Three ways to design better social media feeds for Humanity

Social media feed algorithms control society whether you like it or not. We spend more time being fed information rather than finding it ourselves. They are currently hidden powerful black boxes that are optimized for engagement and time spent on a certain platform.

The feed algorithms are in a race for your attention. A race to the bottom that is not good for us as a species. Who can create the most addictive feed the fastest? This is probably not the best way to design feed algorithms, from a perspective of what is good for humanity.

Here’s how we can design them better:

1. Open up the source code. Let people understand how their feed is manipulated. Twitter is doing this currently.
2. Let people control what direction they want to be “nudged” in their feed. You could set some weights yourself on how much educational, comedy, or news you want in your feed. How much positive vs negative content do you want?
3. Let people try other users’ feeds. Just the feature to “copy” another friend’s or anyone’s feed would be beautiful. Easy way to break out of your own filter bubble.

Thanks for reading.

Social media app icons on a smartphone screen, Jason Howie — https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonahowie/8583949219