Bump My Algo: Using the Humanities to Burst My Bubble
Sameness stifles creativity. Here's what we can do about it
Has this ever happened to you? You’re thinking about something, but haven’t even spoken it out loud yet, and content related to your thoughts comes across your feed? It happened to me today, ironically both the result of a predictable algorithm AND an intent to break it.
My algorithm predicts I will enjoy artistic content that challenges predictable algorithms. It’s not wrong—and yet, by the grace of all things bright and beautiful, there I go.
About four months ago I ran a poll here about posting more humanities content on Sundays. I started The Anti-Fundamentalist with the humanities because art, music, and curiosity are both how I escaped a cult and brainwashed thought, and how I continue to deconstruct fundamentalist influences in my ongoing recovery.
I share that journey in A Well-Trained Wife— it’s the story of the Trapdoor Society— and I shared those early posts on social media with Abblassen as the music. CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt was my childhood portal to diverse curiosity about art, music, nature, and wonder. The humanities are a go-to comfort when I’m in a funk.
About two months ago, as I simmered on the enthusiastic YES of that poll, I purchased a book called The Heart of the Humanities. When it arrived I was in the middle of book launch prep so I set it on my TBR stack and moved on.
A month ago I launched the creative work of my lifetime so far.
So, if my algo predicts I like art, music, and wonder amid politics, trauma talk, and religious scandal, perhaps I’ve taught it that I find creative left turns restful.
To this dynamic, a reel by Karenxcheng appeared in my Instagram feed today—a day I’d already earmarked as an early-ender. Yesterday, after tearfully reacting to a phantom fear, I realized I needed a breather. A mental health holiday is a good idea after a great big book launch, but I also noticed I felt itchy more than just time off social media.
Unplugging isn’t always the most restorative choice I can make. A diligent self-care devotee, I already have periods of calm, quiet, sleep, nourishment, fresh air, grounding, and movement built into my day. Sometimes what I need to reinvigorate and refresh my energy is to pull the other way. Color, vibrancy, new ideas, foreign directions—this is brain food—and it cuts through the crap.
Define crap, I hear myself say. Well, in this instance, my typical talking points have audibly blurred into a single yammering noise source. If I strung it all into a single word it would look like this:
TrumparlingtondisrespectscandalVanceopenedhisstupidmouthwhy areDNCjournalistsandinfluencersfightingKamalaWalzelectionHeritageTradHowertonWebbonBadPastorSexeducationTraumaHealingBookTalkingheadscomedyFOXtrendingvideosforyoublahblahblahblah….
Boredom for me doesn’t look like sitting around wondering what to do. I’m busy and stay that way, even when I’m slow and still, and I love this for me. No, boredom is tedium. A sea of mediocrity. More of the same. Small mindedness. Making up for quality with manipulative music or urgent tones. Laugh tracks telling me what’s funny. Talking heads with hypnotic ring lights reflected in their eyes.
And it’s not all negative. Sometimes the good stuff I love hits the doldrums. The magic is gone. My eyes stare through and past it and assume the long highway before is (blech) more of the same.
This reminds me of some pastor in my past suggesting if we had steak and chocolate cake every day we’d get sick of that too.
So, KarenXCheng. She has 1.3M followers on IG so a spot in my suggested feed isn’t that surprising. Her video was a cardboard animation challenging the Instagram algorithm and the impact the competition with Tiktok has had on artists. The video also served as a collaborative promo for the free version of Patreon—payment free but also algo free—which offers a chance for creators to make whatever they want without wondering how creative left turns will impact their social media performance.
I followed Karen, whose work has nothing to do with the crap mentioned above, and used her project as a nudge to my own.
I crave a mental health break with creative intention. I’m overdue for a bump to my social media algorithm as well as my internal habits, routines, patterns, binaries, and brain food sources.
Introducing #bumpmyalgo. There are no parameters. It’s off-brand and off-topic (kinda.) If you want to join me, use the hashtag on Instagram so I can see your posts. For the next three days, I’m going to share my art, vintage IG posts, and what I’m learning that is NONE OF THE ABOVE.
Maybe I’ll take a road trip. Go to a museum. Eat something new. Crack open The Heart of the Humanities. And speaking of—I couldn’t find this book on social media. That reminds me there’s a whole world of people who never promote their work on social media. And there’s another whole world of people who only consume work shared on social media.
Seems to me health is probably a crossover. A genre bend. The big fat juicy peachy middle. A little of this, a dash of that.
Wanna play?
"...there's a whole world of people who never promote their work on social media. And there’s another whole world of people who only consume work shared on social media."
Yes! Occasionally I am disappointed when I look up an author or artist on social media and can't find anything. But it awakens me to remember that social media is only a segment of reality, and some pretty amazing stuff happens outside of it!
I am reframing sad, mad, or scared to be informing and protective rather than negative and bad.