About Social Media News Feed

We all complain about how time-consuming social media is, yet we can't seem to break free from it. While we all have our own reasons for this, the digital landscape also exerts certain pressures on us. To satisfy my curiosity, I conducted a quick analysis of three different accounts and made some simple observations.

In this short piece, I will talk about what I did, the results and the visible outcomes. Ultimately, I won't be giving simplistic advice such as “quit” or “join social media”, which some might consider ridiculous. Instead, I'll address a topic that I had noticed before, but not in this way.

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I have three Instagram accounts for different purposes.

The first is my personal account. Out of curiosity, I checked the date I registered it while writing this, and I saw that it was December 2014. I remember registering it as if it were yesterday, because a friend had insisted. Roughly 10% of the people I follow have personal accounts like mine, while the remaining 90% have business or professional accounts. For example, if I follow 1,100 people, 100 of them are personal accounts and the other 1,000 are business or professional accounts.

My second account is my page, where I share personal and event posts. I follow and am followed by few people on this account. The person/page ratio for this account is around 95%. Therefore, the vast majority of the people I follow have personal accounts.

My last account is a business/professional one. I am not sure if this information is useful, but I'm including it in case any friends who understand algorithms find it helpful. The person/page follow ratio for this account is almost 50%.

These three examples — two extremes and one balanced — should give you some insight into how the algorithm works. While I will point out that the results in the tables relate to individual accounts, I want to remind you that this may not be the only factor. Therefore, I will avoid making definitive statements and analyse based on assumptions. As I lack sufficient knowledge of the algorithm, I will only make assessments based on logic, so please evaluate these for yourself. If I have made any mistakes or omissions, please let me know. This will help us reach more accurate conclusions.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, our inability to disconnect from social media platforms is about more than just the urge to scroll through content and pass the time. There is also a system in place that has been developed by people with an in-depth understanding of human psychology. This system is designed to guide users back onto the desired path, and it knows us better than we realise. We all know this.

To illustrate this, I took a tour of my homepage, scrolling through a hundred posts for each of my accounts and taking notes as I went. I categorised them under four headings:

• Friends I follow (i.e. personal accounts belonging to individuals).

• Pages I follow (regardless of category).

• Ads that are marked as sponsored and are probably shown to me specifically as a user;

• Other pages that I don't follow but which probably caught my attention because of my follows and likes (i.e. my interactions), as suggested by the algorithm. These took over my feed.

  
  

To make it easier to examine, I divided every 25 scrolls into four parts. Here's what I found:

My personal account: Followed Person/Page Ratio ~10%

Yes, we begin with an unexpected observation: None of my friends' (green) posts appeared in my feed. The strange thing is that, when I checked a few of their posts individually, I saw that they had shared something recently. So, yes, they didn't appear in my news feed. While it might be considered normal for such a low percentage — around 10% — to be missing, not seeing any of them is also strange. After all, we're not talking about 10–20 people. The funny thing is that I probably wouldn't have noticed at all if I hadn't checked. I attribute this result to posts made from personal accounts being given a lower priority than those made from other accounts.

As you can see, there are some page recommendations at the beginning (orange). But then they disappear. I wondered if this was because I hadn't interacted with them. However, I don't notice these recommendations or when they disappear during my daily social media browsing. To be honest, I found this just as interesting as what I mentioned first.

Quite a long time ago, I noticed that Instagram started showing ads every three or four posts in the main feed. I complained about it to a friend at the time. What else could I do? Then, like everyone else, I got used to it.

However, as you will see, they appear in a fairly orderly manner. After skipping the other two topics I covered, the pages (yellow) and ads (blue) almost blend in with each other. It was only much later that I realised how terrifying it is that one in every four posts I see is an advert. They seep into our subconscious every day and we don't realise how much time we spend on social media. We knew it, of course, but seeing it laid out like this might make you feel differently, too.

My second account: Followed Person/Page Ratio ~95%

The situation is different now. This time, I follow more individual users on my account. While the above ad template remains in place, I can now see my friends' posts. This is quite understandable. However, this only lasts a short time, probably due to a lack of recent posts. Nevertheless, the ads continue to appear as before. They appear regardless of the content of our account. In fact, they have even appeared one after another. I hope they don't introduce 'Instagram Plus', which would offer an ad-free experience. Anyway, let's not give them any ideas.

Since I only follow a few pages, ads don't show up in my feed. That's fine. However, the platform's algorithm immediately noticed this gap. It's now filling my feed with recommendations saying, "What do you mean you don't follow any pages? Here are some you can follow!” It's as if I've walked into a supermarket with a wide range of fruit and vegetables, picked some up to check and smell — which is essentially what they're doing with the information about the posts I've liked — and now they're showing me their other products. They're pressuring me by saying things like “People who liked this also liked, bought or recommended this”. Being alone on a social platform is apparently a sin. We will inevitably follow and be followed. After all, today's world is shaped by a framework of respectability measured by the number of followers you have. Isn't that right?

One thing that caught my attention is that the percentages of page views (yellow) and page recommendations (orange) are the same in both examples. The ads are almost identical, too. I wonder if this is because the algorithm requires a certain percentage to be shown to each user, or if similar structures have emerged as a result of reflecting my two accounts. Let's try to understand this with the help of the last example.

My business account: Followed Person/Page Ratio ~50%

“Guys, share some posts already! This isn't working!” I wanted to say, but it shouldn't have been just one person visible. Again, I found people who had posted recently. However, if I only encountered one person, it seemed unusual.

The ads are as stable as we know them to be. They move like a snake, blending into our flow without drawing too much attention to themselves. Sneaky and cold-blooded. Even just seeing one for a moment and instinctively scrolling past must contribute to this. Once we've seen one, we won't forget its face. Besides, I haven't researched how frequently the same ad appears or at what intervals. That's a separate issue.

While the percentage of ads remains the same, the other percentages are diverging this time. Perhaps it's prioritising certain accounts that I'm already following. It's as if it's saying, “Look at what you have first, finish it, and then I'll show you others based on your likes”. How understanding! I noticed that it didn't make many recommendations towards the end. It must have been annoyed that I skipped over its suggestions without looking at them. Stop! Don't do it! Please don't show me any more ads!

As always, the page percentage remained above 50%. What else could it do but show them? Just show ads? No way.

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Since personal accounts don't post frequently, it's probably normal for them to appear that often. The same goes for accounts we follow appearing at the top of our feed. On the other hand, advertising is an inevitable part of the process. We understand that criteria such as the number of followers or how long we have been using the platform and when we joined are irrelevant. Regardless of who we are, we see those ads. On average, perhaps one in every four posts is sponsored content tailored to our interactions. It's intense and exhausting.

One day, I want to create a piece of content for every ad, logo and slogan I see to remind us all of the quagmire we're in. You and I both. Anyway, I'm going to go and sigh at people enjoying the peace and quiet alone with nature. If my battery holds out, we'll see each other next week.