This month, my recommendation is a very small Instagram setting that I think most people have no idea exists.
Instagram quietly rolled out “Your Algorithm” across Feed, Reels and Explore in August. It was previously only available for Reels, and it gives you a little more say over the content Instagram is putting in front of you every day.
I tried it recently and, honestly, I was surprised by how much of a difference it made.
How to find it
Go to Settings → Content Preferences → Your Algorithm.
Instagram will show you the topics it thinks you are interested in. Have a look through them, add things you actually enjoy and, if you can, be a little intentional about what you want more of.
I added back some of the things I genuinely like and moved away from some of the outrage bait, comparison content and random rabbit holes I had clearly only been engaging with on a bad day.
Within a day, my feed had noticeably shifted.
It felt lighter. More interesting. More like the things I actually wanted to see.
Then I tried it with two teenagers
After changing my own algorithm, I sat down with my two younger brothers, who are 15 and 16, and we looked at theirs.
It was a pretty interesting exercise.
The social media ban has not stopped teenagers from being on social media, and most people their age are still using it in some capacity. We often talk about being “media literate”, but I think there is another layer to that conversation: understanding why you are being shown something in the first place.
The algorithm is not designed around your wellbeing. It is designed to keep you engaged.
And the content that keeps us hooked is not necessarily the content that makes us feel good. Outrage, comparison, controversy and content that plays on our insecurities can be incredibly effective at keeping us scrolling.
What I found
The feed changes surprisingly quickly. A few small changes to the topics my brothers were interested in made a noticeable difference almost immediately.
Most people do not know this feature exists. I certainly did not.
It is a good conversation starter. Looking at an algorithm with a teenager and asking “Why do you think Instagram is showing you this?” is very different from simply telling them to get off their phone.
It gets you thinking about why you are seeing what you are seeing, rather than just accepting it as the natural order of your feed.
And for younger people in particular, I think that little bit of awareness can go a long way.
So, my recommendation this month?
Take five minutes and have a look at your own algorithm.
Add more of the things that make you feel good. Be a little more deliberate about what you want to see. And if you have teenagers, younger siblings or kids in your life, have a look at theirs together.
It is a very small thing, but it might make the time you spend online feel a little bit better.
If you want to go down the rabbit hole, Fix Our Feeds by Teach Us Consent is also worth a look. It gets into some of the less comfortable truths about how social media algorithms work and why they are so good at keeping us hooked.
Written by Sass Walker, community lead at collective_100
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