Users changing their behavior can only go so far; we can’t trust that the mechanisms will ever prioritize our well-being over sparking more engagement that drives advertising revenue. Users can exert only certain kinds of agency within digital platforms. They can pursue a specific theme of content, for example, but can’t alter the equation of the recommendation algorithm. We don’t have enough alternative options to navigate the Internet outside of algorithmic feeds, in part because the Internet is now so dominated by just a few companies.
