2️⃣128: Algorithm For President 🗳️

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There’s a lot of stuff out there—on the internet.

I don’t think you comprehend the absurd amounts of stuff, including bad stuff, that’s out there. You’re probably telling yourself “Don’t underestimate me, david not david, I have a pretty good idea of how much stuff, including bad stuff, is on the internet.” 

Whatever you think, it’s more than that.

There are approximately 402.74 million terabytes of data created each day—and that number is going up every single year.

53.72% of all global data traffic comes from videos. Combined with social (12.69%) and web browsing (9.86%), 76.27% of all internet data traffic comes from these three sources.

Facebook generates 5 petabytes of data per day, with the average number of posts per day on a steady rise.

Have you ever even heard of petabytes?

Here’s how storage size goes (from smallest to largest):

• Bytes

• Kilobytes

• Megabytes

• Gigabytes

• Terabytes

• Petabytes

• Exabytes

• Zettabytes

Don’t even worry about how much data that is, our puny little human brains can’t properly comprehend. With so much stuff available, can you imagine trying to sort through all the stuff shared on social media each day to find the best content?

At least 500 million posts are made on X (formerly known as Twitter) per day.

On Instagram, people share 95 million photos and videos a day (but that was actually 9 years ago, so the number’s probably bigger today, a lot bigger…).

Over 4.75 billion snaps are made each day on Snapchat.

500 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute (as of three years ago…), while people around the world watch one billion hours of YouTube content every day.

There are 62 million total pages on Wikipedia, and over 750 billion images on the internet.

With ~240 million emails sent on the internet every minute, that’s over 333 billion emails per day (but only one a week that people are truly excited for ☺️).

Spotify adds 60,000 new songs every day (as of four years ago…)—so don’t even worry about staying up to date on all the new music. It’s just never going to happen.

As of five years ago, WhatsApp users sent 100 billion messages a day (40% of which are never read because if you WhatsApp me before trying to text me, I’ll just assume you didn’t actually want me to read the message.)

Maybe these numbers don’t seem like much in the grand scheme of things. With over 8 billion people in the world, there’s bound to be tons of stuff on the internet in different languages from different places. Of all that stuff, most of it comes from the US. There are 5,426 data centers across North America built to handle all of this data, while the next closest country is Germany with 529.

But how does all of that data affect you, personally?

An average person will have 4,909 digital data interactions per day in 2025. 

Like I said, there’s a lot of stuff out there, and more going up every second. But the overwhelming amount of stuff isn’t even the worst part. The worst part is the truly horrible shit that’s out there. I’m talking snuff videos and every other depravity you could think of that I don’t even want to type out because I’d rather not get placed on some government watch list that’s triggered by keywords (which I’m probably already on for liking too many anti-Elon tweets).

You could fill out Netflix’s entire streaming library thousands of times over with the amount of horrific content there is floating around on the internet. That’s how much shit is out there.

But let’s not dwell on that 🙈

None of this really matters for most people. Each of us is only responsible for an infinitesimal amount of what is shared. That’s to say, your refusal to use ChatGPT isn’t going to save the planet. There are too many people asking it enough mundane questions before lunchtime, or simply responding with a thank you, to make up for your lack of usage a hundred times over.

Yes, there’s a lot happening on the internet. The thing we all use every single day no matter what. Before you go to sleep, you check the internet. Right when you wake up, you check the internet. When you’re doing your business in the bathroom, you check the internet.

Which leads us to the question: If there’s so much stuff on the internet, and each of us spends so much of our time on the internet, how is it that we see the things we (mostly) want to see, and (mostly) avoid the things we (mostly) don’t want to see?

Setting all that content aside, there’s a ton of content online that’s bad because it’s just not good. Not funny. Not insightful. Not original. Not well-crafted. Just trillions of gigabytes worth of data that is pretty useless because it fails to entertain anyone, provides nothing of value, lacks artistic merit, or is really dumb. How do we avoid the stuff that’s just plain old not good and make sure the precious time we spend online leads us to some #GoodContent?

Allow me to introduce you to my good friend, The Algorithm 🖥️

The algorithm is a neat little set of rules and instructions that sifts through all the bullshit shared on social media platforms every day and selects only the really, really good stuff to show you. At least, that’s what how we’ve been told it works. On one hand, I’ve frequently brought up how my algorithm is much better than yours because I spent so much time blocking all the terrible people and engaging with all the fun ones. On the other hand, the algorithm could also lead to genocide.

Isn’t that fun?

We get to enjoy relevant memes that make you feel something and help you forget about the chances of possibly being deported for having tattoos and a sun tan.

But, also, genocide 🫤

Yes, the internet really is a toss up. But you don’t want to think about that. It’s not a nice thing to think about. The majority of people on this side of the world don’t want to be burdened thinking about the deaths of black and brown people due to things like bigotry, prejudice, and good ol’ fashion hate.

We should be more worried about saving taxpayer dollars by cutting funding to these malicious volunteer programs helping seniors with no resources or providing extra help to public school students in underserved communities. Those are the real threats to freedom. That’s where our valuable tax dollars are being wasted.

So we try to ignore those things on the internet. But, it’s tricky, isn’t it?

Figuring out the juuuust the right way to tweak the algorithm to get what you want. That’s what Zuck, Elon, and everyone else in charge of these platforms are focused on. How do they finetune their equations to make sure the pictures and videos that show up in your feed as you scroll make you stop, stare, like, comment, and share?

They say this is done to provide us with the best online experience. They say the algorithm is the way it is because it responds to what we respond to. Violence, sex, misinformation, all the things that get people excited. A piece of content that will make you stop and watch, or maybe comment, or share with a friend. It doesn’t matter if you comment or share with the intention of saying, “This shit’s really fucked up, someone needs to do something about it.” As in, “We shouldn’t be seeing this, this needs to stop.” When you do that, all the algorithm understands is this is a piece of content people spend time with.

So it pushes it even more.

To be fair, it’s not all rage bait and misinformation. The vast majority of “engaging” content people see on their timelines is Ass & Titties.

The mecca of internet content 🙏

The one piece of content that people of pretty much any demographic enjoy. From pre-teens hoping to get a few hairs above their lip to dudes who were born before televisions existed—we can all agree on one thing: 🍑&(*)(*).

Maybe you’ve consciously worked to make sure you don’t have a plethora of 🍑&(*)(*) coming across your timeline. I know plenty of guys who are scared someone from work or a family member might notice they follow those accounts, so they choose to ignore them completely.

That’s not the only reason to not want those things on your timeline. Maybe you realize the amount of distraction these things cause. It ain’t easy to concentrate on finishing your TPS reports after you’ve just seen the hottest person you’ve ever seen in your life half naked and dancing like they’re trying to seduce you.

It’s a constant tug of war that feels like

Just one wrong move, and the algorithm gets you.

It’s so sensitive, I don’t think people realize the power of what their choices on the internet do to affect the algorithm.

When Instagram started, all you followed were your friends and family. But that was over a decade ago. Since then, you’ve followed more people. You get different things on your timeline. If that wasn’t enough, Meta now injects different things on your timeline without you even asking. Sometimes, that’s a good thing. If you love memes, and you get a suggested post that’s a funny meme from a funny account, you found a new source of great memes. You might even discover more accounts you never knew about before because they algorithm realized how much you love memes and helped you discover these smaller accounts.

But, make one wrong move, one wrong tap, and all of a sudden, it’s

Do you know how long it takes to rid your timeline of 🍑&(*)(*) once you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole? I do. I’ve done it various times (😇). You need to be disciplined. You need to spend about 2–3 months liking nothing but things that you would rather see. For me, it was memes, yoga, and graffiti. Three straight months of going to meme accounts and liking as many posts as possible. Double tapping every single graffiti post that came across my feed, and commenting or sharing yoga stuff when I saw it.

After three arduous months, the algorithm finally caught the hint and reverted to something I could actually open in public.

But that algorithm is one sneaky fella.

All it takes is one friend of yours to post a bikini pic that you interact with, and now we’re back to

It’s a never-ending battle. A battle the algorithm always wins.

The only weapon I’ve found strong enough to combat the algorithmic overlords is Bluey. Next time your feed turns to 🍑&(*)(*), just go to #Bluey and like every single post you see. Not even the algorithm is immune to the charm of a family of animated Australian dogs that walk on two legs.

Bluey aside, what if I told you there was a way to get rid of all the things you don’t want to see, such as violence, misinformation, and, yes, even 🍑&(*)(*)

A way you could free yourself from the algorithm ⛓️‍💥

Stay tuned to next week’s email when I tell you all about it.

PS

Last week I said to click on the ad below, then I accidentally deleted the ad before sending out the email. Thanks to everyone who called it out. I appreciate you having my back. This week, we have an actual ad, please click to help me out.

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