Consumptive curation for self-care: in search of clumsier algorithms

In this article, we explore how young adults make sense of their social media use in relation to wellbeing, focusing on their algorithmic imaginaries, practices and sense of agency. Our analysis draws on 125 data accounts collected in Austria, Estonia, Finland and the UK through interviews and autoethnographies, part of a larger research project on digital visual trust in social media communication concerning wellbeing and health. We show that young adults actively curate their social media experience by trying to interact with recommendation algorithms. They explicitly frame such curation practices as a form of self-care seeking to encourage content that supports their wellbeing and discourage content perceived as harmful. However, these practices do not always work as intended. The algorithm was perceived as reacting too quickly or slowly, sorting participants into topical silos or stubbornly ‘remembering’ past viewing behaviors. Our analysis shows that while curatorial self-care practices can be an expression of agency, this agency is partial, temporary, and shaped by the contexts in which platforms are navigated. We propose curatorial self-care as an affective, attentional, and infrastructural form of maintenance. Rather than resisting or optimizing algorithms, our participants engage in continuous negotiation with opaque algorithmic systems to adjust for more manageable digital experiences. We therefore suggest discussions around social media and wellbeing need to shift from prohibiting social media use or focusing on individual literacy and responsibility toward designing algorithms that optimize for wellbeing rather than engagement, or, as put by our participants – we need clumsier algorithms.