First Year CS Students Exploring Implications of Social Media Recommendation Algorithms

In addition to technical topics, computing students must be taught skills to reflect on the social meaning of digital technology and related harms and risks. In the context of an intermediate course in computer science, data of students' reflections on social media recommendation algorithms were collected. The study participants reflected on perceived design goals, motifs for profiling, mechanisms of recommendation, and perceptions of benefits or harms caused. Qualitative analysis shows (1) partial alignment between students' perceptions and recent research, (2) indepth insight about thinking related to engagement, interest, addiction, control, truth, (3) rich but partly contradictory perceptions of benefits versus harms caused, and (4) a rich repertoire of design ideas for future improvement.