algorithmic feed

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algorithmic feed (AKA algorithm-driven feed, algorithm feed, ranked feed, or sometimes personalized algorithm) is a more correct term for the "algorithmic timeline" doublespeak, and a typical feature of social media silos such as Threads, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, where they show only some posts from your followings, some posts only hours or days after they’re posted, almost never in chronological order.

How to turn off

Twitter chronological option

Twitter has an option for turning off the algorithmic feed and switching back to a chronological feed.

🖼 needs screenshots

you can just toggle off the "Show me the best tweets" option in the settings menu if you don't want to see it at all.

More at: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-and-why-to-disable-algorithmic-feeds-on-twitter-instagram-and-facebook/

One can also use a Twitter search query for filter:follows -filter:replies and click the "Latest" tab to get a non-algorithmic Twitter timeline somewhat similar to their original incarnation.

2018-09-17 The Verge reported that Twitter will soon let you switch between chronological and ranked feeds and included a link to a viral Tweet about muting a variety of terms to be able to manually modify one's Twitter timeline. Some of these terms include:

• suggest_recap
• suggest_who_to_follow
• suggest_activity
• suggest_activity_tweet
• suggest_recycled_tweet_inline
• suggest_recycled_tweet
• suggest_grouped_tweet_hashtag

Threads chronological view

Threads has a way to switch to a chronological timeline view, however it resets to the algorithmic feed upon closing and re-opening the app.

🖼 needs screenshots

Silo Examples

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Facebook

Facebook "has had some form of an algorithmic News Feed since 2011."

See Facebook Algorithm

Twitter

Twitter started switching to an algorithmic feed in 2016 February.

• 2015-06-29 Buzzfeed: An Algorithmic Feed May Be Twitter's Last Remaining Card To Play - anticipating
• 2016-02-05 Buzzfeed: Twitter To Introduce Algorithmic Timeline As Soon As Next Week article uses both phrases:

  An algorithmic feed would be, to date, the boldest change so far under Dorsey.

  and

  Twitter has been testing the algorithmic timeline with a small group of users. It appears the test went well enough to roll it out more broadly.

  Emphasis added.
• 2016-02-02 Engadget: Twitter's timeline option puts important tweets up top

  The new feature drops what Twitter determines are the best tweets at the top of your timeline. Now before you lose your mind, the feature is opt-in for now. But in the coming weeks the company will slowly roll it out to everyone

Instagram

Instagram has supported an algorithmic followings feed since 2016 when it was announced and a few months later rolled out to most users, presumably subsequently all users.

• 2016-03-15 Announced: Instagram Blog: See the Moments You Care About First - announced that it will be coming "soon":

  your feed will soon be ordered to show the moments we believe you will care about the most

  • 2016-03-16 The Independent UK: Instagram feeds to show pictures according to relevance rather than time
• 2016-06-02 Rolling out: Instagram Blog: See the Moments You Care About First -

  You’ll see this new experience as we roll it out over the coming month.

  • 2016-06-03 Engadget: Instagram rolls out its Facebook-style algorithmic feed
  • 2016-06-07 The Guardian: New algorithm-driven Instagram feed rolled out to the dismay of users

    users around the world reporting a new algorithm-driven feed

  • 2016-06-06 tweet from @mlle_elle, author of that Guardian article:

    has your Instagram changed to the new algorithm feed? (are the posts are ordered chronologically or jump between minutes to hours ago?)

    Emphases added.

Linkedin

Linkedin's timeline has an algorithm that regularly shares posts from weeks ago in some kind of attempt to share the most engaging content or most engaged with content rather than a chronological feed or otherwise.

See Also

• https://twitter.com/hondanhon/status/974740986931822592
  • "I really dislike the unpredictability of “algorithmic” feeds like Facebook’s newsfeed and Instagram’s. It’s stressful, and here’s why:
    
    * if I open Instagram and scroll past something without seeing who posted it, it’s really hard to find that post again" @hondanhon March 16, 2018
• https://twitter.com/Bluecookie/status/974233564941291520
  • "- What do we want ?
    - A chronological instagram feed !
    - When do we want it ?
    - 2 hours ago !
    - 18 hours ago !
    - Sponsored post !
    - 43 minutes ago !
    - 2 hours ago !
    - Sponsored post !
    - 15 minutes ago !
    - Account suggestion !
    - 1 hour ago !
    - 15 hours ago !
    - Sponsored post !" @Bluecookie March 15, 2018
• 2018-03-21 https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/976564511858597888
  • "These two trends overlap at the level of the algorithms that shape our digital content consumption. Opaque social media algorithms get to decide, to an ever-increasing extent, which articles we read, who we keep in touch with, whose opinions we read, whose feedback we get" @fchollet March 21, 2018
• 2018-03-21 https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/976565165922512897
  • "Integrated over many years of exposure, the algorithmic curation of the information we consume gives the systems in charge considerable power over our lives, over who we become. By moving our lives to the digital realm, we become vulnerable to that which rules it -- AI algorithms" @fchollet March 21, 2018
• 2018-03-22 The Verge: If Facebook controls your mind, so do a lot of other tech companies

  … François Chollet, an artificial intelligence researcher at Google…
  
  … Chollet argues that Facebook is capable of “mass population control”… because our lives are increasingly lived online, and that gives Facebook massive power to guide what we see.

• 2018-04-02 Benedict Evans: The death of the newsfeed

  This is the logic that led Facebook inexorably to the ‘algorithmic feed’ ... though, this approach has two problems. First, getting that sample ‘right’ is very hard, and beset by all sorts of conceptual challenges. But second, even if it’s a sucessful [sic] sample, it’s still a sample.

• http://memex.naughtons.org/archives/2018/04/18/25514
• chronological feed
• Criticism: 2019-07-02 Brent Simmons: No Algorithms
• undesirability of defaulting & reverting to it when users are given a choice: https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1182806126271848449
  • "Hey @Jack, can I help make the setting that switches between “top tweets” and “latest tweets” persistent? I’ll do the commit myself. I’ll brush up on iOS programming. I’ll go halfsies on a few days of fasting. Anything. Please! 😄✌️" @dhh October 11, 2019
• Criticism: can be (and has been by Facebook at least) optimized to amplify divisiveness. Thread: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1265312209602674688.html (archived), start: https://twitter.com/dseetharaman/status/1265312209602674688
• https://twitter.com/algorithmwatch/status/1272423733106540545
  • "We spent the last 6 months investigating Instagram's algorithm, talking to professional content creators, reading through patents and analyzing the newsfeed of 26 donors who volunteered their data. Read our findings ⤵️
    
    https://algorithmwatch.org/en/story/instagram-algorithm-nudity/" @algorithmwatch June 15, 2020
• TheirTube an automated comparison how different YouTube viewing behaviours lead to drastically different home page feeds
• Twitter turning off likes amplification in their algorithmic feed: https://twitter.com/kateconger/status/1314597533868457984
  • "Second, Twitter is turning off the recommendation algorithm, which surfaces tweets that people you follow have liked. Lots of users have complained about this algorithm, but these kinds of algos are used to drive growth and I can't think of another company ever disabling one." @kateconger October 9, 2020
• Social-Media Algorithms Rule How We See the World. Good Luck Trying to Stop Them. by Joanna Stern, Wall Street Journal 2021-01-17 detailing some harms and with a section on how to turn off the algorithmic feed for several social silos
• Criticism of Instagram & Pinterest in particular: 2021-10-01 The Guardian: Molly Russell was trapped by the cruel algorithms of Pinterest and Instagram / The coroner’s verdict was a world first in citing social media as a causal factor in a death
• Tim Bray: On Algorithms

  So let’s stop saying “No algorithms!” because that’s just wrong, and figure out how to get nice algorithms built, ones that primarily are there to serve humanity’s best interests.

• Maya: choosing algorithms: we live in a society

  even individually-selected transparent feed-building algorithms have knock-on effects