Explain Like I'm Five

first im not a cs or math major and never took an algorithms class. That being said if I understand it an algorithm is a program that has set input type and is trained to get a specific result. So facial tracking for vr involves having a program that takes in camera input and is trained on a bunch of faces where they want it to like draw a box around the face. Its then sorta graded and told which ones it got right and which it got wrong. it will then modify itself based on the feedback and that goes on again and again. the social media ones are trained in a way by you and your content but its feed back is your engagement. Its basically told it does good if you stay scrolling and bad if you leave. So it basically learns what will keep you scrolling. Its also learing from other users and while it will use what its learned of you it will go to the generic profile or one closer to yours (men in their 20's who live in a city or such). at the end of the day its about eyeballs. I find it kinda funny because like mmos have this massive potential to keep people on their platform and for some reason its ignored by the powers that be. I will likely be sad when it gets captured.