Tired of social media, I rebooted my algorithm.
The Black Mirror
In antiquity, mystics believed you could peer into the void with a mirror of obsidian or black glass. The modern incarnation is a screen. Dark glass. Your face faintly in it. What it shows is more than a reflection.
For fifteen years, the social graph has been the reflection in the mirror. Now TikTok and Instagram track every like, comment, and video you linger on with artificial intelligence that can predict your behavior.
“And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.” – Nietzsche
Your Reflection
With a high level of precision, these algorithms can predict which videos you'll interact with. The more you use the app, the more it learns your tastes and preferences, to give you exactly what you want when you want it.
At least that is how it is supposed to work. Your feed is a reflection of who the algorithm thinks you are. Why not use that to your advantage?
How to Reset
I asked an LLM how to use Instagram.
PROMPT
How do I reset my algorithm on Instagram?
RESPONSE
You can’t delete the algorithm itself, but you can wipe Instagram’s current recommendation signals and then retrain it with your behavior.
What followed were platform specific instructions that nearly worked the first time. Below is a link to the working instructions that I used.
RESET:
Training Day
I quickly trained the algorithm by liking, watching in full, and marked "not interested". In my first session I quickly went down a rabbit hole in digital art, music, and futurism/cyberpunk.
Key Concepts
Following 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.
Tighten The 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.
Actual Results
The following are screen shots of short form videos appearing following the full reset.
Enhanced Galaxy🌌
😵💫Time Square, Trippy
GPU Memes🤑
🚥Dance Party🚨
Buy Some Ketamine!!
Jackpot!!
The dopamine slot machine landed on the exact product it thought I needed.
Coffee's for Closers
First rule of social media, keeping the audience engaged as long as possible. The second rule is always be selling.
Glengarry Glen Ross - ABC, Always Be Closing
Timeline
Day 1 - Week 1
I did a full reset of TikTok and Instagram. I intentionally trained the content algo on a specific set of inputs (scrolls, watches, likes, replies, reposts). I then observed. It was trippy, and in the end, it tried to sell me a product. It's advertisers all the way down.
A few hours into the retrain, the feed stabilized and started showing normal content, but always drifted back to psychedelic videos and drug ads. I continued the test and the results were the same. The system is designed to funnel you toward a product.
Month 1 - Month 6
I started to notice the intentional funneling toward a sale. Both platforms stayed relatively similar because I followed many of the same accounts on both platforms.
I also no longer felt the pull to continue scrolling once my dopamine belly was full. I opted out of ads by not allowing them to show me any. To be clearer, I refused to give further attention.
I made a choice.
Week 1 - Month 1
After a few weeks I lost interest in scrolling. I did it less often and for shorter periods of time. The feed disruption broke the feedback loop. I found myself doing other things.
I watched old science documentaries. I spent time with my family. I started coding personal projects with AI. I crave scrolling no longer.