Are You a Slave to Your Algorithm?

It has been a week and a half since Charlie Kirk was killed. Probably, by now you have watched enough videos and read enough articles to process things. On Sunday, last week, I talked openly about my process of dealing with all of this. Therefore, this post is not going to be more of the same. Instead, I want to use this post to talk through something I've heard from numerous people in the last week and I have thought and felt myself. 

This week, I heard at least three people say that their social media consumption was beginning to be a problem for them. Several of the people I heard say this are mature Christians who I would be happy to have leading ministries at the church. Nevertheless, they identified what you call "doom scrolling" as a major waste of their time and dulling agent for their spirits. 

I know that dulling power all too well. However, in many cases, the effect of all the doom scrolling is much worse than just dulling. I have also encountered people who are being led astray, sucked into the vortex of the algorithm, having their souls injured by the things they are seeing. Ironically, the people that get the most tied up in online deception actually FEEL like they are becoming the most liberated by the information they are consuming. It's interesting. It's as if the deepest part of every human knows that the "truth" will genuinely be able to set them free, but the world, the flesh, and the devil serve up a counterfeit and call it truth. Jesus is the truth, and if we were consuming the scriptures, sermons, videos, and posts about Jesus as much as we are consumed with all the other stuff, we really would taste the life that we're all wanting. 

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If you're feeling like you need to disconnect or at least set up some real disciplines for yourself when it comes to social media, maybe it would help for you to hear what I do. 

I spend zero time on social media. That may seem unattainable, and it took many years of trying and failing to break free from the addiction to social media like Facebook, Instagram, etc., but it's possible to do, and you can do it too. If you don't want to go cold turkey, you could set up rules like "No social media on my phone," "No social media after a certain time of day," "Social media only on Fridays (or some other highly limited time)." 

I only watch YouTube videos that are spiritually uplifting OR meaningfully informative. I watch NO time-wasters and no nonsense videos. This has been harder to do that you might think, but the next few points explain how I do it. There are some things that make it easier, but there's not magic trick--it takes actual self-control.

When I watch Reels, I NEVER scroll to the next one. Some reels are spiritually uplifting or meaningfully informative, so I will often watch them. However, the utterly life changing life-hack I stumbled across is that I NEVER scroll to the next Reel. I realized that with the simple flick of the thumb to the next video, I would start tumbling down the Reel rabbit hole. Instead, I just watch one Reel and then click out of it. If I want to watch another, I can just click on another, but there's no more scrolling. This seems like a small thing, but it is huge! The reason I can tell it's huge is because of how difficult it was to NOT scroll to the next Reel, AND because of how easy it is to only watch one or two Reels and then be done. Can you even imagine watching only one or two Reels and then moving on to something else entirely? I know. It seems super human. It's not. It's just a life-hack that works. 

I ruthlessly click "not interested" and "do not recommend channel" on YouTube videos to take control of my algorithm. If a time-waster video pops up, I tell YouTube that I don't want to see it. I only allow spiritually uplifting and meaningfully informative videos to show up. Now, when I get on YouTube, my algorithm is working for me, giving me what I've told it to give me. 

I intentionally listen to news sources I disagree with. This is not a social media hack, but it sort of is. Now that I'm in charge of my algorithm, I make sure that I'm not in an echo chamber, tricking myself about what's going on in the world. 

    Here's a list of things I listen to that I don't always agree with:

1. This American Life - This is long-form journalism where they report on stories that they spend months or even years covering. It's not headline news. I cannot recommend it highly enough, BUT they support many things I publicly denounce. It's okay to disagree, and I trust this show to be honest and fair even if I judge their conclusions to be incorrect.
2. Tangle - This is a news source that basically presents headlines from the Left and the Right. Then the editor gives his take. This source is great because when you see the news from both sides together, you start to easily see the rhetorical tricks and manipulative tactics that BOTH sides sometimes use. You also begin to see how level-headed the other side can actually be.

That's enough for now. Be healthy. Take your algorithm captive. Listen to people you disagree with.