Six parts. The trade: the app sells your time to advertisers. The clock: it counts minutes, not whether you were glad. The score: every post is a guess about you, times a weight. Those three were the first half of the course.
The loopit narrows
++
The reactionsfeelings climb
++
The diala few people set it
The loop: what you watch shapes what you see, and it narrows. The reactions: strong feelings get shares, and shares climb. The dial: a few people set the weights, and tests decide what stays. Every story about a feed is about one of the six, and usually names none of them.
More minutes
→
More ad money
Headline: 'Video app's ad income rises 20% as users spend more time in the app.' Which part is this?
The dial.
Not yet. A dial story names a change the company made. This headline names a result, minutes and money, and says nothing about what was changed.
The loop.
Not yet. The loop is about what fills one person's feed. The headline is about the company's money and everyone's minutes, which is the trade.
The trade and the clock: more minutes, more ads, more money.
Right. Minutes went up, and money followed. That is the trade, measured by the clock. Nothing in the headline is about which videos or why.
Each headline is about one part. Deal them.
One card at a time. Tap the pile it belongs to.
Card 1 of 6
Study finds false claims spread faster than corrections on social apps.
Teenager's feed filled with diet videos after she paused on one.
Platform to cut the weight on political posts after a leaked memo.
Photo app admits it pushed video too hard, rolls some of it back.
Angry posts get shared the most, researchers find.
Two friends see completely different feeds from the same app.
Study finds false claims spread faster than corrections on social apps. → The reactions
Not yet. The reactions. Which kind of post travels is about what people do with it, and false claims get the shares.
Teenager's feed filled with diet videos after she paused on one. → Score or loop
Not yet. The score or the loop. One person's feed filling with one thing is a pause turned into a guess, turned into more.
Platform to cut the weight on political posts after a leaked memo. → The dial
Not yet. The dial. The company is changing a weight, and a weight is the dial in the company's hands.
Photo app admits it pushed video too hard, rolls some of it back. → The dial
Not yet. The dial. Pushing video was a weight turned up; rolling it back is the same weight turned down by the same hands.
Angry posts get shared the most, researchers find. → The reactions
Not yet. The reactions. Shares follow feeling, and the study is measuring exactly that link.
Two friends see completely different feeds from the same app. → Score or loop
Not yet. The score or the loop. Two lists from one app means two sets of guesses, each grown by its own loop.
One person's feedscore and loop
++
What kind of post travelsreactions
++
The company changes a numberthe dial
Right. A story about ONE person's feed filling with something is the score and the loop. A story about WHAT KIND of post travels is the reactions. A story about the COMPANY changing a number is the dial.
The company did ita dial
++
The crowd did itreactions
++
You alone did itthe loop
The trick is to ask who did the thing in the headline. If it was the company, look for a dial. If it was the crowd, look for reactions. If it was you, alone, look for the loop. If it was money, look for the trade. The headline rarely says which. Reading on usually shows it.
Slide the marker to how many people in the world, of every 100, have a social media account.
Slide the marker to your guess, then lock it. Nothing is scored.
123
you said · 0 in every 100
actually · 64 in every 100
0 in every 10050 in every 100100 in every 100
1One in four25 in every 100
2Half50 in every 100
3Three in four75 in every 100
People with a social media account, of every 100: —
Most people guess low, thinking of it as something young people do. About 64 in every 100 people alive, over five billion, have an account. The six parts of this course run on most phones on Earth.
Tap the story where a LAW moved the dial.
Tap the part of the picture that answers it.
EU users get a 'newest first' feed option
vsvs
App raises the weight on original videos
vsvs
Users flock to a rival app after a redesign
EU users get a 'newest first' feed option
Right. A law made the company add a switch. That is a dial moved from outside, which is rare, and the reason it makes news.
App raises the weight on original videos
Not yet. The company moved this dial itself, from a test. Same dial, a different hand on it.
Users flock to a rival app after a redesign
Not yet. Users leaving is the crowd. It may push the company to move a dial later, but the headline is about people, not a number.
'The app is better'a word
vs
Minutes went upthe counter
One more thing to check in any headline: what was counted. If a story says an app is 'better', 'safer' or 'healthier', ask what number went up. Usually the number is minutes, opens or money, because those are what get counted. A word like 'better' is a claim. The counter under it is the fact.
The loopturned down
↓→
The dialmoved
↓→
A testdecides
Headline: 'App says its feed will show you less of what you already watch.' Which parts is this about, and what will decide whether it lasts?
The trade. It will last because it is good for users.
Not yet. Good for users is not a counter. The trade is paid in minutes, and a feed that loses minutes loses money. Whatever is announced, the test decides.
The reactions. Fewer angry posts will follow.
Not yet. The headline is about variety, not feeling. Turning down the loop shows you more topics; it says nothing about the weight on shares, which is where angry posts get their lift.
The loop and the dial. A test will decide: if minutes fall, the weight goes back.
Right. Turning the loop down is a weight change. Weights are kept or dropped by tests, and the test counts minutes. If the change costs minutes, it will not survive.
A supermarket
↓→
What you bought, logged
↓→
Offers scored for you
Now a story from outside the feed. A supermarket's loyalty card gives points, sends offers to your phone, and shows different prices to different people. How much of this course applies?
Only the trade. Shops just sell things.
Not yet. The trade is there, and so is the rest: the logging, the guess, the test that picks which offer to send. Shops built these systems from the same parts, and often bought them from the same companies.
Most of it. The card logs what you do, guesses, tests offers, and the shop sets the weights.
Right. Swap videos for products and the parts line up: the clock becomes visits, the score becomes offers, the tests are the same tests. The machine is not about video. It is about anything logged and sorted.
None. A shop is not a feed.
Not yet. A feed is a list sorted by a guess about you. The offers on your phone are a list sorted by a guess about you. The shop is running the same machine on tins of beans.
Lesson complete
Every feed headline is about the trade, the clock, the score, the loop, the reactions or the dial.