Posts

Instagram gives you more control over your Reels algorithm

Image
Instagram is launching a new AI-powered feature for fine-tuning which videos appear in your Reels tab. The "Your Algorithm" update allows you to see which topics Instagram already thinks you're interested in based on your previous activity, and then remove some, or add new topics, to better direct what kind of videos you actually want to see. "As your interests evolve over time, we want to give you more meaningful ways to control what you see on Instagram, starting with Reels," Instagram said in its announcement. "Using AI, you can now more easily view and personalize the topics that shape your Reels, making recommendations feel even more t … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Facebook and Instagram will let European users see fewer personal ads

Image
Meta will soon give Instagram and Facebook users in the European Union the option to limit personalized ads, in an effort to comply with the bloc's tech rules. The European Commission announced that the new advertising options will be rolled out in January 2026, and that this is "the first time that such a choice is offered on Meta's social networks." "Meta will give users the effective choice between: consenting to share all their data and seeing fully personalised advertising, and opting to share less personal data for an experience with more limited personalised advertising," said the EU Commission. These upcoming changes are the result … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Facebook’s redesign is making it more like Instagram

Image
Continuing CEO Mark Zuckerberg's plan to make Facebook "way more culturally influential than it is today," Meta is announcing a bunch of new updates to help you "cut through the clutter" and make content in the app. The changes include tweaks to how you see and interact with photos in your feed that could make the experience feel a bit more like Instagram. As part of updates to make your feed "simpler and more immersive," when you post multiple photos at once, they'll show up in a grid, and you'll also be able to double tap photos to like them. The company is redesigning how you make Stories and feed posts by "putting the most popular tool … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Facebook and Instagram have a new hub to help get hijacked accounts back

Image
The new hub centralizes account support options. Meta on Thursday announced it is launching a new, centralized support hub for Facebook and Instagram, acknowledging that getting help hasn’t always been as easy as it should be. The space will bring together all the support features users of both networks need to report account issues or recover one they’ve lost access to. “Getting help with your account should be simple and accessible,” the company explained, adding that it’s aware “support hasn’t always met expectations.” The update is rolling out globally to users of both social media platforms on iOS and Android. Meta said it is also working on an AI assistant “for instant, personalized help” with things like recovering your account or updating settings. Initially, this will only be available to Facebook users, but Meta said it is “exploring bringing it to our other apps in the future.” As the hub is accessed through the Facebook or Instagram apps, it’s not clear how...

News Daddy ❤️ New York Times 🤡

Image
Ankit Khanal gets his news from News Daddy. More than 20 times a day, Khanal, a sophomore at George Mason University, opens TikTok to have the biggest stories of the day delivered to him by a bleach-blonde 26-year-old named Dylan Page, one of the leading faces in a growing community of news influencers. Based in the United Kingdom, Page began posting content on TikTok in August 2020 and has since grown his “News Daddy Empire,” his posts amassing over 1.5 billion likes. His content spans breaking news, politics, pop culture, and sometimes, personal workout videos — delivered in the increasingly common, enthusiastic “YouTube accent.” While Page doesn’t explicitly cite his sources in every video, News Daddy appears to get his information from a mix of conventional news outlets, social media, and other influencers.  As a computer science major, Khanal says he’s cautious of algorithms and their effects on media consumption. He even wrote and delivered a speech on the ...

Car influencers love Chinese EVs — and China loves them back

Image
The first Chinese-made car Omar Rana ever drove was a gas-powered SUV that he rented while on a trip overseas in 2015. To say it didn't leave much of an impression would be an understatement. "It sucked really bad," Rana, aka OmarDrives , tells me. "A horrible experience." Flash forward nearly a decade to last year, when Rana received a DM from a company he'd never heard of called DCar Studio inviting him to check out a few Chinese EVs in Los Angeles. It wasn't surprising that DCar would reach out to Rana. With his 90,000 subscribers on YouTube and over 280,000 followers on Instagram, he's built a small but respectable following over the y … Read the full story at The Verge. * This article was originally published here

Why college students prefer News Daddy over The New York Times

Image
Ankit Khanal gets his news from News Daddy. More than 20 times a day, Khanal, a sophomore at George Mason University, opens TikTok to have the biggest stories of the day delivered to him by a bleach-blonde 26-year-old named Dylan Page, one of the leading faces in a growing community of news influencers. Based in the United Kingdom, Page began posting content on TikTok in August 2020 and has since grown his “News Daddy Empire,” his posts amassing over 1.5 billion likes. His content spans breaking news, politics, pop culture, and sometimes, personal workout videos — delivered in the increasingly common, enthusiastic “YouTube accent.” While Page doesn’t explicitly cite his sources in every video, News Daddy appears to get his information from a mix of conventional news outlets, social media, and other influencers.  As a computer science major, Khanal says he’s cautious of algorithms and their effects on media consumption. He even wrote and delivered a speech on the ...