Your Algorithm Is a Bad Creative Director — Here's How to Override It
Here's the irony of working in a creative field right now: the more AI can do, the more your personal taste, the idiosyncratic, sometimes weird, uniquely you kind, actually matters. The way you see the world, make connections, and find meaning in things is genuinely your own. The problem is that feeds are specifically designed to pull you toward what everyone else is already responding to. If you haven’t been paying attention, you may already be losing the thread of what you actually think, feel, and find interesting, separate from what you're being served.
It's worth asking honestly: is your taste actually yours right now? Or has it slowly become a highlight reel of whatever's trending in your corner of the internet?
I've been sitting with this question a lot lately. I’m a millennial in design and marketing, and I’ve spent many years of my life looking online for clues on what's trending, what's relevant, what’s "cool." — yet, my feed has gotten smaller even as it's gotten louder. Same aesthetics, same takes, same espresso machine in everyone's kitchen. The algorithm is doing exactly what it's designed to do, which is to show me more of what I've already engaged with. That's not a flaw — it's just not enough. Creativity doesn't live in the familiar. It lives in the gap between what you know and what you haven't encountered yet.
So, here’s my hot take: Consuming content without guardrails is quietly gumming up our ability to develop taste that's actually our own.
The good news is, you have more control over this than you probably think. Here's where I'm starting (and where you should too):
Teach Your Socials Something Better
Every interaction is a vote. A like, a pause, a re-watch. The algorithm builds a picture of you from your most distracted, reactive moments. You can teach it something different, but you have to put a little effort in.
Settings > Content Preferences > Your Algorithm or tap the heart-sliders icon in the Reels tab to manage topic toggles. Reset Suggested Content to wipe your history and start fresh.
Quick Win
Save instead of like. Mute accounts that make you feel behind. Hit "Not Interested" on Reels consistently.
TikTok
Settings > Content Preferences > Topic Management and Smart Keyword Filters to remove categories you don't want.
Quick Win
Watch what you love all the way through. Long-press "Not Interested" on anything that's noise.
Profile > tap your photo > Refine Your Recommendations. Toggle off specific pins, boards, interest categories, or GenAI content.
Quick Win
Name your boards specifically. "Folk Texture Art" trains your feed better than "Inspo" ever will.
Break the Pattern on Purpose
This part gets skipped a lot. Cleaning up your feed matters, but so does actively putting new things in it. Follow someone completely outside your world: river restoration engineer, a competitive rose grower, a person who is extremely serious about sailboats. Start a Pinterest board around a feeling instead of a project. Ask a friend whose taste you admire what they're into right now. A real human recommendation is less convenient, sometimes less spot-on, but richer.
Take a Break
The best creative inputs aren't online. They’re at a book club. A pottery class. A walk somewhere new. The art of noticing is a real skill, and you only build it when you're not half-reading your notifications at the same time. There is no substitute for being somewhere, in person, with your full attention.
Scrolling for inspiration? It’s part of the workflow, right? But consuming ideas is only energizing up to a point. There's a threshold where taking in creative content actually satisfies the urge to make something, and suddenly the afternoon is gone. I've been using the Brick (a physical hunk of grey plastic that locks apps) as a speedbump; it lives on my fridge, and the friction alone is enough to make me think twice before reaching for my phone. Time spent scrolling is not time spent creating.
Think Your Own Thoughts
This sounds so obvious, and yet, when did you last have an opinion or idea and just... sat with it? Something I’m going to try this year is pick up a physical notebook to scribble in more often. It’s well documented that brain dumps and morning pages are incredibly effective for relieving mental clutter and training your creative muscles. Figure out what you actually find beautiful or interesting or funny, separate from what your feed has decided for you.
If you’re a creative, you got into this field because you see things a certain way. Your taste is a valuable professional asset, and more importantly, it’s yours. You're the editor here. Take some time to enrich and refine your tastes, and your work will thank you.