No Longer Preaching to the Algorithmic Choir
Stop scrolling. Do you have a moment to talk about my Lord and Savior?
“It’s weird. My reels have become religious all of sudden,” a friend recently told me, “I swear I don’t even follow people like that or interact with it. I just get so many girls posting videos about Jesus.” My first instinct was perhaps that connecting to my home wifi contaminated her phone with my obsessive interests. As someone researching the intersection of technology and spirituality, all of my feeds are full of a wide range of mediated rituals, channeled messages from extraterrestrials, and pop songs rewritten with Christian lyrics. However, she insisted that this was before coming over to my place and we pondered different explanations. Are the home decor accounts she follows connected to a lot of Christian accounts? Was it because she just had a wedding and overlapping with wifey content?
Curious, I spent a bit more time on Instagram Reels and realized she certainly wasn’t alone. Each time I pulled up the comments of a spiritual post on my feed, I saw a barrage of comments to the tune of “Can’t believe I pulled this reel, I’m shaking,” “Once again the algorithm did me dirty,” “Instagram is wild, I went from workout clips to memes to this madness. Time to burn the world y’all,” and “How do I block Christian instagram.”
As I kept scrolling, I saw a familiar face from my research on New Age TikTok: @laura.renaud (sort of like the research version of a cross-over episode guest star moment). She has 31k followers on Instagram and 219k on TikTok. The video states, “Cool so I really did incarnate into a physical realm where its inhabitants are conditioned energy slaves and have no idea that evil, low-vibrational extraterrestrials have controlled every aspect of this reality so they never experience how powerful they are and wonder why they’re so miserable being alive.” On Instagram Reels, the comment section makes it clear that this video was catapulted beyond the intended audience. “There ain’t no way I got sentenced to gnostigram 💀💀💀,” states one comment. Another plays with satire saying, “I totally feel you, mama! My schizophrenia meds were very low vibration & now I replaced them with essential oils & i see it ALL.” In contrast, when I went to find the same video on TikTok, it had reached loyal followers in the same headspace. “What a time to be alive and AWAKE 🥰,” a surprisingly happy commenter declares. Delighted to have found a like-minded thinker on her FYP, another commenter asks, “Can we please be friends? I need more people like you in my life 🙏”
For as long as social media has been around, context collapse has been frequent. Across platforms, many users have found their earnest posts taken out of context and circulated as the subject of mockery or rage. But this seems to be happening at a different scale and regularity on Reels, as if it is a feature of this current iteration of Instagram’s algorithm. It is also worth noting that about a month ago, Instagram announced that it was overhauling its recommendation algorithm to prioritize original content. And, well, this content is indeed very original.
Over the past year, I have conducted research on both evangelical Christian and manifestation content on TikTok. In particular, I have paid attention to how spiritual users construe the algorithm as something that can be guided by metaphysical powers and deliver content to a divinely appointed audience. In a forthcoming article on #ChristianTikTok, my coauthor Dr. Corinna Laughlin and I term this phenomenon the “spiritual algorithmic imaginary” (more on this in upcoming newsletters). TikTok’s algorithm is often so good at delivering videos to a specific niche that Christian creators can confidently declare things like, “Stop scrolling. I prayed that this video would reach the right person, so this is a message from God to you.” Of course, even with its famously precise algorithm, videos still occasionally end up on the “wrong side of TikTok.” Interestingly, we found that many evangelicals attempted to wrestle back meaning by framing this as an opportunity to spread their message to nonbelievers, even if they were being mocked.
Instagram Reels is still desperately chasing whatever magic TikTok has in its recommendation algorithm, and it is still falling behind. The issue at hand with a spotty recommendation algorithm is not simply user retention or boredom, but also users finding themselves amidst a suddenly hostile audience. The comment sections of both TikTok and Instagram provide an interesting case study that put the algorithmic differences into sharp focus. For instance on TikTok, it has become a frequent retort to comment “post this on reels” on videos that may be cringey or embarrassing. There are a few layers implicit in this comment: 1) reels is a place where you will be bullied in the comments and 2) your video will likely transcend your chosen audience and be fed to those sharks.
Particularly for users who demonstrate their spiritual beliefs in a more extreme manner (i.e. claiming people are “energy slaves” or posting videos of people crying during worship), there seems to be a stronger likelihood that your video may take an algorithmic detour on Instagram. You may have built up a following who is keen to hear your theological insights or conspiratorial dissection of current events and then wake up to a barrage of notifications lobbying insults or sparking debates.
What does heightened algorithmic unpredictability mean for the spiritual landscape of a given platform? Surely, the looming threat (or opportunity?) of having your video delivered to an audience of nonbelievers must impact how and what creators post. This is particularly salient for spiritual or religious creators who may be discussing matters they consider sacred. For instance, several openly queer Christians had their pro-LGBTQ+ content circulated to outraged conservative Christians. Some creators may err on the side of caution, attempting to examine all the ways their posts may be viewed by those within and outside of their faith community. Some may boldly court controversy knowing that outrage could increase the visibility of their spiritual ideology or boost their personal brand.
In a different world, perhaps this algorithmic unpredictability could help address long-held concerns about filter bubbles and echo chambers. However, the game of leaving the funniest snarky quip seems to dominate comment sections more than any productive dialogue. Either way, it is clear that the algorithm is becoming a directly conjured and active part of spiritual performance on social media. For several of the Christian accounts that I witnessed get torn apart in comment sections, I went to their profiles and found subsequent videos repeating some iteration of “just a girl training her algorithm to reach Christians.”
The algorithm insulates like-minded groups and can amplify the impression of mass agreement. And yet, this bond is tenuous and fragile in many ways and can immediately be disrupted by the very same algorithm that created it. This creates extreme experiences of either comforting constant agreement or sudden disruptive hostility. For each video posted, two potential realities seem to await spiritual creators: preaching to the choir or bracing for unbelievers.