Carving Your Path in a World Guided by Algorithms.

For full experience we highly recommend going to your music provider and play “When I Get Home | Solange” (link to Spotify!) as you are reading this, promise it’s worth it. Ok back to the topic now!

As every day passes, we see more and more creatives shifting away from algorithm-pleasing tactics. You might think the world is finally healing, that we’re back to the “perfect pre-social-media” state we were promised, or even experienced in the past.

But is the job really finished? Hell, is it even close? Not quite. There’s still work to be done if we want to reclaim control, so buckle up! A super optimistic approach to social media, at your email, Monday morning, new week!

Whether we love algorithms or not depends on the situation.

Whether we love algorithms or not depends on the situation. Take Instagram, for example: did you know you can switch your feed to “Following Only”? Yet few people do, and instead we scroll through posts that seem completely irrelevant—far-fetched, viral content that feels anything but personal.

This raises a question: why are our experiences so shaped by algorithms, and how should we respond?

Part of it is personalization. Algorithms present content as if it were chosen just for us, until we see the 100k likes and realize it’s anything but personal! This tension; between the promise of individualized relevance and the reality of mass-constent optimization, forces us to ask: how can we carve our own approach to social media, share work that feels genuine, and resist the preconditions imposed by code written somewhere else?

It also highlights the broader tension between algorithmic optimization and human unpredictability. Algorithms are designed to generate what is “needed” according to patterns, but human creativity thrives in uncertainty. Understanding this tension allows us to reclaim control: we can engage with technology intentionally, shaping its influence instead of being passively guided through its evergrowing landscape (not tour the tour guide you want!).

But what happens when we let algorithms decide the rules for us, as creatives, or just as people living outside the creative sphere? Well, that’s a great question.

Think about it: someone scrolling Instagram for two hours a day, sleeping eight, working eight; six hours, or 75% daily “free time” remain for conscious choices (before considering errands etc.). Even if it seems small, those two hours of passive, algorithm-driven consumption subtly shape how we think and what we create.

If we lose control in something as “small” as a feed, what does it mean for the rest of life? What we choose to consume, how we approach art, what we feel, what we listen to, even what we think about! everything can be overloaded and shaped without conscious awareness. Next our work suffers, and now patterns dictate our life, and not the values we shaped actively throughout the years.

Beyond that, our ideas become diluted. Algorithms can distort how we see the world and even the questions we ask ourselves (much needed). In two decades, we will look back at social media, and many of us will wonder, “What the fuck was that?” Yet it’s nearly impossible to recognize it while we’re hypnotized by it.

For the creative mind, the danger is critical. When we trust algorithms to dictate what we see, we risk limiting what we believe is possible for our own work. Imagination becomes bounded not by skill or curiosity, but by predictive patterns designed to keep us engaged.

ITS TIME FOR A CHANGE, if your work matters to you of course.

The best time to start was yesterday, but we’re past that deadline, right? Good news incoming - we can still change it.

Test it yourself.

Journal for five minutes: write exactly how you feel, what you notice, your energy levels, what you smell, every. single. detail. Done that? Great.

Now, go scroll reels on Instagram for five minutes, then journal again. What’s different? Besides feeling drained from consuming more content than your brain can handle, notice how your focus and energy have shifted? chances are you don’t even have the power to create right now.

Congratulations; you just discovered the solution: stop scrolling for no reason.

Change your Instagram feed to “Following Only” so suggested posts won’t steal your attention. Compare what you consumed versus what you created side by side. Observe the difference. for god’s sake, dare to face your situation creatively instead of running from it through mindless scrolling.

Because it’s all about boundaries. If you don’t like a genre of music, you don’t play it right? same here, if you’ve never watched a video of a flying cow flying into Starbucks for a Latte at your local Target, why keep watching reels that distract you from thinking and creating? The choice is yours.

It’s that real. It’s that simple.

Time is your most valuable resource, protect it, and create with that in mind. You don’t have endless hours to make meaningful work, so why waste them on mindless scrolling? That Starbucks coffee wasn’t even that good anyway.