Over the last several years it has become increasingly difficult to find decent information on Twitter. The site has become a shit storm of political propaganda, spam, community in-fighting and crypto shills. For me, it had gotten to the point where I just wanted to kill the account all together! I think the final straw for me was when everyone started posting all the rioting videos, police abuse, and politicking over the last couple years. Covid 19 really was the straw that broke the camels back though! I was done. Even though I mainly use Twitter to promote Hive stuff now, I was at my wits end and completely sick of it.
At that point, Twitter was no longer fun. The content was actually triggering me. Day after day I'd wake up in a great mood only to get upset by early afternoon and angered by the latest headlines and political propaganda. I started questioning the effect this was all having on my mental health and whether or not I even wanted the account anymore. I complained about it in a Tweet and someone replied telling me it was my fault. It was only happening because of the content I was engaging with. They claimed the Twitter algorithm was only giving me more of what I had previously engaged with.
Honestly, I wanted to believe it was a conspiracy. I wanted to believe that Twitter was part of a master plan to sway elections and promote propaganda and plant the seeds of discord in humanity. Frankly, they're not saints in all this and I still question the way the algorithms select content, but I will admit when I'm wrong, and that person that replied telling me it was my fault was 100% correct.
So this is how I cleaned up my Twitter feed. Keep in mind this is mainly about politics and covid for me. This could work for any topic you dislike though. Also, I know some people rely on social media to stay up to date on the latest headlines. There's nothing wrong with that. I was just sick and tired of the echo chamber and what I perceived as propaganda wars. My only use for Twitter was to help in my crypto research. It got to the point where there was very little crypto content in my feed anymore.
#1 Ignore the Content You Don't Want to See More Of
The first thing you have to do is completely ignore the content you don't want to see more of. Don't like it. Definitely don't RT it. Don't even think about commenting on it.
The algorithm will give you more of the content you engage with. It doesn't matter if you liked or hated the content. You engaged with it, and the algo will give you more of the same. Even arguing for or against something will give you more of that content. You must COMPLETELY ignore the content and not engage with it in any way!
#2 Use the "Not Interested In This Tweet" Feature
This was news to me. I had no idea this feature existed. While going through your stream you can click on the 3 little dots in the upper right hand corner of the post and select the "Not Interested In This Tweet" link. Easy peasy. Who'd of thunk it? Brilliant.
#3 Unfollow Accounts With The Content You Don't Want To See.
Yup, this one hurts. Especially if the account belongs to a friend or relative. If the account likes, posts, and comments about the topics you don't like... Guess what? It's guilt by association and the algo gives you more of that content.
It sucks, but you have to unfollow the accounts with the information you don't want to see. I've never really done follow for follow, but it sucks when it's a friends account or someone you really like. I thinned out a lot of my follows over the last couple months on Twitter.
If I've unfollowed you on Twitter and you post politics, rioting or covid. Don't take it personal. The political propaganda was literally driving me nuts. If your "liked" Tweets on these topics kept showing up in my feed, chances are you got unfollowed.
Sorry, just not worth the bad energy and negative thoughts they were creating. Nothing against you personally!
I also do my best each day to not like content that relates to anything outside of cryptocurrency on Twitter. This helps protect the feeds of the people that follow my account. I will admit, I slip up sometimes but I'm getting much better at it now!
#4 Engage With What You Like!
Start liking, sharing and engaging with the content you want to see more of! This really works! I've been a huge supporter of Litecoin over the years. I like to share and engage with LTC Tweets and my feed is full of LTC stuff now.
If you ignore the content you hate, and like, share and comment on the content you enjoy, you'll start finding more and more of the content you enjoy in your feed. At times, my feed is filled with almost ALL Hive and LTC content! YaY, I love that content!
This Helped But I'm Still Skeptical
So I was proven wrong. The negative posts that kept popping up in my feed weren't part of some grand conspiracy to help drive me nuts. It was actually the Twitter algorithm giving me more of what I engaged with. Honestly though, I'm still a little skeptical.
Now that I'm mindful of the content I engage with, I've noticed that I can like 100 crypto posts and my feed wont change much. However, if I engage with "one single" covid post or some other hot button political topic suddenly my feed is full of them again. It seems to me, certain topics get more "weight" or preferential treatment in their promotion. I don't think this is in my head either. I've done several experiments and it seems some topics get a huge boost with minimal engagement. Is it a conspiracy? Who knows, in this day and age nothing would surprise me.
Why I love Hive.
Over the years I've always kept at least one blog. I enjoy blogging and I think it's a little different from traditional social media. For me, Hive is the ultimate blogging platform / community. Yeah, I know, it's soooo much more now. We have microblogging, communities, gaming and more. My main use has always been the blogging aspect of it though.
I also love that posts appear in my feed in real time. As my fellow Hiver's post content, it shows up in my feed in real time. It's not weighted up or down by pesky algos or the "hot topic" of the day. Everybody get's a fair share at being seen.
I really don't like the way these social media conglomerates control the flow of information and that really is what these algorithms do. Sure they might be helpful, but they can also be used with malevolant intent. Hive in my humble opinion just seems more honest.
I love our "community" in general. I love the way our content is presented on each platform. I love communities and tribes as a way to separate topics we may or may not have an interest in. I also love that our blockchain is expanding into so many new frontiers like gaming, vlogging and micro-blogging. The bottom line is, I think Hive is the future of social media and these massive mainstream social sites could learn a thing or two from what's happening here on our blockchain!