"Whoever needs to see it, will see it": Motivations and Labor of Creating Algorithmic Conspirituality Content on TikTok

2025-06-20

AI Summary

This study examines how TikTok creators spiritualize algorithmic uncertainty, giving rise to “algorithmic conspirituality”—a belief that recommendation algorithms are sentient, intentional, and morally agentic “matching subjects.” Drawing on in-depth interviews with 14 creators and integrating algorithmic literacy theory with media spirituality frameworks, the research identifies how this belief shapes content production around themes of spirituality, fate, and relationality, prompting intensive, responsibility-laden emotional labor. Such content fosters audiences’ spiritual belonging while simultaneously intensifying creators’ anxiety and moral burden. The paper introduces and operationalizes the novel concept of “algorithmic conspirituality,” demonstrating how platform algorithms are imbued with religiously inflected meaning. This reframing reshapes digital creative practices, reconfigures emotional labor, and transforms logics of community formation—revealing the theological undercurrents embedded in algorithmic culture and platform governance.

Technology Category

• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: AI & Jobs/Labor
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Computational Creativity
• Search and Optimization: Algorithm Configuration

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Algorithmic accountability and transparency on the web
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Web data quality in the era of algorithmically-generated content

Abstract

Recent studies show that users often interpret social media algorithms as mystical or spiritual because of their unpredictability. This invites new questions about how such perceptions affect the content that creators create and the communities they form online. In this study, 14 creators of algorithmic conspirituality content on TikTok were interviewed to explore their interpretations and creation processes influenced by the platform's For You Page algorithm. We illustrate how creators'beliefs interact with TikTok's algorithmic mediation to reinforce and shape their spiritual or relational themes. Furthermore, we show how algorithmic conspirituality content impacts viewers, highlighting its role in generating significant emotional and affective labor for creators, stemming from complex relational dynamics inherent in this content creation. We discuss implications for design to support creators aimed at recognizing the unexpected spiritual and religious experiences algorithms prompt, as well as supporting creators in effectively managing these challenges.

Problem

• Explores how creators interpret TikTok algorithms as mystical influences
• Examines algorithmic conspirituality's impact on content and community formation
• Investigates emotional labor from creator-viewer relational dynamics

Innovation

• Interviewing creators on algorithmic conspirituality content
• Exploring TikTok's For You Page algorithm influence
• Analyzing emotional labor in algorithmic content creation