Algowhoring; A Primer

Clickbait, Broetry, Doom Scrolling, and More

Welcome to Polymathic Being, a place to explore counterintuitive insights across multiple domains. These essays explore common topics from different perspectives and disciplines to uncover unique insights and solutions.

Today's topic questions what trends online and why we reward that behavior. Buckle in as we dive into the world of algowhoring and find out how it perverts a very normal and healthy human behavior. You’ll walk away with a better understanding of the social media landscape and new tools you can use to make it better.

Intro

I love the word Algowhoring. It’s a simple portmanteau of Algorithm + Whoring and quite accurately describes elements of the current Enshittification of our online spaces while also being undeniably blunt. I define it as:¹

Algowhoring (verb): The practice of creating content designed to exploit social communication and algorithms for increased visibility and engagement by mimicking popular content styles. This approach can lead to "channel corruption," where the integrity and authenticity of normal communication channels are compromised by prioritizing algorithmic manipulation over genuine content.

The social media arm of Substack called Notes started as something like an author's back end, an old-school teacher lounge where we could smoke, drink, and complain while helping each other write better and grow our audiences… At least until the algowhores from LinkedIn, Instagram, and X came wandering in.

This post, by olivia rafferty, captured our horror by highlighting a plethora of identical copy/paste posts that had been flooding the feeds in early November. The images are textbook algowhoring posts saying the same thing: “I'm seeing a lot of 'I'm new to Substack, how does this work?' and then proceeds to get 300 likes and 100 comments and 50 subscribers. That's not my experience at all." This may seem innocuous but there were dozens of identical post, all saying the same thing, all trying to get attention.

Algowhoring is not confined to the generic copy and paste, either. It’s this guy with his broetry² trying to sell the Andrew Tate experience, or the “Subscribe to me, I’ll subscribe to you” terrible tactic, or this fellow (below) with his LinkedIn gimmicks who admits he gets called out regularly for his behaviors but doubles down anyway:

It’s so common that parodies and memes are created and shared such as The Ignorant Ninja’s post below or, Abruptly Biff making fun in “Introducing Me.”

The worst part about algowhoring is that It Works! By and large, the posts that trend on social media are rarely unique, funny, or, heaven forbid, profound. The stuff that saturates my feeds devolves into the most absurd, scammy, clickbait, and desperate posts you can imagine, yet they have thousands of likes, shares, and comments. When I use the term whoring, it is because these engagements run off the same playbook as Camgirl and OnlyFans sites, using simple content to trigger base instincts that lead us to keep doomscrolling in a desperate attempt to get the next dopamine hit.

Clickbait Priming

James Horton, PhD. and I have discussed this at length, and he pointed out that the tactic, "Hi, my name is ___, I'm interested in ___," is a really natural and effective form of communication and one that's existed since before the internet started. It's common because it works and is an extension of how we behave in real life, especially when we're young.

Because it works, it was also a natural target for bots and algowhores. They thrive on A/B testing their way to maximum engagement across different algorithms, and that particular behavior just happens to be one of the easiest and most successful ways of connecting with people. More to the point, it's also an incredibly successful way for a woman to approach a man, as it removes a lot of the social barriers to interaction.

James points out that because of that success and the takeover by bots and influencers just begging for attention, the tactic saturated the target audience, mostly men like me. Simply put, it's so often used disingenuously in a sales context and so rarely by a real person that we view it with contempt. James calls this ‘channel corruption,’ where normal healthy dialog is perverted. Channel corruption drives the recipient to stop treating the communicator as human because, frankly, they do act like bots.

He’s spot on. It’s the enshittification of a common social behavior that’s used by algowhores to drive engagement because it’s a successful social behavior. In fact, scam artists and used-car salesmen have used gregariousness to their advantage for years. We also see it in the perversion of the Elevator Pitch, and in the Gig economy trying to sell 10X growth hacks.³ The over-the-top nature is already viewed as slimy and sleazy face-to-face. It gets worse online because the overwhelming volume and copycat mentality are omnipresent, quickly corrupting normal social channels.

Another challenge with all this is when you get caught in the crossfire, as Vicky Randle (V. J. Randle) found herself in late 2024. Long story short, I was fed up with the algowhoring and grabbed two examples, including one of hers, that seemed like catfishing and e-begging, and posted about them without enough due diligence.

This situation is a cautionary tale on both ends. I was reacting in frustration to what I perceived as algowhoring and jumped to the wrong conclusion. James and I met when he rightly called me out for my behavior and shared his insights. Vicky also took offense to my post and comments and penned a defense in the essay “Oh, please, woman, stop being so cringe” where she makes a good point about my wrong assumptions. Yet, I feel that she misses that her intent is much different from how others see it, especially when she uses a common tactic straight from the bot farms.

Just take a look at the example below. ‘Sophia’ was making nearly identical posts and is using a catfishing photo stolen here from Instagram. Whereas Vicky is a real person, albeit admittedly ignorant of this troubling behavior, ‘Sophia's’ account was booted off of Substack for being a scam. Algowhoring may get you engagements, but are those who fall for these behaviors really the engagement you want? Do you want followers who fall for that tactic? Do you want to be mistaken for scammers?

Taking Action

We’ve spent a lot of time introducing and detailing what algowhoring looks like and how it perverts normal behavior. So, let’s shift gears and address practical steps we can take on social media to reclaim that behavior.

First, don’t feed it. Don’t hit the like button, reshare it, or comment on it. Just leave it alone. Don’t feed the algowhores. James and I would love to destroy the bots and uncorrupt those channels. So, if they are a bot, report them. Even if you know the person, leave it alone. Just don’t feed it.⁴

Second, if you enjoy and find value in a post, legitimately reward it with a like, ❤️, and/or comment. You’ll drive both improved behaviors while beginning to train your algorithm toward better content. Andrea Hoffmann’s or Halle Martin’s Notes below are a great example of how to engage:

Third, if it’s someone you actually have interest in, but they’re algowhoring, check out their profile and posts. See if they have something you can feed. Remember that A/B testing? If you feed bad tactics, you get more of it. If you feed good content, you get more of that.

Lastly, don’t engage in algowhoring yourself. It’s certainly tempting. I’ve studied the viral posts, and wondered if I should try it to get more eyeballs. I just have to remind myself that feeding the enshittification isn’t going to improve anyone's experience.

It’s all part of taking ownership of your online engagement and doing a small part to bring the true social aspects back to social media. Together we can stop tolerating the enshittification of social media driven by algowhoring.

You can find more practical social media insights here:

How to Train Your Algorithm

Avoiding Infobesity

The Enshittification of Everything

Agency vs. Addiction

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Further Reading from Authors I Appreciate

I highly recommend the following Substacks for their great content and complementary explorations of topics that Polymathic Being shares.

• Goatfury Writes by Andrew Smith: All-around great daily essays

• Never Stop Learning by Martin Prior: Insightful Life Tips and Tricks

• Cyborgs Writing by Lance Cummings: AI tips for Thinking and Writing

• Educating AI by Nick Potkalitsky: Integrating AI into education

• Mostly Harmless Ideas by Alejandro Piad Morffis: Computer Science for Everyone

1. I actually think I coined this word based on a simple Google search, and I’m the only one who pops up right now. I'll claim it until proven otherwise. 😂

2. Pro-tip, you can use the new AI LLMs to take broetry and make it rhyme. Check out what I did with JackedGuy’s algowhoring work here:

3. This is a great example because the author didn’t even generate these ideas; he just copied common tropes from AI.

4. I’d say call them out but that can backfire as my example with Vicky demonstrated. However, there are people like Daniel Puzzo, fighting the good fight. 👊🏼😃