out

Have you ever watched a video or movie because YouTube or Netflix recommended it to you? Or added a friend on Facebook from the list of “people you may know”? And how does Twitter decide which tweets to show you at the top of your feed? These platforms are driven by algorithms, which rank and recommend content for us based on our data. But can we make decisions freely when we're faced with these choices?

ACEMS Associate Investigator Lewis Mitchell and his colleague, Associate Professor James Bagrow from the University of Vermont, explore this question in this story in The Conversation.