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Social Media: A Power that Fractures

Ever since the Internet (Net) had existed, the promise had been that we would gain the power to more easily control and direct our lives through the power of accessible information, instant communication, and personalization. Though the means of these promises are real, the power of control we have on the direction of our life is quickly disappearing under our feet without us knowing. My goal is to show how it is affecting us, and what I do to self-determine how I want to live and interact with the Net.

1. How Social Media has changed us

1.1 Personalization

Companies such as Meta (Facebook & Instagram), Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Open AI give us the power to personalize how we navigate the Net through filters. Filters not in the sense of searching (though that is a tool of filtering), but as a toolkit that allows us to choose what we consume, such as books, music, videos, and people. In it's infant stages, this toolkit required us to manually configure what to consume based on our interest. Even in it's early stages, the consequences for this new potential of hyper-personalization could be catastrophic; hyper-personalization has the power to fracture our society, which was once a society that shared information and culture — now it is a society of diverging dialectics and fractured information.

1.2 Introduction of the Algorithm

When the algorithm is introduced, personalization was no longer just a choice — it was a requirement. However, this requirement was not just personalization forced upon us — it was hyper-personalized chosen by these companies, locking us from how we wanted to navigate the Net, taking control away from us. Social media companies and tech companies have specialists dedicated to creating algorithms that know exactly what we want to consume. They first gave us the power to follow who we want to follow and see what we want to see — then they take it away.

One may ask, isn't it good that they know what I want and they can give it to me more easily and more accessibly? The answer is a definite No, take a look at how polarized our social media experiences are depending on the person. On all social media platforms, the left and the right have feeds filled with diametrically opposed opinions, but also information — more particularly, disinformation. In college, people form into groups with people who are like them in terms of majors, year, sports, interests, culture, and specific internet-driven social archetypes; groups and students are in close proximity and are exposed to other groups on a daily basis, independent of our control. This is not the case with social media, in which all experience and information is divided in their own digital tribes or subcultures that acts as an echo chamber, polarizing other subcultures.

1.3 Control

As humans, we aim to control anything that affects our lives, but these companies have given us no other option, to either be controlled or to be forgotten by our friends and family. Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube used to only show posts of people you follow or subscribe to, when you have seen all of the posts, that was the end of it. But with the advent of TikTok, the landscape changed — Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter adopted the short-form content (Reels, Shorts, and Immersive Media Viewer, respectively).

The algorithms paired with these short-form content capitalized on our attention spans along with our interests. Browsing any social media platform now feature short-form content on our feeds that were once controlled and curated by us. By its addictive design, we accept it so that we can still be active in a world dominated by online social interactions. But the problem runs deeper, not only are companies now able to curate our interests and people for us, they can now control our interests and people we interact with, with the sole goal of profit.

Think about the power they hold, they may present us content that could be misinformation or disinformation in order to swing us to one political side or the other with a simple injection of a video or tweet. They are not bound by morality but by profits and only profits. Advertisements may pay them to manipulate our opinions or thoughts. In the age of AI, information and data points can be assimilated to information that can describe nearly everything about us — guess who owns it, not us, them.

2. How I take back Control

I have struggled with gaining control back to my own life in the way I see fit, and I still struggle. But I hope to give some insight on how I have made this struggle for control work in my favor. Some apps I do not own, such as Twitter and TikTok, but I will include alternatives based on the works of many great developers that are often open sourced and free. However, with one very big limitation — I am using android. Most of my friends and the general population use Apple devices, which does not allow sideloading or app modification; this philosophy Apple has taken takes control away from us even more. Of course, do your own research and there may be alternatives you can find for the Apple ecosystem. Reddit is your best friend when it comes to finding things to give control back to you.

2.1 Instagram

Instagram is incredibly addicting with reels, but it is useful for connecting with friends in college and as a messaging platform. I have my Feed, Reels, and Explore section disabled. However, you can choose to still have feed enabled but disable suggested Reels or Posts in your feed.

For Android: Download InstaPrime, click on settings -> Focus Mode and choose which you want to disable. To keep Stories and Feeds, go to settings -> Feed and Stories and choose your desired options.

For iPhone: There is no dedicated Instagram app that can disable the addicting features. However, people have used Beeper to use retain Instagram's messaging features but without the addicting UI Instagram has designed.

2.2 YouTube

YouTube is a great way to find and learn information about topics you are interested in, either for school or daily life. I have designed my YouTube such that I cannot be recommended anything so that it is an intentional tool I can use — instead of it using me. When I open YouTube, it brings me to my subscriptions page, where I can see the videos of creators which I am subscribed to. My subscriptions are intentional, with creators that make content I genuinely subscribe to. I have disabled all navigation tabs except for subscriptions and my profile to see history and liked videos. Thumbnails are still captures so I am not visually persuaded to watch the video.

YouTube allows you to disable the Shorts feed entirely. (Im not sure if this is accurate or still current)

For more Control these are the apps recommended: For Android: Download Youtube ReVanced, to access ReVanced settings click on profile -> settings -> ReVanced. In Revanced Settings I have the following options configured.

For iPhone: Setup for Youtube++ can be followed here by this link: https://vanced.to/revanced-for-ios, I am unaware of the features it has.

Configuration

Feed:

  1. hide Chips Shelf
  2. hide community posts
  3. hide compact banners
  4. hide expandable card
  5. hide floating microphone button
  6. hide horizontal shelves
  7. hide image shelf
  8. hide latest posts
  9. hide latest videos
  10. hide mix playlists
  11. hide movies section
  12. hide 'Notify me' button
  13. hide 'Show more' button
  14. hide surveys
  15. hide video recommendations
  16. hide 'You may like' section

Alternative thumbnails:

  1. Home tab = Still captures

General:

  1. Navigation buttons -> Hide Home, Shorts, Create, and Notifications
  2. Change start page = All subscriptions
  3. Always change start page
  4. Restore old settings menu

Player:

  1. hide related videos overlay
  2. hide timed reactions

Shorts:

  1. Hide Shorts in channel page
  2. Hide Shorts in Subscription feed
  3. Hide Shorts in Home feed
  4. Hide Shorts in search results

2.3 Twitter, TikTok, and Reddit

I dont have any experience with these apps, but here are some apps/software that may help.

Twitter: Focust Available for Android devices only.

Reddit: Hydra Available for IOS, ReVanced Reddit for Android

TikTok: In my opinion, it is inherently addicting, a full stop of usage is what I recommend. However If you look up distraction free methods for TikTok, I'm sure you can find them.

2.4 Browser Extensions

I got these list of extensions from: u/Superb_Teaching359

Download:

Antigram - block instagram feed on website (you can post and message)

Esuit- Block facebook ads

Facebook Reels Blocker

Hide Shorts, Stories, Reels and Video

News Feed Eradicator (this can block instagram feed, youtube, and reddit!!)

Tiktok Ad Block

Tiktok Feed Blocker

Unhook - Remove youtube recommended ...

Reddit promoted ad blocker

DF Youtube

-Written 07/14/2026 by Spencer Lee