Cultivating a Feed
I read something recently that I feel so deeply to be true:
The secret to enjoying life online boils down to one simple piece of advice: Protect your peace. Mute words, block bad posters, unfollow the person you only met briefly years ago on a work trip. It’s an algorithmic world, and anything you let into your orbit is what Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter will use to inform what they funnel into your feeds.
I don’t think you need always to cut ties, but I’ve temporarily hidden people this year, and it has brought me a great deal of peace. On the other side, I have added things (people, words, images, videos) that spark joy, bringing greater enjoyment to my time online vs. just removing the drains.
But I think the larger thought in that quote is that you inadvertently tell the algorithm you want more of the thing bringing you stress when you leave the thing causing you stress in your feed. If you watch dozens of videos about X, you can’t blame the algorithm for thinking you want more of X, not realizing that X actually upsets you.
So watch carefully. Read thoughtfully. Unfollow when it needs to happen for your own peace of mind.
4 comments
Oh, I agree with this entirely! I’ve reduced the amount of news I read, and just yesterday, I decided to temporarily block someone I also kept on almost permanent block over the pandemic (they were into conspiracy theories, etc). I’d thought they were safe to let back into my life, but no.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
I have trained FB to show me only vacation ads! It’s delightful. (The algorithm is still absolute crap and floods me with dumb suggestions instead of things I have specifically asked to see. But at least it’s not 100% socks and underwear ads any more.)
Oh, and TikTok shows me many cute animals!