Here’s how to take control of the algorithms on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok if your social media feeds aren’t showing you content you want to see.
You went down a rabbit hole and now gardening (or hot rod or political) posts are all you see online. Algorithms are smart, but they don’t know when you’re ready to get back to your regularly scheduled programming.
It’s time to reset your feed and take control of what you see.
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5-MINUTE CLEANUP FOR YOUR PHONE AND COMPUTER
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.
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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.
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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
Watch Instagram Reels instead? There’s no way to reset them, but you can nudge the algorithm in the right direction.
The fix: Tap the three dots in the upper right corner. From here, you can adjust:
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Most apps have this option
On just about every social platform, you can hide or see less of certain things. The more you take this action, the more you steer the algorithm.
The fix: Next to a post, video or anything else, look for the three-dot or three-line menu that opens more options. On YouTube, for example, tap the three dots next to a video and choose Don’t recommend channel or Not interested.
Feeling inspired to clean more of your digital traces? Wipe your browser history while you’re at it. Here’s how.
Final piece of advice
Your social media feed is carefully curated based on who you follow, who follows you and, most importantly, what you do online. Sure, you can reset your algorithm, but don’t be fooled. Every post you linger on, like, comment on or share gets tracked and used to shape what you see next. Even just scrolling tells the platform what grabs your attention.
Before your next deep dive, remember: Big Tech is always watching, and your every move fine-tunes what pops up next.
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