As part of its own ongoing confusion about what it is (which is both a cause and consequence of this problem
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As part of its own ongoing confusion about what it is (which is both a cause and consequence of this problem, Twitter has been on a campaign recently to worsen its service. The current version of this is to make Twitter more Facebook-ish by giving control of your timeline to its algorithms.
Until recently, the Twitter timeline was pretty easy to understand: it’s all the tweets, in reverse-chronological order (i.e., newest-on-top), that have been posted by people you follow. Then Twitter started adding promoted tweets, and whatever “moments” are. They will even periodically put into your timeline tweets they think you’ll like, even though you don’t follow them. Now, Twitter has started shaping your timeline more aggressively: “Tweets you are likely to care about most will show up first in your timeline. We choose them based on accounts you interact with most, Tweets you engage with, and much more.” Last month, this was an opt-in “feature,” but this week it’s apparently been switched on for everyone.
Fortunately, this can, for now, be turned off (via BGR):
On twitter.com:
- Log in to your account on twitter.com and go to your Account settings page.
- Under Content, look for Timeline and toggle the box next to Show me the best Tweets first to change the setting.
Of course, the fact that this setting exists doesn’t mean Twitter will honor it. Facebook, for example, perpetually resets its setting about how you want your timeline ordered, so it’s probably the case that Twitter will do the same.
Photo “tweet” by Flickr user Mozzercork / Creative Commons licensed BY-2.0
