Why ‘Algorithm Hygiene’ Is the Most Important Thing for Your Self-Development in 2025 + How to Do It · Primer

Your feeds aren’t just showing you content—they’re quietly shaping your thoughts, habits, and decisions. Time to clean them up.

As crazy as it is to say, we live in the future now. The algorithms serving us content are also shaping who we are, and most of the time, we don’t even notice it happening.

They quietly curate the options we’re presented with—what content we consume, what products we buy, and even the ideas we’re exposed to. Social media, streaming platforms, shopping sites, and search engines all rely on algorithmic curation, building personalized feeds driven by our previous actions and the behavior of others. 

While it feels like we’re engaging with the world as it naturally is, algorithms amplify some options at the expense of others, subtly reshaping how we see the world. What starts as a system designed to show us more of what we’ve expressed interest in can quickly turn into one that dictates the range of options available to us.

Algorithms are not just tools but gatekeepers, shaping roughly 90% of the content that we see, subtly influencing our thoughts and feelings.

In 2018, the head of YouTube said 70% of the videos watched on the platform were garnered via personalized algorithmic recommendations made to its users. And a 2013 report from McKinsey claimed 35% of purchases made on Amazon are driven by algorithmic recommendations. In the speed of the AI era, these statistics are so ancient they’re practically uncitable. But I include them to show that by now, these numbers must be nearing totality, highlighting just how deeply these systems are embedded in our daily decision-making.

When the algorithms that determine what we see become too tight or concentrated you get what’s known as a filter bubble. Far from just echo chambers, they shape more than the opinions you encounter. The content you engage with doesn’t just kill time waiting for the elevator; it shapes the future state of your mind, influencing your focus, values, and emotional well-being.

If we take care of what we eat because what we put into our bodies determines the future state of our health, we must also be mindful of what content we consume. So what’s the fix? It’s not about throwing your phone in the ocean, but practicing something we could call algorithm hygiene.

Improving Your Algorithm Hygiene

We’ve all heard stories—and likely experienced ourselves—how people’s thinking and preferences can be subtly manipulated by the constant stream of content curated by algorithmic suggestions. The cultural touch point of people “being diagnosed with ADHD from TikTok” or getting sucked into pop culture feuds or political narrative drama because of the endless back and forth these platforms encourage from its users.

• A young professional scrolling TikTok sees endless 4:30 a.m. routines and business empires built before breakfast, leaving them demotivated, less productive, and more anxious than ever.

• Someone follows a few fitness influencers and drowns in bro science, bogging down their relationship with working out and keeping them from just starting.

• Another person falls down a YouTube rabbit hole and emerges as a die-hard conspiracy theorist, convinced they see the world more clearly than anyone else.

• A hobby artist looking for inspiration on Pinterest gets bombarded with posts that make every creative project feel like it has to be a side business.

These aren’t fringe cases; they’re everyday examples of how algorithms curate not just what we consume but how we think and feel when we’re doing it passively.

It’s why, despite having access to more content than ever, you can scroll through a streaming service and feel like there’s nothing to watch—just the same options it always shows you. While the sheer volume of content on the platform is staggering, the algorithm’s narrow focus often isolates us from the full range of ideas, options, and possibilities that exist beyond its predictions.

Consider the events of the past month when TikTok faced the brink of being shut down due to new legal changes. This isn’t just about preferences anymore; it’s about power. The platform’s (potentially short-term) resurrection has reignited debates about a foreign government not only accessing the personal data of millions of Americans but also influencing their thinking and behaviors.

The reality is that these systems aren’t inherently malicious—they’re just engineered to keep us engaged. But in doing so, they can feed us a stream of hyper-personalized content that can distort our sense of reality.

We can clearly see this in others — but most of us are blissfully ignorant that it IS happening to us too. Just because you didn’t fall into the algorithmic content trap that you’ve seen others fall into, does not mean you haven’t fallen into a different one.

Practicing algorithm hygiene means taking back the reins of your mental environment and consciously deciding what you want to nurture.

Your digital environment mirrors your attention.

I often think about and chuckle at this older man I saw being interviewed on the news, complaining that TikTok is just young girls dancing in bikinis. The joke being in his unintentional self-own—he doesn’t realize that this is what his TikTok feed shows because of how he’s interacted with that type of content. Someone else’s feed, shaped by entirely different habits, will never display those videos.

His feed reflects his habits, not a universal truth. This highlights the first principle of algorithm hygiene we need to embrace:

Step 1: How to Clearly See Your Algorithmic Environment

Ever notice that your Netflix recommendations feel like a loop of rom-coms, crime dramas, or nostalgic sitcoms? This “algorithmic stagnation” keeps you stuck.

→ To break free, add a new user or log out of your accounts and observe the content offered outside of your profile.

This exercise reveals how algorithms pigeonhole you based on past behaviors. Think about whether these recommendations promote growth or box you into a persona that no longer serves you.

Or perhaps it’s mostly correct but Youtube is clearly over-emphasizing camera review hot takes when you’re not even in the market anymore.

Step 2: Train Algorithms with Your Attention: The Scroll Stops Here

Scrolling Instagram, you stumble upon a provactive video designed to outrage. You pause—not because you agree, but because you can’t look away. It’s the social media equivalent of rubbernecking a fender bender on the highway.

Over the next week, your feed and recommendations are flooded with similar content. This cycle isn’t accidental; platform algorithms prioritize attention over intention.

→ Break the loop by intentionally scrolling quickly past inflammatory content and muting similar posts. Recognize that outrage or emotional-driven content is engineered to hook you. Replace it with purposeful engagement by following creators who align with your values. Over time, this process fosters a feed that adds to your life rather than agitates.

Step 3: Curate Your Inputs

A friend of mine realized he was overwhelmed by hustle newsletters and repetitive entrepreneur influencers and went on a tear, unsubscribing from 50+ email lists.

The result? Mental clarity. He told me his experience with his inbox in the following days was palpably different. Less junk, distraction, and click-bait-y emails that made him feel like he wasn’t doing enough.

Strangely, his most surprising outcome was that after he unsubscribed from these “grind harder” type outlets, his productivity went up. Sometimes the message we think we need to hear keeps us from doing the thing we need to do. 

→ Weekly, review your digital subscriptions and social media follows. Use features like “Show Less of This” to reduce noise. Replace accounts that promote a sense of comparison or inadequacy with ones that inspire growth. Consider creating accounts for specific silos so that everything isn’t crammed into one lane forcing mental sifting. A separate Instagram account that only follows entrepreneur-world content, for example, allows you to choose when you look at it instead of getting hooked into it when you meant to go look at the photos from your cousin’s birthday. 

Step 4: Create Algorithmic Awareness

Consider scheduling “screen-free days” to observe how often you reach for your phone out of habit.

→ Pay attention to the impact of disconnection: Does it improve your mood, creativity, or engagement with loved ones? Are you more agitated because you can’t self-medicate with your normal distractions?

Use this awareness to recalibrate your digital habits. Identify apps that consume excessive time and explore offline alternatives.

Step 5: Use Algorithms to Manually Create a List of Content to Consumer Later

Algorithms are not inherently bad. At their best, they’re very good at finding things we are likely to enjoy or offer up something we could never have sought out because we didn’t know it even existed. 

Something that has been easy and helpful to curb my mindless scrolling is to separate the “deciding what to watch” phase from the “watching” phase.

On Youtube, for example, sometimes when I have a few spare moments, I’ll open the Youtube app and add videos to various Watch Later lists I’ve created. Then, when I sit down for lunch and want to watch something without burning time scrolling or getting sucked into watching things that aren’t intentional, I simply go to my Watch Later list and find something my earlier self thought would be educational or interesting. 

→ Separate the internal roles of the curator and the consumer by creating watch later lists.

Step 6: Good Hygiene is Daily, Not Periodical

Just like brushing your teeth or showering, your digital habits require daily attention to stay effective. Algorithms don’t pause, and neither should your awareness of managing them.

Every interaction you have—from the posts you like to the time you spend lingering on a video—feeds the system. This means that small, consistent actions, like using “Not Interested” or carefully choosing what you engage with, have a cumulative impact over time. Think of it as tiny deposits in the bank of mental clarity and intentional living.

Good algorithm hygiene isn’t occasional detoxes or dramatic purges. It’s integrating mindful habits into your digital consumption so it supports your life, rather than distracting from it.

The result? A more balanced, calm, creative, and fulfilling life—one that you actively shape, rather than passively mirror.