{"id":24808,"date":"2026-09-10T18:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T16:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/10\/i-turned-off-my-algorithm-for-24-hours-is-this-how-social-media-used-to-be\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T18:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T16:37:15","slug":"i-turned-off-my-algorithm-for-24-hours-is-this-how-social-media-used-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/10\/i-turned-off-my-algorithm-for-24-hours-is-this-how-social-media-used-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"I turned off my algorithm for 24 hours. Is this how social media used to be?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks to a little-known feature in Instagram, I attempt to travel back to 2012, before everything on the internet was an ad<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Get our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/email-newsletters?CMP=cvau_sfl\">breaking news email<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/app.adjust.com\/w4u7jx3\">free app<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/series\/full-story?CMP=cvau_sfl\">daily news podcast<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I have a confession. I love my social media algorithm. It is a perfectly curated window into my insane and inquiring mind. It knows precisely which videos will tickle me and which memes will gently distract me from the slow collapse of humankind.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday the Australian government announced \u201cworld-leading\u201d reforms that would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2026\/sep\/09\/labor-australians-opt-out-online-algorithms-how-change-feed\">force social media platforms<\/a> to allow users to opt-out of algorithms, dubbed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2026\/sep\/08\/australia-social-media-algorithm-switch-off-opt-out-digital-duty-of-care\">\u201cmy feed, my way\u201d<\/a>. On the same day, I was delighted to be confronted with a video on Instagram of a woman accidentally spilling a bucket of eels on a Chinese train. Dozens of eels slithered among the passengers, who appeared not as surprised as I would have expected.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/2026\/sep\/11\/i-turned-off-my-instagram-algorithm-opt-out-social-media-reforms-australia\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<img src=\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/4c2b563e667cc8974ed5cc26b221538708d28d3d\/600_0_6827_5464\/master\/6827.jpg?width=140&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=e59a40f2a17d2bb570b9efc7852d2c4e\" title=\"I turned off my algorithm for 24 hours. Is this how social media used to be?\" \/>Thanks to a little-known feature in Instagram, I attempt to travel back to 2012, before everything on the internet was an ad<br \/>\nGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast<br \/>\nI have a confession. I love my social media algorithm. It is a perfectly curated window into my insane and inquiring mind. It knows precisely which videos will tickle me and which memes will gently distract me from the slow collapse of humankind.<br \/>\nOn Tuesday the Australian government announced \u201cworld-leading\u201d reforms that would force social media platforms to allow users to opt-out of algorithms, dubbed \u201cmy feed, my way\u201d. On the same day, I was delighted to be confronted with a video on Instagram of a woman accidentally spilling a bucket of eels on a Chinese train. Dozens of eels slithered among the passengers, who appeared not as surprised as I would have expected. Continue reading&#8230;Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanks to a little-known feature in Instagram, I attempt to travel back to 2012, before everything on the internet was an ad Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast I have a confession. I love my social media algorithm. It is a perfectly curated window into my insane and inquiring mind. &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/10\/i-turned-off-my-algorithm-for-24-hours-is-this-how-social-media-used-to-be\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">I turned off my algorithm for 24 hours. Is this how social media used to be?<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":24809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24808"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}