Social media companies are making a new move to control the users the way they don’t know they are in control of the giants, every social media has an algorithm that will feed posts, reels to your timeline previously the algorithms are controlled by the giants themselves we can only choose not interested on certain reels or we can omit some keywords and also people also started digital well being and zero social media for a day or a month as a challenge or some users have fixed certain time limit like 10 minutes per day like that. Maybe this irritated the giants and they are now coming with a way to keep us engaged on the applications.
The new way is now users can choose the algo what they want to see to be more transparent they wanted to choose our own content so we can keep staying in the app and we can do the scroll uncontrollably.
For example, Threads released a feature called Dear Algo back in February 2026, where you literally type “Dear Algo” in a public post and tell it what you want to see more or less of. They’ve since added a private companion version called Your Algo, so you don’t have to announce your interests to the whole timeline. So if I only want to see content related to sports, I just tell it that, and it’ll feed me more sports-related content only.
Same like Instagram they released a tool called Your Algorithm where we can choose our interested topics so the algorithm can shape our recommendation firstly the tool was released in last December 2025 only for reels but now you can use the tools across feed, explore, and reels as well.
Same like in TikTok with the name Manage Topics that gives you more control on what to see on your “for you” feed and you can customize your preference for different topics such as sports, travel, humour, current affairs, dance, and food.
Now, here’s the thing — some of you are probably thinking this is just an illusion of control, not real change. And honestly, that’s a fair point to raise. There’s reporting out there suggesting most people don’t actually end up using these tools even when they’re sitting right there in the app. So does that mean none of this matters? Maybe not. Just knowing the option exists, even if you never touch it, can still change how in control you feel over your own feed.
There’s also a less flattering theory going around: that these features exist less for users and more to get ahead of growing regulatory pressure around so-called “predatory algorithms.” Giving people a visible control panel makes it easier for platforms to say “you’re in charge here,” even if the core system underneath barely changes.
So as I said earlier, they are bringing new ways to keep us engaged on the application and keep us in their control.
