Living with Algorithms: Agency and User Culture in Costa Rica by Ignacio Siles (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by:

• Living with Algorithms: Agency and User Culture in Costa Rica by Ignacio Siles
• Mónica Humeres (bio)

Living with Algorithms: Agency and User Culture in Costa Rica By Ignacio Siles. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2023. Pp. 234.

What does it mean for people in a Latin American country to live in a datafied society? Bearing this question in mind, Ignacio Siles devoted five years to empirically study how people make sense of algorithms in Costa Rica, focusing on the use of three platforms: Netflix, Spotify, and TikTok. In this book, situated at the intersection of classic communication studies, human-machine communication studies, and the history of digital cultures, Siles demonstrates how individuals interact within a logic of "mutual domestication." Considering that algorithms are designed to gather information and platforms have the specific purpose of keeping users engaged, his research strives to show how users, far from being passive victims, also use these technologies for their own purposes.

While the theoretical arguments against technological determinism that inspire this study (ch. 1) may not surprise historians of technology, the subsequent subjects at hand developed in the following chapters, will indeed be of inspiration as the empirical discussion illustrates how users can transform algorithmic agency, changing the direction and form in which technology operates, while it also intervenes in their cultural practices. The five dynamics of domestication, which give titles to chapters two through six, are conceptualized as personalization, integration, rituals, conversion, and resistance. They shed light on the specific ways in which individuals comprehend and interact with the algorithms of these platforms.

Although the study is firmly rooted in Costa Rica's reality, it has relevance beyond this particular national context. While an increasing number of scholars recognize that the role of technology in social change cannot be assessed independently of its context of interpretation and use, most research continues to prioritize the history of algorithmic development. Thus, Siles's book can be seen as a complement to works like J. L. Chabert and E. Barbin's A History of Algorithms (1999) or E. Finn's What Algorithms Want (2017), contributing to the understanding of the complex relationships between algorithmic production, circulation, and consumption.

Notably, Siles makes us consider that the appropriation of algorithms is built on the depths of the desire for connection, closeness, and two-sided communication. A wide range of illustrated cases leads us to think that users feel that the close relationship of mutual recognition between content creators and audiences, historically disrupted by mass media technology, is now being reassembled by these new algorithmic mediations. As J. Edwards-Bello graphically wrote in La chica del Crillón (1935): "If you had seen the Municipal Theater in those days. The audience had importance back then, and we could see the actresses in the street. We knew them, and they knew us [End Page 683] too. Now, on the other hand! The cinema!". With that same fervent desire for closeness and reciprocity, this book presents stories of user satisfaction when they feel that their everyday algorithm knows them well and acts accordingly.

Interestingly, this book reveals that users report that the feeling of being recognized by the algorithm, far from being a programmed quality of technology, is achieved through active shaping. In this regard, the book offers myriad fascinating cases in which users take care of their algorithms. There are, for instance, testimonials about how by sharing content from TikTok, users report training their algorithm to return a broader repertoire; or how for users, clicking on content recommended by Netflix is a message of gratitude to their machine; or how even Spotify is a technology for managing individual and collective moods. Hence, the fact that individuals act through algorithms means that they are themselves part of algorithmic mediation. This, however, should not be confused with an uncritical acceptance by users, since the rejection of some rules, the strategies to deal with them, and the awareness of the power that algorithms exert give life to a whole chapter (ch. 6).

One question that arises is whether the temporal dimension of the fieldwork, begun before and concluded during the COVID-19 confinement, could have been considered both in the analysis...