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Opinion — Navigating algorithmic anxiety has become exhausting

As Instagram faces pressure to stop displaying only what it deems ‘most engaging’, it’s time we assessed the impact of engineered content that influences us in ways we’d otherwise steer clear of.

Thred Media
5 min readSep 2, 2022

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Fairly recently, I attended an event intended for likeminded people to gather and discuss their interests.

Situated in a remote part of the UK, phone signal was scarce (or so I thought) and I spent the day getting to know strangers by hearing them passionately share insights on topics I knew little about.

You’ll understand my surprise, therefore, when the next day I opened Instagram and was immediately confronted with an advertisement for something I had only learned existed 24 hours prior.

But we’ve all been there, haven’t we? Stopped in our tracks by the jarring realisation that our devices may indeed be listening to us.

And no matter how many times we ask our apps not to monitor our activity, interacting online in 2022 still means being besieged by…

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Thred Media
Thred Media

Written by Thred Media

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