Columnist Clare Palo writes about how algorithms affect your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram timelines.
Facebook’s algortihm, Twitter’s algorithms and now Instagram’s algorithm are inciting social media panic worldwide. But, what does the term “algorithm” really mean for your social media feeds? You’re told to despise the algorithm, to hate the evil algorithmic trend, but do most people know what an algorithm actually does?
Social media alogrithms are computer words for the order in which content appears on your timelines. Rather than chronologically, posts are programmed based on a computer system.
Twitter began talks of implementing an algorithm (and more than 140 character tweets) in February 2016, which did not elicit the response the company was expecting. Facebook has championed the algorithm feed, creating a feed it thinks users want to scroll through. No one is exactly sure how Facebook tweaks content, but its moves are changing the social industry.
It’s why your best friends’ photos come up the most, and why Facebook friends you interact with frequently always seem to appear at the top of your feed. It’s also why you see auto-play videos that are directly uploaded to Facebook more often than simple video links. It even sorts happy news or announcements to the top of feeds, creating the good news accomplishments blog that Facebook has become.
So why did the Twitterverse freak out over Twitter becoming an algorithm? Twitter’s “thing” when it was launched in 2006 was that it was a chronological timeline, unlike the immoral Facebook algorithm. It would forever change the point of Twitter, which was just strictly a timeline of news and posts.
Twitter has since allowed users to opt in or out of dreaded the algorithm, letting users choose whether they want to see a chronological feed versus “while you were away” tweets.
Instagram jumped on the algorithm bandwagon in March 2016, sorting some Insta posts based on popularity from your favorite accounts, and accounts that are aggregating a lot of likes to their posts.
That could potentially make users miss posts on their feeds, rather than just scrolling through when they have the free time to update them on missed posts that day. Only selected users have noticed a change in their feeds, which probably means Instagram is testing the change on a small group of users.
Either you’re for the new social algorithms or against them. Now that you have more information on what exactly you’re dealing with, look for the changes on your own timelines. My advice? Stay above the algorithm.
Clare Palo is a senior studying journalism and digital content director for The Post. What do you think about social media algorithms? Tweet her @clarepalo or email her at cp954211@ohio.edu.
