Algorithmic Alienation: A Theoretical Examination of the Digital Self

Abstract

With the pervasive integration of digital technologies into all aspects of life, profound transformations have occurred in core psychological processes such as decision-making, identity construction, and self-perception. These transformations are multilayered and cannot be solely explained by the frequency of technology use; instead, they are closely related to how algorithms shape individuals’ digital behaviors. This paper presents a theoretical framework for algorithmic alienation, which has not yet been sufficiently defined in the literature. This study aims to explain how algorithms shape individuals’ experiences in digital environments and how this process leads to alienation regarding selfhood, freedom, and decision-making mechanisms. The concept was initially introduced in a qualitative study by Kanbay et al., and it is developed here with its theoretical foundations. Algorithmic alienation is discussed across four key dimensions: the weakening of the perception of freedom, identity ambiguity, the erosion of decision-making mechanisms, and emotional alienation. This review distinguishes algorithmic alienation from similar concepts such as digital addiction, burnout, and surveillance capitalism and analyzes its psychological, cognitive, and social effects in a multidimensional manner. In conclusion, algorithmic alienation is proposed as a unique and holistic theoretical construct that explains how individuals in the digital age become alienated from themselves, their choices, and their sense of self.

Keywords

• Algorithmic alienation
• digital self
• decision-making mechanisms

Algoritmik Yabancılaşma: Dijital Benlik Üzerine Kuramsal Bir İnceleme

Abstract

Dijital teknolojilerin yaşamın her alanına nüfuz etmesiyle birlikte, bireylerin karar verme, kimlik inşası ve benlik algısı gibi temel psikolojik süreçlerinde derin dönüşümler yaşanmaktadır. Bu dönüşümler, yalnızca teknoloji kullanım sıklığıyla açıklanamayacak kadar çok katmanlı olup, özellikle algoritmaların bireyin dijital davranışlarını yönlendirme biçimiyle yakından ilişkilidir. Bu bağlamda çalışmada, literatürde henüz yeterince tanımlanmamış olan algoritmik yabancılaşma kavramı kuramsal bir çerçeveyle ele alınmaktadır. Çalışmanın amacı, bireylerin dijital ortamdaki deneyimlerinin algoritmalar tarafından nasıl şekillendirildiğini ve bunun sonucunda benlik, özgürlük ve karar verme yapılarında nasıl bir yabancılaşma yaşandığını açıklamaktır. Kavram ilk olarak Kanbay ve arkadaşları tarafından gerçekleştirilen nitel bir çalışmada önerilmiş ve bu çalışmada kuramsal temelleriyle geliştirilmiştir. Kavram dört temel boyutta ele alınmaktadır: özgürlük algısının zayıflaması, kimlik bulanıklığı, karar verme mekanizmalarının aşınması ve duygusal yabancılaşma. Bu derlemede algoritmik yabancılaşma, dijital bağımlılık, tükenmişlik ve gözetim kapitalizmi gibi benzer kavramlardan ayrıştırılmış; psikolojik, bilişsel ve toplumsal etkileri çok boyutlu olarak analiz edilmiştir. Sonuç olarak algoritmik yabancılaşma, dijital çağda bireyin kendisine, seçimlerine ve benliğine yabancılaşmasını açıklayan özgün ve bütüncül bir kuramsal öneri olarak literatüre sunulmuştur.

Keywords

• Algoritmik yabancılaşma
• dijital benlik
• karar verme mekanizmaları

References

1. Bandura A (1997) Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York, W H Freeman.
2. Bauman Z (2007) Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge, Polity Press.
3. Bozdag E (2013) Bias in algorithmic filtering and personalization. Ethics Inf Technol, 15:209-227.
4. Bucher T (2018) If... Then: Algorithmic Power and Politics. Oxford, Oxford Univ Press.
5. Couldry N, Mejias UA (2019) The Costs of Connection: How Data is Colonizing Human Life and Appropriating It for Capitalism. Redwood City, CA, Stanford University Press.
6. Erikson EH (1968) Identity: Youth and Crisis. New York, W W Norton.
7. Eslami M, Rickman A, Vaccaro K, Aleyasen A, Vuong A, Karahalios K et al. (2015) "I always assumed that I wasn't really that close to [her]": Reasoning about invisible algorithms in news feeds. CHI '15: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 33:153-162.
8. Fromm E (1955) The Sane Society. New York, RinehartandCo.

9. Gillespie T (2014) The relevance of algorithms. In Media Technologies: Essays on Communication, Materiality, and Society (Eds Gillespie T, Boczkowski PJ, Foot KA): 167-194. Cambridge, MIT Press.
10. Kanbay Y, Akçam A, Arkan B. (2025) Algoritmalardan benliğe: Algoritmik yabancılaşma üzerine nitel bir inceleme. 16. Uluslararası Bilimsel Çalışmalar Kongresi, 29-30 Mayıs Türkiye.
11. Kuss DJ, van Rooij AJ, Shorter GW, Griffiths MD, van de Mheen D (2013). Internet addiction in adolescents: Prevalence and risk factors. Comput Human Behav, 29:1987-1996.
12. Marwick AE, Boyd D (2011) I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience. New Media Soc, 13:114-133.
13. Marx K (2023) Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844. In Social Theory Re-Wired, (Eds C Reitz):142-147. London, Routledge
14. Pariser E (2011) The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You. New York, Penguin Press.
15. Pasquale F (2015) The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.
16. Przybylski AK, Murayama K, DeHaan CR, Gladwell V (2013) Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out. Comput Human Behav, 29:1841-1848.
17. Seeman M (1959) On the meaning of alienation. Am Sociol Rev, 24:783-791.
18. Sundar SS (2020) Rise of machine agency: A framework for studying the psychology of human-AI interaction (HAII). J Comput Mediat Commun, 25:74-88.
19. Sunstein CR (2017) Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media. Princeton, NJ, Princeton Univ Press.
20. Syvertsen T (2020) Digital Detox: The Politics of Disconnecting. Bingley, UK, Emerald Publishing.
21. Turkle S (2011) Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, New York, Basic Books.
22. Zuboff S (2019) The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. New York, PublicAffairs.