Instagram's New Algorithm Is Going to Determine the Order of Your Feed

Impact

Why let old-fashioned chronology run your social media feed when a slick new algorithm can do it instead?

Instagram will be rolling out their own algorithm "in the coming months," they said in a blog post on Monday. 

"You may be surprised to learn that people miss on average 70% of their feeds," the photo- and video-sharing company explained. "As Instagram has grown, it's become harder to keep up with all the photos and videos people share. ... To improve your experience, your feed will soon be ordered to show the moments we believe you will care about the most." 

Read more: See How Absurdly Simple It Is to Fake Perfect Instagram Pics With This Hack 
AFP/Getty Images

There is a rising concern that the trend of letting algorithms dominate our social media platforms actually undermines a major factor that draws us to social media in the first place: that they're a level playing field for everyone. 

Facebook has been criticized for its algorithm, which many businesses have had to pay a price for — both literally and figuratively.

"It fueled the stratospheric rise of billion-dollar companies like Zynga and LivingSocial — only to suck the helium from them a year or two later with a few adjustments to its code, leaving behind empty-pocketed investors and laid-off workers," Slate's Will Oremus wrote in January.

And a similar concern was expressed during the net neutrality debate in 2014, when the Federal Communications Commission proposed monetizing the delivery of data — meaning companies could pay to get their information out faster, which would would put many smaller or newer companies that can't afford to compete at a disadvantage.  

Allowing human-made algorithms to determine the kind of information we receive may mean you're more likely to catch the @TheFatJewish's proudest moments... but that might come at the expense of Aunt Viola's latest flower arrangement.