Reclaim your feed – teen guide to fix your algorithm

How does it work?

Social media platforms don’t care what you watch.

They only want to keep you engaged so they can show you more advertising so they can make more money. It’s all about the money.

The more negative stuff you watch (violence, fights, war) the more the algorithm shows you.

The more positive stuff you watch (fitness, education, fishing) the more the algorithm shows you.

You make the choice between positive and negative content.

If you go down the dark side and constantly watch violent, horrible content:

  • You become stupider. It nukes your brain.
  • Increases anxiety and depression.
  • Seeing real-world violence can cause symptoms like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This is what war veterans and police officers suffer from…why do this to yourself willingly?
  • Makes you feel the world is more dangerous than it is.
  • Shapes your behaviour, it can radicalise you in a short period of time.
  • Violence becomes normal, fist fights become normal.
Tony is looking at negative content on his phone. Dark clouds come from his phone and surround his head.

Violence is not a normal part of life.

It is to be avoided at all costs. Nothing good comes from violence.

 

Addiction

These platforms employ the smartest engineers in the world to design the app to be as addictive as possible. The same people who design poker machines design social media algorithms.

They want you to be an addict.

Try and put your phone out of reach for an hour. Do you feel anxious? You are addicted.

 

Retrain your algorithm

It’s time to take the path of positivity and leave the darkness behind.

 

Step 1

Hit the reset button

Most apps have a dedicated setting to clear your recommendation history back to zero without deleting your account or saved posts. Some popular ones are listed below:

TikTok: Profile – Menu – Settings and privacy – Content preferences – Refresh your For You feed. 

Instagram: Profile – Menu – Content preferences – Reset suggested content. 

YouTube: Profile – Settings (Gear) – Manage all history – Delete all time (or clear Watch History). 

Snapchat: Profile icon – settings – account actions or privacy controls – reset suggested content – confirm

 

Step 2

Use negative feedback buttons for the next few days. This retrains the algorithm.

  • The one second rule. Scroll past negative content instantly. If you stop for even three seconds, it tells the app you are interested.
  • If there is an option, click on the ‘not interested’ button or ‘don’t recommend’ button.

Do this every session for a few days.

 

Step 3

Train your new baseline

Manually search positive topics you care about. Skateboarding techniques, fishing videos, breakdancing tutorials, fitness routines. Watch some of these videos in full. 

Follow positive creators

Following active creators provides the strongest ranking weight for your main feed. Make sure they have a positive attitude and don’t spew negativity at you.

Continue to train it until there is zero violence or negativity in your feed. This includes the bros hating on women, ignore them.

Tony is looking at positive content on his phone. He is smiling and beams of light are shooting from the phone.

End result

Your feed is full of positive content that actually helps you in your day-to-day life. Your brain, and your mental health will thank you. Your anxiety and depression will lessen, and your physical world becomes brighter.