Intentional Media Consumption
And How I Learned to Worry and Hate the Algorithm
This topic idea was sparked by a YouTube video about healthy life changes. In an effort to prevent doomscrolling the YouTuber tried to be more intentional about what they viewed for entertainment or information, instead of letting the 'algorithms' decide what they should consume.
Task: Research if there are other contemporary discussions of this subject.
30 Day challenge to see the effects of intentional media consumption on my everyday life.
RULES
1 - NO algorithm based media consumption. This includes:
- No google news feed
- No YouTube Reccomendations
- No Instagram Feed
- No Reddit Feed
- No Facebook Timeline
- etc.
What is okay?
- Front pages of news websites like NYT.
- SPECIFIC subreddits sorted by r/new (No main feeds)
- YouTube Subscription feed page
- Instagram "followers" feed
Day 1 - June 1st
Starting the challenge! Let's see how it goes!
The day went alright for the most part. I only accidently started scrolling instagram once.
Britt and I discussed if this should apply to using Spotify as well. Music for some reason doesn't feel as bad to be recommended to me by an algorithm. Why is that? Is it because I'm culturally adjusted to having music selected for me via radio DJs and services like Pandora?
Britt and I opted to decide that "liked" song playlists were okay, as well as specifically looking up songs and using "_" artist radio or the like.
Day 3 - June 3
Today I've slipped a bit more than in the past, and overall today I was running into situations that frustrated me. I found myself almost instinctively flipping open Facebook, Reddit, or Instagram when I felt anxious or aggravated. I think this really openly shows how much I used these platforms as a coping mechanism, and they have a really strong hold on my mind that is easy to slip back into bad habits.
Day 8 - June 8
I cracked this morning and started browsing reddit and Facebook, yesterday I flipped open Instagram a couple of times as well. This is not as easy of a challenge as I thought.
I immediately noticed my mood soured after I started browsing. Having the breaks in-between using algorithm-based media consumption and the mindfulness while using it has really shown me how negative they make me feel. Frustration, anxiety, world-ending doom, annoyance.
Day 12 - June 12
I did it today. I doom scrolled. Full on reddit doom-scrolling for about an hour. It made me feel terrible, the world looks so ugly, so hopeless. Britt and I talked about moving and leaving the country, and how we could possibly do it.
I again keep reiterating by experience that doom-scrolling/submitting to algorithms is not good for my mental health.
Results
So, can it be said the challenge was completed succesfully? Probably not, but I did learn a lot along the way.
Facebook/Insta - bad algorithm
Reddit /r/all - bad algorithm
Threads - bad algorithm
Google News - bad algorithm
YouTube - *not as bad* algorithm
Reddit, specific subreddits - not bad algorithm
