Douyin Forgot Me: How Anthropomorphic Algorithmic Imaginary Intensify Precarity Among Older Content Creators

This article examines how older content creators on China’s Douyin platform develop and act upon their understandings of algorithmic systems, revealing a paradox where sophisticated platform knowledge intensifies rather than alleviates vulnerability. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 23 creators and 1-month ethnographic observation, we demonstrate how participants construct anthropomorphic “algorithmic imaginaries” that frame platform algorithms as emotionally responsive entities-lonely friends requiring constant attention and care. These imaginaries transform platform optimization from strategic practice into moral obligation, generating intensive labour practices that reorganize daily life around maintaining algorithmic “relationships.” Our findings reveal how age-specific vulnerabilities (social isolation, limited platform mobility, temporal urgency) intersect with emotional interpretation to create particularly exploitative conditions where older creators voluntarily adopt exhausting practices they experience as care work. The study challenges assumptions about algorithmic literacy as empowerment, showing how knowledge filtered through anthropomorphic frameworks becomes a mechanism for self-exploitation rather than resistance.