X announced an update to its algorithm to ensure that users are shown more posts from profiles they follow.
Which may seem like a fundamental feature, that should always have been in effect, since a person’s explicit follow choice signals what and who they want to see. But evidently, this had fallen out of the algorithmic code, prompting X to reintroduce it.
As explained by Nikita Bier, X’s head of product: “We’re rolling out a small tweak to boost visibility of your posts to your mutuals (people who you follow back). We noticed this data was missing from the algo and it made your friends appear less in your replies. This resulted in the reply section feeling more like a battleground with people you don’t recognize. This should also help clusters form around interests more easily, which many people have asked for.”
Again, this may seem like a fairly obvious example of something that should always be a priority within an engagement-based algorithmm in that users should be shown posts from the profiles that they’ve explicitly chosen to see more of.
But in the age of engagement algorithms, which are increasingly defined by user behaviors, this is clearly no longer the norm. Platforms now have to build in code parameters to ensure people see posts from the people and profiles they follow.
In some ways, this makes sense. Evidence shows that social media platforms drive more engagement from users when the platforms implement algorithms that show users more of what they like based on actual usage rather than on who they choose to follow.
But this has also long been a pain point for many apps. Artificial intelligence-powered recommendations have crowded out updates from people users know and profiles they’ve chosen to follow, and users end up missing updates that they’ve told the system they want to see.
So in some ways, this is an odd update, because this shouldn’t require an update. But this is also the way of the modern social media landscape, which is defined by AI recommendations, not explicit personal preferences.
It may be a little different on X moving forward, at least.
