Posted by The circuit of culture is a tool to evaluate if something is an object of culture. Circuit of culture talks about five huge components that include representation, identity, production, consumption, and regulation. How objects are identified and represented is what the circuit of culture talks about including the production, consumption, the value of distribution and the regulation. All of these elements make it easier to understand how culture affects society in many ways. Regulation includes laws that are upheld by authorities. It also deals with what actions a company can take to ensure who uses their product, who can access their product, what products are being used, and the distribution of said products. Without regulation, there would be little to no organization on both a producer and consumer level.
An example of regulation could be a search engine on the internet. Search engines regulate suggested ideas of a term someone is searching up. Because search engines come up with word renderings (the suggested list of words that fill in after the search term), they have to have certain techniques that help them to do so. Depending on which search engine it is, there are different techniques used. Some search engines may use a user’s previous searches, their location, or preferences. For example, “Algorithms of Oppression” states, “I have tried to show how traditional media misrepresentations have been instantiated in digital platforms such as search engines and that search itself has been interwoven into the fabric of American culture”. This is just an example of how location can heavily influence how search engines come up with results. Because America is a place of injustice according to the excerpt, the searches on search engines may be adjusted to that. Because of the different modifiers search engines use, there are many ways regulation can take place. I will be utilizing three different search engines to search up the topic of hockey. More specifically, my search term for this assignment is “why is hockey”. I chose this topic because hockey is an important and relevant topic in my life, as I am a huge fan and a former player. When I searched up “why is hockey” I got many different searches, based on the different search engines.
The three search engines I utilized to explore what words pop up in the search bar after I search “why is hockey…” consisted of Google, Microsoft Bing, and Yahoo. Throughout my time exploring the search engines, it is no secret that Google had yielded better searches fit for me compared to both Yahoo and Microsoft Bing because of my daily use of the app. Google knows my algorithm and knows what I like. The other two search engines were very generic and consistent with a general knowledge of the sport versus my piqued searches. On Google, the top search for “why is hockey” was “why is hockey so violent”. This is a popular search topic because of the fact that hockey is one of the most physical sports. In hockey you are allowed hitting, fighting, chirping, etc. Because of this, It doesn’t confuse me why this is such a popular topic. Another very popular search that appeared on not only Google but all three search engines was “why is hockey called hockey”. This is a common search because the reasoning for the name isn’t obvious like Football, Baseball, Basketball. etc. The term “hockey” came from the french word “hoquet”. Although I myself know the game and was gifted enough to have the opportunity to play, I didn’t know the answer to that question.
In conclusion, different search engines can act as forms of regulation. Each search engine used gave an array of searches, with some being very similar and some being different. The popup searches differentiate based on each search engine’s algorithm technique of coming up with searches fit to the user.