How to gain more control over what you see on social media
There have probably been countless times when you’ve come across content that doesn’t match your interests while scrolling through your social media feed. Fortunately, there are a few settings you can tweak in any social media app to take back control over what you see.
1 Avoid working with posts you’d rather not see
Social media algorithms shape the content you see in your feeds, like your TikTok For You Page (FYP), Instagram Explore page, and even YouTube recommendations. These algorithms track the type of content you interact with and recommend content you’re likely to enjoy.
What really matters is how you engage with the content. With that in mind, don’t engage with content you don’t want to see anymore — even if it makes you sad, angry, or offended.
Don’t comment on, save or share posts that you don’t want to continue to see on your social media feeds. Engaging in these posts will work against you and you’ll end up with your feed full of content you don’t enjoy. So make sure you keep in mind the type of content you’re interacting with.
2 Hide content and mark as not interested
While social media algorithms are usually good at recommending content that matches your interests, they don’t always get it right, and you’ll occasionally come across posts that don’t match your preferences.
In these cases, it can be tempting to leave a negative comment on a post you don’t like, hoping that this will prevent similar content from appearing. However, leaving a negative comment is essentially the same as engaging with a post and signaling to the algorithm that you are interested in this type of content. This can have the opposite effect you’re hoping for, and will likely result in more similar posts appearing in your feed.
So when you come across content you don’t want to see in the future, you have two options: either move on without interacting, or hide those posts and mark them as irrelevant. Most mainstream social media platforms allow you to mark posts as “I’m not interested” or hide them from the feed to help the algorithm tailor post suggestions to better match your interests.
For example, on Instagram, you can tap on three horizontal dots in the upper right corner of the post and select Hide from the menu that appears.
Similarly, on TikTok, you can long press on a video to select I’m not interested from the video controls that appear.
While the exact steps vary across platforms, the process works the same way – telling the algorithm to stop showing similar content.
3 Unfollow sites that post content you don’t like
Sometimes the best solution is to eliminate the problem altogether. If you keep seeing posts on a particular page that you don’t like, instead of hiding their posts or marking them as Uninteresting, a better option is to simply unfollow them.
Most social media platforms have two main sections: an algorithmic feed that shows you new content based on your activity, and a friends/following feed where you see posts from pages and people you follow.
Unfollowing accounts that post content that no longer matches your interests will not only stop their posts from appearing in your friends’ feed, but will also help the algorithm recognize that you’re not interested in the type of content they post. Ultimately, this makes it less likely that similar content will appear in your algorithm feed.
4 Mute or snooze accounts
Many times I hesitated to unfollow certain people when I didn’t like their content because I was worried they would notice. While this isn’t a problem when I’m unfollowing an influencer with tens of thousands of followers, it can be more personal when it’s someone you know.
In situations where you don’t want to completely unfollow someone, but you also don’t want to see their content, platforms like Instagram and Facebook allow you to mute or snooze it.
When you mute or suspend an account, their posts and stories won’t appear in your feed, but if they follow you, they’ll still see what you post. The best part? They won’t get notified that you’ve muted or snoozed them – so no hassles!
You can mute an Instagram account by going to their profile and tapping the button it says Following. Then you just have to choose Mute from the menu and decide if you want to mute them Contributions, Stories, Commentor theirs Notes on posts and reels.
On Facebook, you can suspend your account directly from your news feed. When their post appears, tap three horizontal dots at the top and then select Snooze [Account Name] for a period of 30 days from the menu.
5 Report triggering or harmful content
One of the main reasons I’ve taken a break from social media on several occasions is the amount of content I come across that triggers and makes me feel uncomfortable. Many accounts these days post graphic images and videos without thinking.
When they do, they often rarely bother to add a warning that their post may be sensitive to some users. Even though I used to post like this often, I noticed that similar posts would start appearing in my feed. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and started reporting triggering or harmful content.
Regardless of the platform you use, the process for reporting a post is essentially the same. All you have to do is tap on three horizontal dots or long press the post and select Message from the menu that appears.
You will then be prompted to select a reason. Reporting posts not only helps you regain control over the type of content that appears in your feeds, but also helps promote a healthier online space for others.
6 Enable NSFW/sensitive content filters
Fortunately, NSFW/Sensitive Content filters have caught on, especially when using X (formerly Twitter) or Reddit. You can usually find these filters in your account settings under Content Preferences.
Depending on the platform, you may see a switch to completely turn off the display of media with sensitive content or to limit the amount of this content that is displayed in your feed. Activating these filters massively reduced inappropriate posts that I would come across once in a while.
Social media is supposed to be a source of relaxation, but encountering content that upsets you or isn’t in line with your interests can have the opposite effect. Using the six tips I mentioned above, you should be able to clean up your feed significantly.