Social Media Giants Hand Back the Reins: Users Gain Control Over Their Algorithmic Feeds

In a significant shift, social media platforms are beginning to offer users more control over the content that populates their feeds, moving away from years of heavy reliance on algorithmic recommendations. This development comes as users have increasingly expressed a desire for greater agency over their online experiences.

For instance, a new mother-to-be found her Instagram feed inundated with pregnancy and birth-related content, leading to information overload. She recently opted out of seeing content about "pregnancy" or "birth," while retaining suggestions for "newborn parenting hacks." Instagram has expanded its feature allowing users to provide such specific feedback to customize their feeds. This trend is mirrored across the social media landscape, with platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and emerging platforms such as Divine introducing options for users to tailor their "For You" pages or create custom feeds based on specific topics.

Tessa Lyons, Instagram's Vice President of Product, explained the company's focus on recreating the sense of user agency that existed when individuals directly controlled the accounts they followed, while still retaining the benefits of content discovery through recommendations. Advances in AI's language understanding now enable platforms to process specific user feedback on interests and dislikes, moving beyond mere inferences based on viewing and engagement patterns. "We’re able to do something we’re never able to do before, which is actually enable people to use human language… to say, like, I want to see more of this topic or less of this topic," Lyons stated, noting that previously, accurately understanding specific requests like "tennis" was challenging.

This represents a notable reversal from the strategy adopted by major platforms in recent years, which favored algorithmic recommendations over chronological feeds based on followed accounts. The rationale was that extensive user data collection would allow platforms to predict user preferences more accurately than users themselves, thereby maximizing engagement. However, this approach often led to users lamenting a lack of control and being directed down rabbit holes of irrelevant or even harmful content. Platforms have faced particular criticism for their content recommendations for young people.

The growing role of AI in content curation has amplified user frustration, coinciding with a broader public backlash against AI, according to Tim Weninger, a professor at the University of Notre Dame specializing in AI and social media. "People have gotten fed up with AI feeding them stuff," Weninger observed. "They miss the old days… They just want to be able to follow what they follow and see the latest updates."

In response, platforms have begun returning control to users. In 2022, Instagram reintroduced the chronological feed as an option, alongside "following" and "favorites" feeds, though the default remained the recommended feed. Last June, TikTok launched a "manage topics" feature allowing users to adjust the prominence of certain categories in their main feed via a sliding scale. TikTok also implemented "smart keyword filtering" to remove flagged keywords and related terms from user feeds.

More recently, Instagram introduced "your algorithm," which shows users the topics the app believes they are interested in and allows them to add or remove topics. Initially available for Reels, this feature now applies to the entire Instagram app and has been extended to Facebook. Lyons highlighted its utility in adapting to rapidly changing user interests, such as disengaging from wedding planning content post-marriage or removing content related to an ex-partner's interests. Her personal selections include "family rituals" and "Celine Dion."

Instagram aims to balance user control with the benefits of content discovery. YouTube announced its "custom feeds" feature at its "Made on YouTube" event, enabling users to create dedicated tabs for specific interests like workout videos or "late night ASMR." However, the distinction between AI-generated and human-made content remains a complex issue. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan described it as an "artificial distinction," emphasizing that YouTube's custom feeds are designed for users to "program their feeds" around topics and adjust content visibility.

The long-term impact of these changes remains to be seen. Weninger noted that while users may express interest in certain topics, their actual engagement—often driven by emotional responses to upsetting content—could create conflicting signals for AI. "If you say that you like soccer, and then you never actually watch a soccer video, then what’s the AI supposed to do?" he questioned. "People engage with things that make them upset and sad, that’s kind of part of our nature. Hopefully this will change that attitude a little bit."