Breaking the algorithm’s spell
The feed might be fake, but you don't have to be
This is the second post in the “Feed is Fake! Now what?!” series where I explore feed manipulation and what we can do about it, inspired by Eliza McLamb’s article, Fake Fans and the subsequent nacho reheat via the Vulture article by Lane Brown.
The feed wasn’t always this way
I vividly remember the day Tumblr got infinite scroll. For those who are not old crones, the “feed” used to be paginated and in chronological order. You’d could click through page after page, get to the Doctor Who gif set you saw the last time you logged on, and close your laptop because you caught up on the closeted gay teenager morning paper.
Then on a random weekday, Tumblr introduced infinite scroll, and the feed became an endless pit of looking at posts — impossible to catch up.
In hindsight, the infinite scroll was the start of a long line of tech “improvements” to “reduce friction” in your internet usage. I know I say it all the time BUT it’s true: social media platforms want you stay on the app as long as possible (making even more $$$ due to your eyeballs) and they’re willing to fry your dopamine receptors to do it.
In my mind, we got infinite scroll → losing the ability to “catch up” → posts out of chronological order → inclusion of “content you might be interested in” → introduction of the fyp → total feed anarchy → the ability to overload the algorithm with seeded content and bots to manufacture relevance.
Basically, whatever will keep us glued to our phones the longest and spend the most money.
Sure, IG added back in the ability to sort by following or favorites, but why do something yourself when you can find zero friction in algorithmic curated perfectly for you. Like getting an ad with a coupon code for something you were thinking about buying. So deliciously convenient and easy that you only occasionally stop to think, “How the hell did they know that?”
Side note: I’m extremely trying not to get started on how making the feed as enticing as possible, so much so that you don’t even mind you’re being sold to, is a component of the alienation of our own humanity,1 making us better workers and worse people.
Social media, especially the never-ending feed, was made to be addicting.
Everybody participates in the bizarro digital realm because it feels good and was invented to make us feel like we are on drugs!
Social media techno-fascists didn’t rise to power because they created something that was objectively good. They came to power because they captured our attention and created a ga-gillion dollar advertising industry.
With the advent of bots and the various tech industries’ quest to game the system, executives can generate buzz about literally anything by pulling algorithm-hacking strings. It’s easier for them to make money if we all have the same homogenous tastes.
I can do all things through spite
Remembering a time before infinite scroll also means I remember when the internet was mostly a wondrous thing.2 You’d log on and spend hours on the Fall Out Boy message boards, right-click-and-saving every single photo you saw so much so that you had to ask for an external hard drive for Christmas to store your hordes of pictures of Pete Wentz.3
There were rules, morals, and some sense of online etiquette that when recited makes me sound like a Victorian-era mother marrying off her most unseemly child.
There are so few digital sacred spaces.4 Everything is for profit, platforms are ad and AI-riddled, and we have approx 30 seconds before the calculator app encourages us to buy the next big water bottle endorsed by Benson Boone.
Idk about y’all but that makes me mad as hell.
The internet doesn’t belong rich idiots trying to manipulate the masses to make money, it belongs to the people.
I also think because social media lacks nuance, most folks fall into the trap of black and white thinking. You do not have to choose between becoming a WALL-E adult or an off-the-grid woodsperson. There is always a third door.5
Unlike our fore-boomers, instead of asking future generations to suffer (usually even worse) we should build a better environment so they avoid the pit in the first place. And if we can’t, build the ladder out.
How you can break the algorithm’s spell
aka adjust our media consumption, stay mindful on how we scroll, and double down our freaky-deakiest selves
Take back your power
You gotta make it harder on yourself to access the frictionless slop pit.
Whether you literally lock yourself out of apps or hide your phone from yourself, you have to make it more difficult to engage with the evil tiny computer.
I, personally, use the Foqos app, something I discovered via an IG post on the explore page.6 Created as a free alternative to Brick, you can lock yourself out of apps using any barcode, not just sixty doll hair NFC tag.
Cutting out the barcode from a Frosted Flakes box, I glued it to an old craft project. Introducing the bootleg Furby brick:
Shockingly more embarrassing than Furby phone jail, I will ask my wife to take my phone. Usually, while I am trying to take a nap and spending too long playing a silly lil game, I’ll put my phone on her desk.
Give yourself some grace. You can try whatever you need to break the cycle. You can also fail and then wake up and try again tmrw!
Embrace no-phone activities
Easiest way to not be on phone? Doing something where you literally cannot have it.
For me, that is swimming laps (literally leave my phone in the locker room) and learning how to skate for roller derby. You cannot be on your phone when you are trying not to drown or eat shit.
Did I have to spend a ton of time in therapy learning I was safe in my body? Yes! But that needed to happen, agnostic to the phone addiction.
Seek out art in new and unusual ways
Online
While dwindling rapidly, there are still corners of the internet that algorithmic manipulation has not hit.
I have a special place in my heart for Are.na, which in their own words, “is a place to save content, create collections over time and connect ideas. Privately or with other people.”
Kinda like Pinterest’s esoteric, more-wordy cousin, there is no randomized “feed” to scroll. You can follow people, explore different boards, and see what connections people are making. Basically rabbit-hole central.
Quite possibly my favorite way to discover something new is via someone else’s hyperfixation.
Offline
“Touch grass” has become a smarmy response to literally any online discussion, but sometimes you really have to touch grass.
The tiny evil computer can feel Very Big and Very Important if you’re spending all of your time on it. Putting the phone down and going on a walk/seeing a movie/engage with the world around you is a great way to reconnect with what your actual opinion is.
As my friend Michelle puts it, by moving away from social media, you can increase “your surface area for luck and magic.”
My favorite way to reconnect with the tapestry of the human experience? Visiting the ancient tools section of the art museum and remembering that humans have always loved making functional lil guys. For a brief moment, I am one with the humans across all millennia.
Use the internet in ways that make you feel expansive
More than just switching up our scroll, we also need to change the way we show up online.
What social platforms are you on? Are you there because you want to be or because you feel like you must?
If you legitimately need to be on IG for your business, are you putting out work you’re proud of or are you just making some bullshit?
You can participate in the space without having to hop on the latest trend. Also, anyone who is being prescriptive about what you should or should not do on various social media platforms is trying to sell you something.
Social media not serving you? Ditch the traditional platforms and opt for closer quarters. Metalabel, not to be confused with literal Meta, has a whole Dark Forest Theory of the Internet and has now developed Dark Forest OS as a platform to support that theory.
When you DO scroll the feed: Mindful self indulgence
Listen, I, too, feel the siren song of the bed rot phone scroll. This piece started with an anecdote about Tumblr! Is there anything more delicious than getting a little blitzed and clocking in for your shift on the entertainment slot machine?
Become a worse content consumer
The major corporations buying ad space (and shadow realm ad space) are only doing so because you’re engaging with it. (also those views might be inflated too, with bots!! who knows! dead internet theory!!)
Unfortch, engaging with the sexy fruit Love Island AI slop is just going to lead to the creation of more sexy fruit Love Island. Even if you’re just hate watching, the algorithm sees a view as a view as a view.
We train our own algorithms. The more time you spend consuming literally whatever content, the more you get of it. These platforms aren’t hoping to show you a well-rounded, vast array of entertainment. They’re trying to keep you on the platform as long as possible.
We get ad served to us based on our internet history (hello cookies!!!)
One of my fave examples:
When you see AI slop/undisclosed ads/literally anything you’d consider hate watching, you gotta click “not interested.” You can literally train the algorithm to show you only horse meditation videos.
Become a worse consumer in general
Another important component: slow down on the online shopping
You don’t need to buy every single thing a creator promises is “revolutionary” or “life-changing” from the TikTok shop or their Amazon storefront. I assure you that the flammable leggings from SHNGLES can wait.
If you’re going to purchase, do your own research. Think critically before pulling the trigger. I don’t care how trendy the next Pink Sauce is — that lady was mailing people a milk-based product with 0 preservatives and no instructions to refrigerate.
Accept that the fake feed sometimes wins
In Fake Fans, the inspo piece for this whole series, Eliza talks about how she discovered Cameron Winter’s “Love Takes Miles,” and loved it so much it came to define her summer. Later on, she discovers it is a part of the Chaotic Good apparatus. Does that change how much she loves the song? No! Does she blame the artist for taking part in this new apparently industry-standard campaign? Also no! It’s just a mechanism she is now aware of.
You’ll discover and fall in love with pieces of media because of marketing materials. That is how marketing works, even if the marketing practices are shady.
We cannot control the art that speaks to us and where we find it. Like sometimes you come across a piece of art that moves you deeply in the aisle of TJ Maxx or fall in love with the sONg OF tHe sUmmER all over your fyp.
The whole point of developing your own taste is figuring out what you like and don’t like. Sometimes you’ll like corny cultural thing! Sometimes you’ll fall for the viral marketing campaign! Sometimes you’ll cry watching a Marvel movie despite knowing its military propaganda!
Once you’ve accepted the part of you that loves being a Tomato Girl or wearing leopard print pants, you can stop worrying about what the cool people online will think and get back to the fun stuff.
Prioritize humanity
Aside from clicking “not interested” on AI content or skipping out on the latest home decor trend, we have to remember the humanity of the people on the other side of the screen.
It’s never been more easy to say vile things online, facing no consequences. Everybody loves a hate comment pile on, forgetting that one day we will all die.
Your intense disdain for a Love Island cast member does not change your material reality. After your hate comment publishes, you’ll still be stuck with yourself.
Everyone involved, you, the person you’re arguing with about the validity of Nicolandria’s relationship, the couple themselves, are flawed humans that contain multitudes.7
At the end of your life, will you really be on your death bed thinking “thank god I contributed to sexuality discourse about Heated Rivalry’s OBVIOUSLY queer cast members.”
Quick note on smugness
I think when first exiting the internet gladiator dome, it’s easy to feel smug. We see this a lot with the rampant self-congratulatory posts about leaving all social media for Substack (even though Substack is highkey another social media platform). I feels incredibly good to say, “I rose above it and you plebs are still enjoying the gore like SICKOS.”
Smugness feels like the quickest way for you to put distance between you and the endless feed. Kinda like how you’d lambast your situationship for hours at the wine bar and then hop into his vintage Mustang at the end of the night? Meanwhile you have approximately 15 minutes before the pseudo-intellectual sentient mustache says something so casually cruel you’ll need EMDR in a year to get over it.
Loving reminder: your digital presence is the least interesting thing about you
Your digital habits? Even more boring.
If you feel like that’s not true (it literally is dw), perhaps it’s time to close the laptop. Go see a fucked movie.
You don’t need to catch up, I promise.
If you have made it this far, I have a gift for u 🤲 🎁
For my Marxxinistas
There was also great evil back then too but like a different genre of evil
I recently said told an irl friend about this and we laughed until we cried. I was so worried I would lose access to 1k photos of the Fueled By Ramen collective??
The baddies on Ao3 are still holding it down tho, launching an entire campaign against using AI in fanfic.
shoutout to Carl Jung, as per usual
Isn’t it ironic, dontchya think?
It is not lost on me that we have no real way to hold the powers that be accountable for their horrible actions. We all have so much rage and for a moment it can feel really good to get it all out on a D-list reality tv show cast member or a pop star that was allegedly mean to a child.
Thanks you for sharing all of this! Herbalism is my current fave for no-phone activities. It's so sensory and tactile.
Also, I downloaded Foqos and used a novel I'm reading and a book of poetry of the barcodes. Love that I have to engage with a physical alternative to scrolling before I end a session.