Money makes money and these 10 people of the Bloomberg rich list have made a lot of it over the years. And by a lot, we mean a LOT! Image: JIM WATSON / AFP
Money makes money and these 10 people of the Bloomberg rich list have made a lot of it over the years. And by a lot, we mean a LOT! Image: JIM WATSON / AFP
With Elon Musk still trying to complete his purchase of Twitter, progress on the deal has stalled in the past few days. However, Elon Musk hasn’t lost his interest in the social media site – and he’s shared this helpful hack with the rest of us.
One of the most controversial aspects of the Twitter algorithm is its tendency to show users posts in a non-chronological order, prioritising Tweets that the system thinks each user ‘is more likely’ to take an interest in.
It works for some, but others aren’t so sure – and Elon Musk is certainly the latter. That’s why he shared a three-step technique to ‘fix’ our Twitter feeds, returning your Twitter settings to show posts as they are uploaded:
Very important to fix your Twitter feed:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 14, 2022
1. Tap home button.
2. Tap stars on upper right of screen.
3. Select “Latest tweets”.
You are being manipulated by the algorithm in ways you don’t realize.
Easy to switch back & forth to see the difference.
However, this advice somewhat irked Twitter founder Jack Dorsey – who defended the algorithm he essentially created for the site. He stated that the feature helps users catch-up ‘when they’ve been away for a while’, serving as a ‘convenience’.
“It was designed simply to save you time when you are away from app for a while. Pull to refresh goes back to reverse chron as well. They simply try to put the tweets that you’re *most likely* to engage with at the top.”
“That’s it. Predictive based on what you like, retweet, reply to, search for, pause on, etc. it’s meant to be a convenience, nothing more. Again most important is being able to turn off.”
Jack Dorsey
Elon Musk clocked this response, and offered a more nuanced take on the matter. He believes that the default system simply ‘manipulates and amplifies’ one’s own viewpoints – something the free speech advocate is dead-against:
“I’m not suggesting malice in the algorithm, but rather, that it’s trying to guess what you might want to read and, in doing so, inadvertently manipulates/amplifies your viewpoints, without you realizing this is happening.”
Elon Musk