How to see less toxic content on Xthe ancient Twitter? This question has been answered Elon Muskwho bought the social network in 2022, in a series of posts on his social network account. The tycoon does not go into defining what is toxic and what is not, a particularly controversial issue since he fired 80% of the company’s staff and with it a good part of its moderators. Since then, his work has been supported by the social network’s social media system. Community Noteswith which other users can add context to a post, and changes to the X algorithm. About the latter and How to use it to your advantage to avoid seeing certain types of content Musk has expressed himself.
In a post made this Monday, the owner of X has explained that ‘the algorithm đť•Ź assumes that if you interact with the content, you want to see more of that content. For this reason, if a user, regardless of the reason, forwards posts from the platform to other users,It assumes you really like that content, because forwarding it requires effort.. Unfortunately, if the real reason you forwarded the content to your friends was because it outraged you, currently We are not smart enough to realize that.‘. Or, in other words, technology goes as far as it goes.
The đť•Ź algorithm assumes that if you interact with content, you want to see more of that content.
One of the strongest signals is if you forward đť•Ź posts to friends, it assumes you like that content a lot, because it takes effort to forward.
Unfortunately, if the current reason…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 2, 2024
Another user responded to the tycoon that one way he uses to prevent his wall of posts from becoming toxic is to ‘regularly share cute posts of cute puppies‘.
A suggestion that was backed up by Musk himself in a later reply. ‘True. I was with some friends who were saying that their feed had become more toxic lately. Turns out they had been sharing examples of toxic posts with each other, What makes the algorithm think you love toxic posts‘.
True.
I was just with some friends who were saying that their feed had become more toxic lately.
Turns out they had been sharing examples of toxic posts with each other, which makes the algorithm think you love toxic posts. https://t.co/90ldsgPmrz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 2, 2024
In fact, what Musk is saying is nothing new, as it is well known that social media algorithms aim to keep users glued to their screens, and to do so, they select content that can get them from what they consume. Therefore, if you spend a lot of time interacting with things you don’t like or are outraged by, you will end up with a feed full of similar material, the so-called echo chamber generated by social networksbut can be made a little healthier by interacting with ‘cute puppies’ or other more friendly content.