With X’s public algorithm, it’s easier to understand how social media works

On Instagram, I was going through a couple of home improvement videos. The next time I opened the app, in the explore section, more home improvement videos started popping up.

The same happens on Facebook, X.com, and YouTube.

These media want the users to spend as much time as possible. To do that, they use algorithms to decide what type of content the user is likely to view.

For example, according to X’s algorithm, these are four elements that decide what you are going to see on the platform:

• A post’s popularity so far
• The kinds of content that you have liked in the past
• The accounts you follow (and the accounts those accounts follow)
• The content you have recently sought out, as well as content you have marked as being irrelevant to them

3 out of these 4 are dependent on your actions. And that is where things become a bit tricky.

The Social Media Eco-Chamber — Negative Sides

How Social Media Eco-Chamber works

Imagine you have liked content related to Hollywood celebrities in the past. You have liked posts promoting or talking about Sydney Sweeney. Then you go ahead and follow a few of those accounts. You also search for posts related to her movies.

You’d suddenly see that your feed is full of posts about her. That might make you think that everyone is talking about her. In reality, social media is only going to show you posts covering her. But because the platform is going to show so many of those posts, you will think that is all that is being discussed on the platform.

That is ok in this scenario. If you like an actress, it’s fine if you want your feed or timeline to show you more about her.

But what if it’s political content?

What if it’s something controversial that you follow?

What if the side you are being shown is just half the picture?

You find that you are not alone

You will see similar posts and find people with similar thought processes. Maybe you had a very wrong view about one topic but you were never “courageous” enough to voice that out.

Now, thanks to the algorithm, you see dozens of posts popping up. You meet like-minded people. And you realize you are not alone.

That will validate your view and give you the confidence to be louder.

However, you become isolated

While social media eco-es your voice, it amplifies the voice to mislead you.

You end up thinking, after seeing so many posts, that everyone else has the same opinion as you. You start believing that you are the majority.

That might be the case or not. But in either case, you stop accepting dissenting views. Either they don’t appear on your feed or you learn to ignore the ones that do.

Ultimately, your version of the world becomes a subset of what the reality is.

Social Media are in the business of keeping an audience hooked to the platform — no matter the cost.

It doesn’t care if the content that’s keeping the user on the platform is harmful, detrimental, or false.

And social media eco-chamber ultimately creates silos within the society. That slowly blurs the line between what’s right and what’s wrong.

Because, if so many other people are doing it, I can’t be wrong. Can I?

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