​​​​Have you felt that TikTok sometimes knows you better than yourself? By simply liking a video, TikTok can easily predict your preferences and categorize you into a specific “side” where you can find like-minded people and ideas. TikTok gives you a community, a utopia that is unreachable in real life, making it highly addictive.

​​​​TikTok, and many other social media platforms, accomplish this through big data algorithms. These algorithms track your location, contacts, and record what you are interested in. Analyzing these information, big data can predict your actions and can easily influence you to spend more time on the platform. Have you ever noticed that the longer you are on TikTok, the more likely similar contents will increase? Eventually, you become more and more drawnto the videos.

​​​​What you may not realize is that big data algorithms are also slowly taking away our democracy. The more we are forced to observe homogenous content by entertainment apps in hopes of profiting from maximizing user time, the narrowerour mind and view of the world gets. As users, we become passive receivers of information and slowly lose the ability to discover interests on our own. We become manipulated by big data algorithms, unable to see the other side of a story or have the freedom to interact with people who think differently from us. Consequently, we become more subjective and judgmental towards others unconsciously. We become easily overreactivewhen a different idea does get introduced. This phenomenon can be seen widely in US politics, where people are increasingly divided into far left or right, with moderates quickly vanishing. Political campaigns now have detailed information on every voter, giving them the ability to micro-target and customize messages for different voters. So focused on what we see, know, and think as individuals, we forget that we often don’t observe the full picture of an event. Under such extremes, America is dividing into two. Our actions and votes no longer are products of democracy; they are the loss of individual thoughts due to media supported by big data technologies. As mathematician and data scientist Cathy O’Neil revealed, algorithmic models are the “toxic cocktail for democracy.”

​​​​We must recognize the harm of this big data manipulation that is dividing us into radical artificial communities and preventing us from achieving tolerance, unity, and connection with the real world. Algorithms are becoming the new dictatorial power; colluding with small numbers of elites, they are turning into tools that enslave the majority. It is time for us to “fight back.” Rather than scrolling down suggested content, use the search bar next time and explore new topics and ideas. Don’t let big data successfully narrow you!