Oxbridge Journal
IJIR UK
OXBRIDGE PUBLISHING
Research Article Multidisciplinary Studies Received: Accepted: Published: 251 Views

Algorithmic Culture and the New Human:
An Anthropological Study of Digital Civilization

DOI: 10.66695/ijir.v1i3.004 Zenodo Archive.org CC BY 4.0
OO

Okan Oktay

ORCID

Academic Author — Anthropology

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The rapid expansion of digital technologies has transformed not only communication practices but also the cultural conditions through which human beings perceive reality, construct identity, establish social relations, and participate in collective life. This article examines the emergence of algorithmic culture as a defining feature of contemporary digital civilization. Moving beyond a purely technical understanding of algorithms, the study argues that algorithmic systems have become cultural agents that organize visibility, relevance, preference, memory, social recognition, and symbolic value. Drawing on digital anthropology, media theory, cultural sociology, and critical algorithm studies, the article analyzes how recommendation systems, artificial intelligence, social media platforms, search engines, predictive analytics, and data-driven infrastructures increasingly shape everyday experience.
The central argument of the article is that algorithms no longer function merely as computational tools operating behind digital interfaces. They now participate in the production of culture by influencing what individuals see, desire, believe, consume, remember, and value. This transformation produces what the article conceptualizes as the algorithmic human: a subject whose identity, habits, emotions, choices, and social relations are continuously negotiated through interaction with intelligent digital systems. The algorithmic human is not detached from traditional culture; rather, traditional cultural belonging is increasingly experienced through computational mediation.
The article further argues that digital civilization requires anthropology to expand its analytical field. Culture can no longer be studied only through physical communities, kinship systems, rituals, institutions, and symbolic exchanges. It must also be examined through platforms, codes, interfaces, databases, and algorithmic architectures. The study concludes that algorithms should be understood as emerging cultural institutions capable of shaping social norms, symbolic meanings, collective behavior, and future forms of human existence.

Keywords: algorithmic culture digital anthropology artificial intelligence digital civilization algorithmic human cultural transformation digital society identity

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