I Gazed Into the Abyss, and It Was Terrifying

What if you could reset Instagram’s algorithm and make it crave cyberpunk? I did—and the results were mind-bending.

The Big Reset

In the spirit of exploration I intentionally manipulated my social media algorithm to produce different algorighm recommendations. If that sounds nerdy, well it is.

I’ve run the test many times; sometimes sandboxed, othertimes naked. Most interesting? What leaks around the edge. Could it be a tracker? Or synchronicity? Most likely an echo of the subconsciousness.

Dig deep enough and you find truly mind-bending stuff. Stick around long enough and we’ll recount tails of Berkley. The tales are apocryphal, but old school folks relish the idea of comp sci grads dropping acid and writing kernel code. But I digress.

“And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.” - Nietzsche

No ghost in the machine, only a black mirror that peering back at you. Most people never realize that AI chatbots (and content recommendation engines) are designed to feed you more of what YOU want. The goal: Keep you engaged as long as possible. It learns your behaviors, interests and devines your deepest desires. Add in a little main character energy and you are more adictive than Candy Crush.

The fix you’ve been craving

But the algorithm doesn’t love you. It doesn’t miss you. It simply waits until you’ve returned and rewards the visit with carefully curated content in a matter of seconds.

I won’t bore you with tales of dopamine addiction. It happens, and it can wreck relationships. Rather I’ll focus on discovering the unknown. Stepping outside the comfort zone. Resetting the narrative.

New Vibe, Who Dis?

Of course I pitted an LLM against Instagram; the steps below are an almagamation of several different sources. The reset was effective, permanent and vibe shifting.

The PROMPT

How do I reset my algorithm on Instagram?

You can’t delete the algorithm itself, but you can wipe Instagram’s current recommendation signals and then retrain it with your behavior.

Use the built‑in reset (recommended)

Clean up search and “Explore”

Even with a reset, old searches and a messy Explore page keep nudging the model in the wrong direction.

Clear search history:
- Tap Search → tap the search bar → “See all” → “Clear all” and confirm.
Aggressively mark junk as “Not interested”:
- On Explore/Reels, tap the three dots on any post you dislike → Not interested / See fewer posts like this.
- Do this repeatedly for a while; it’s a strong negative signal.

These actions reduce the weight of old interests and push the system away from unwanted topics.

Retrain it with new behavior

After the reset, assume every interaction is a training example.

Spam positive signals on what you do want: like, comment, save, share, and watch to completion in the niches you care about.
Starve what you don’t want: scroll past quickly, don’t interact, and use “Not interested” instead of hate‑watching.
Use search intentionally: search new topics, open several posts you like in that niche, and engage a bit so Explore pivots faster.

Within a few days of consistent behavior, your feeds will skew heavily toward the new interests.

Optional: tighten your main feed

Your following list is another core input to the recommendation system.

During or after the reset, prune who you follow: unfollow or mute accounts that routinely post content you don’t want.
Use the Following and Favorites feeds when you want more control: tap the Instagram logo on Home and choose Following/Favorites for less algorithmic noise.

This reduces conflicting signals and keeps the new model aligned with your actual interests.

Read More:

Results - Day 1

Immediately I began speed run through training by rapidly liking things, watching full videos and ocassionally marking not interested. After 15 minutes I was deep down a rabbit hole of digital art and music, with a side of cyberpunk. Before the reset I also trimmed down the accounts I followed. I kept coding and security accounts, so this undoubtedly started my journey in the alternative side of the feed. The result was an alarming devolution that drifted into the trippy and unhinged.

Roll the Footage

Bottom Line

First rule of social media, ABC (Always Be Closing). In this case Meta decided that I required ketamine. Cool.

Next Steps

Granted this was day 1, a few hours into the retrain. Per the above instructions I let the reset one marinate for 12-24 hours and went back for round 2. Over time the feed stablized and started showing somewhat normal content, but always drifted back to psychedelic videos and drug ads.

I ran this test side by side with TikTok and despite the obvious platform differences the results were remarkably similar. The system is designed to funnel you toward a product.

So, in the modern sense you are still the product, but your value is more than eyeballs its what you buy on the platform. Ad impressions are important, but click throughs and purchases are equally important.

If you want to know more about how the social media sales cycle works check out:

So Anyway

That’s a wrap for now, thanks for tagging along. If you like this sort of content and want to stay up to date consider signing up for my very occasional newsletter: Brain Notes

+++ EOF, CloudShock