🧼 Give your feed a refresh: Instagram is testing a feature that lets you reset your algorithmic suggestions for your Feed, Reels and Explore sections. Head to Settings > Content Preferences > Reset Suggested Content. Note: This reset doesn’t delete anything and won’t change the ads you see.
Reset your social media algorithms
Still stuck in election season on your social media feed? Or maybe you bought one bottle of perfume and now Big Tech thinks you’re launching a beauty empire. Algorithms are smart, but they don’t know when you’re ready to get back to your regularly scheduled programming, like cat videos and memes. Here’s how to reset your feed and take control of what you see.
Start with Facebook
Goodbye, annoying ads. It only takes a minute to kick out the things you no longer want to see.
🛠️ The fix: Filter your advertising topics by going to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Account Center > Ad Preferences > Customize ads.
Now, on to YouTube
Say your family is staying with you for the holidays and your niece is watching cartoons on your YouTube account all day long. Now that’s all YouTube recommends. Delete your search history to get things back to normal.
🛠️ The fix: On the YouTube app, tap You to bring up your History. Tap the cog icon > Settings > Manage All History. At the bottom, you’ll see DELETE with a blue down arrow. Tap from the dropdown menu to delete videos from today, a custom range or all time. Click X to remove items individually, if you prefer.
Going forward, turn off your viewing history any time you don’t want those vids in your algorithm. You can set your video and search histories to autodelete, too. Now your YouTube is back to how you like it, with my video podcast at the very top. You’ll love it!
TikTok tracks your habits
TikTok’s algorithm is built to keep you on the app. Every time you like, follow or comment on something, it tells the algorithm you’re interested in a video, and more videos like it will pop up on your For You page. Disliking a video or writing a nasty comment doesn’t matter, by the way; you still kept watching.
🛠️ The fix: Reset your feed. Open your Profile in the bottom right corner then press the three lines at the top right > Settings and Privacy > Content Preferences > Refresh Your For You Feed > Continue.
Fine-tune Instagram
Google alternatives that don’t sell all your data
Google is one of the best examples of “If it’s free, you’re the product.” And its employees, business decisions, stock price, biases and preferences have a big impact on what its “products” (Smile! That’s you and me!) see when we use Google Search.
How to get cheap flights with expert Clark Howard
Money-saving guru Clark Howard is here, sharing his top-secret strategies to land the cheapest flights imaginable — and trust me, the airlines do not want you knowing these tricks. We talk about clever booking hacks, algorithms, hidden deals, and the perfect time to strike.
Another example of AI doing the work of humans: Big retailers are using AI combined with real-time weather data to time ads and discounts. Take Walmart: This year, they dropped sunscreen prices a couple of weeks early after the AI algorithm noticed rain was all over the country. Normally, inventory analysts would do this work.
700,000 people
Signed up for Bluesky in a week. The X rival is feeling pretty blue-tiful with over 20 million members and counting. Perks include feeds with custom algorithms and the option to pick your moderation filters.
Use the NewsBreak app? Delete it. Here’s why
My husband, Barry, is a total news junkie. He has all the major news apps on his phone. That’s why this story stopped me in my tracks. NewsBreak, the most downloaded news app in the U.S., with more than 50 million readers per month, has strong ties to Communist China.
🎉 Many retail websites don’t have static pricing: Depending on the time or day of the week, you might beat the algorithm and score a better deal. Your best bet for a bargain is early in the week or at off-peak hours (think late at night or early in the morning). Whoa, this tip alone is worth the price of this newsletter. Oh, wait — it’s free!
Ditch Hulu’s algorithm and browse by channel: Click Browse > Networks, then filter from A-Z. What’ll it be? Renovations on HGTV? Recipes on Food Network? Rom-coms on Lifetime? Feels like old-school channel surfing!
The new influencers: Unemployed folks are using TikTok to share “day in the life” videos with followers to show how they cope. The algorithm rewards shocking and emotional content, so it’s a good way to rack up views — and money. Better idea: Refresh your LinkedIn profile and set yourself as #OpenToWork there to find an actual job (paywall link).
🚨 All that and dim sum: Researchers dug into Communist China-owned TikTok’s algorithms and found they suppress content critical of the Chinese Communist Party. Search for “Xinjiang,” a region linked with genocide and crimes against humanity, and you’ll find only 2.3% of results are anti-China. Compare that to 21.7% on YouTube. And the cherry on top? They’re not above manipulating teens with pro-China propaganda.
🦐 Anything for likes: Facebook hasn’t stopped AI slop like “Shrimp Jesus” from landing on your news feed, even though this junk is often tied to scams. Why? Well, it doesn’t violate their rules if there’s no nudity or violence. But really, they want to keep people sharing and liking. When you see a post like this, hit the three-dot icon on it and click Hide post. Hopefully, the algorithm will catch on.
Kids want to be influencers: You need to tell them about Clint Brantley (paywall link), a YouTube, TikTok and Twitch creator with over 400,000 followers. In 2023, he made less than $60,000. Shrinking platform payouts, fewer brand sponsorships, ever-shifting algorithms and that TikTok ban are sending influencers to real offline jobs.
⚡️ Not everything can be AI: Microsoft says to advertise as an “AI PC,” computers need three things: Microsoft’s AI assistant, Copilot (how convenient), a special Copilot button on the keyboard (OK, sure) and an NPU (NP‑who?). The NPU, or Neural Processing Unit, is a processor specially designed for machine learning algorithms. Will that make them work better than a regular PC? TBD.
📉 This is wild: The general feeling about the U.S. economy is gloomier today than in 2008. Oof. You can blame social media and their algorithms. Most economic news sources focus on the doom and gloom, despite the actual data. Cut down on the scrolling and spend more time with the people you love most.
The first mistake: A children’s jewelry maker promoted its products using photos of a 5-year-old girl on Instagram. Guess what? The ad mainly reached adult men. The New York Times (paywall link) repeated the test, attracting convicted sex offenders and solicitations. IG’s blaming the algorithm again.
Lost the thread: Neuralink says its brain chip has already malfunctioned in its first human patient. Some of the “threads” — hair-thin electrodes meant to monitor his brain activity — stopped working. Neuralink tweaked the chip’s algorithm and now says its performance is “better than ever.” I hope this is true and not PR BS.
Amping up your followers: Instagram’s algorithm is changing to promote original content over people reposting others (aka aggregator accounts). If you’re trying to build an audience on IG, you’ll want to post more videos or Reels. That’s why I’ve been doing just that on my IG account here.
AI can now tell if your political leanings are conservative or liberal using just your face. Algorithm VGGFace2 can suss you out with over 70% accuracy. Apparently, liberals have smaller lower faces, while conservatives’ faces are typically larger and wider. And independent voters? Theirs go straight down the middle. OK, I made that one up.
Billion-dollar listing: U.S. investors are lining up to bid on a freshly legislated TikTok. A top contender? Former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin. If a sale happens, don’t expect China to give up its algorithm — whoever buys it will get the brand but probably not the tech behind it.