When you scroll through Twitter, do you see posts, comments, and retweets from all the accounts you follow, or just a few things from a few major accounts, with seemingly no reason because those posts are from days earlier?
For most people, the latter is the case. They only see messaging from a few blue-check accounts and the messages from normal people that those accounts have retweeted, or a few posts from random people that have gone viral and gotten thousands upon thousands of likes and retweets.
Well, that’s because of the Twitter algorithm, which though a bit of a black box generally promotes trending content that it thinks you’ll like.
Hence why the blue-checks crowd your timeline; they’re generally larger, so their tweets get more likes and retweets, so they pop up in your timeline. The little guy is crowded out by the people who spend a ton of time on Twitter.
But Elon made major waves by showing people on Twitter how to get around that and move from dealing with the algorithm to just seeing tweets in chronological order (well really reverse chronological order: the newest tweets from people you follow pop up at the top of your feed if you do what he says, regardless of who posted them or whether they’re trending or not).
Here’s what he said to do:
Chronological tweets seem much better than what “the algorithm” suggests
Tap on the stars in upper right of screen to revert to chronological
Tap on the stars in upper right of screen to revert to chronological
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2022
That’s it. That’s all you have to do. Go on Twitter, open scroll to the top of your feed, and tap on the “stars” in the upper right hand corner. Tap on the stars, and you’ll get the option to turn on a chronological timeline. Do so, and the algorithm will be defeated, or at least dealt a serious blow.
He later gave the advice again, saying:
Very important to fix your Twitter feed:
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.
Very important to fix your Twitter feed:
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 14, 2022
Adding to that, he emphasized what’s going on with that algorithm, saying:
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 manipulate/amplify your viewpoints without you realizing this is happening
I took Elon’s advice and reverted my timeline to chronological order; what I found was that I saw tweets from a far greater number of accounts, got to interact with people whose content I rarely saw before, and rarely saw boring bluecheck bromides. So I’d highly recommend it!
Even Twitter’s former CEO, Jack, agreed with Elon, tweeting out that he thought the chronological timeline was better than the algorithmic one:
this is the way
though the algorithm is good at surfacing stuff you’d otherwise miss by not scrolling. reverse chron best for live and breaking events. having choice is the most important. ideally being able to choose what algo you want to use…
Elon agreed with him, saying “Yeah”.
Yeah
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2022
“Yeah” indeed. The reverse chronological timeline is far better for seeing breaking news and getting to keep up with a variety of accounts rather than just the trite nonsense that a few major bluechecks are pushing. It makes Twitter far better, and limits the company’s ability to censor via algorithms and keep certain messages hidden by keeping them out of your timeline.
By: Gen Z Conservative, editor of GenZConservative.com. Follow me on Parler and Gettr.
