Más allá del scroll: análisis de la adaptación algorítmica al consumo de entretenimiento en Tik Tok e Instagram para el diseño de una estrategia multimedia de comunicación digital crítica

Abstract

This research analyzed the adaptive behavior of TikTok and Instagram recommendation algorithms in response to deliberate modifications in the entertainment content consumption of thirteen millennial adults in Bogotá, with the purpose of grounding a critical digital communication strategy oriented toward algorithmic literacy. The study started from the recognition that recommendation systems personalize information based on user interactions, influencing the configuration of interests, perceptions, and consumption habits within a context marked by surveillance capitalism, the attention economy, and the growing algorithmic mediation of information. The research was conducted through a mixed-methods approach with a qualitative predominance and an exploratory, applied character. As a methodological strategy, a reverse-engineering exercise was implemented through the Digital Strategic Action Laboratory (LAED), in which the thirteen participants carried out four intervention activities on their habitual digital consumption patterns. Throughout the process, conversational records, hybrid analytical logs, closing narrative interviews in podcast format, data extraction through scraping, and individual dashboards were integrated to document and analyze the evolution of the recommendations generated by the platforms. The results showed that TikTok's and Instagram's algorithms do not adapt immediately or uniformly, but rather follow a two-phase logic: first, they reinforce the user's habitual consumption; second, they adjust recommendations based on new interaction signals sustained over time. However, these adjustments do not fully replace content already encoded by the algorithm as a prior interest but tend to coexist with it. Likewise, differences were identified between both platforms in response speed, prioritized content categories, predominant narratives, and the circulation of personalized advertising, along with variations associated with each LAED participant's digital profile, which shows that the algorithm's adaptive capacity depends on the alignment between the assigned content and the digital identity previously built by the user. As an applied outcome of the research, the multimedia platform Más allá del scroll (Beyond the Scroll) was designed, conceived as a critical digital communication strategy for algorithmic literacy. The platform integrates educommunicative resources, interactive content, data visualizations, audiovisual materials, and participatory tools aimed at strengthening critical understanding of how recommendation systems work and promoting more conscious decisions in the consumption and production of digital content. In this sense, the research contributes a replicable methodology for the analysis of algorithms from the field of communication sciences, as well as a multimedia proposal that fosters the social appropriation of the knowledge generated by the Digital Strategic Action Laboratory.