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Before yesterdayMain stream

Reset what you see on social media

11 February 2025 at 13:55

You went down a rabbit hole and now gardening (or hot rod or political) posts are all you see online. Algorithms are smart, but they don’t know when you’re ready to get back to your regularly scheduled programming. 

It’s time to reset your feed and take control of what you see.

Win an iPhone 16 Pro with Apple Intelligence ($999 value). 

No purchase necessary. Enter to win now!

5-MINUTE CLEANUP FOR YOUR PHONE AND COMPUTER

Start with Facebook

Goodbye, annoying ads. It only takes a minute to kick out the things you no longer want to see.

The fix: Filter your advertising topics by going to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Account Center > Ad Preferences > Customize ads.

Random Facebook requests can end badly. This one lost a widow $40K.

Now, on to YouTube

Say your family is staying with you for the holidays and your niece is watching cartoons on your YouTube account all day long. Now that’s all YouTube recommends. Delete your search history to get things back to normal. 

The fix: On the YouTube app, tap You to bring up your History. Tap the cog icon > Settings > Manage All History. At the bottom, you’ll see DELETE with a blue down arrow. Tap from the dropdown menu to delete videos from today, a custom range or all time. Click X to remove items individually, if you prefer.

10 TECH UPGRADES TO SAVE YOUR TIME, PRIVACY AND MONEY THIS YEAR

Going forward, turn off your viewing history any time you don’t want those vids in your algorithm. You can set your video and search histories to autodelete, too. Now your YouTube is back to how you like it, with my video podcast at the very top. You’ll love it!

TikTok tracks your habits 

TikTok’s algorithm is built to keep you on the app. Every time you like, follow or comment on something, it tells the algorithm you’re interested in a video, and more videos like it will pop up on your For You page. Disliking a video or writing a nasty comment doesn’t matter, by the way; you still kept watching.

The fix: Reset your feed. Open your Profile in the bottom right corner then press the three lines at the top right > Settings and Privacy > Content Preferences > Refresh Your For You Feed > Continue. 

Fine-tune Instagram 

Watch Instagram Reels instead? There’s no way to reset them, but you can nudge the algorithm in the right direction.

The fix: Tap the three dots in the upper right corner. From here, you can adjust:

I’M A TECH EXPERT: 10 AI PROMPTS YOU’LL USE ALL THE TIME

Here’s the giveaway that an email from Instagram about your security is fake.

Most apps have this option

On just about every social platform, you can hide or see less of certain things. The more you take this action, the more you steer the algorithm.

The fix: Next to a post, video or anything else, look for the three-dot or three-line menu that opens more options. On YouTube, for example, tap the three dots next to a video and choose Don’t recommend channel or Not interested.

Feeling inspired to clean more of your digital traces? Wipe your browser history while you’re at it. Here’s how.

Final piece of advice

Your social media feed is carefully curated based on who you follow, who follows you and, most importantly, what you do online. Sure, you can reset your algorithm, but don’t be fooled. Every post you linger on, like, comment on or share gets tracked and used to shape what you see next. Even just scrolling tells the platform what grabs your attention. 

Before your next deep dive, remember: Big Tech is always watching, and your every move fine-tunes what pops up next.

Get tech-smarter on your schedule

Award-winning host Kim Komando is your secret weapon for navigating tech.

Copyright 2025, WestStar Multimedia Entertainment. All rights reserved. 

Planned Parenthood appears to scrub Instagram as fears of DOGE cuts loom

15 February 2025 at 06:14

Planned Parenthood caught the internet’s attention on Thursday after all of its Instagram posts were deleted within hours of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary RFK Jr.’s swearing in. 

The organization, in an apparent nod to this move, posted a pair of eyes on a black background on its Instagram story with no explanation.

On Friday, Planned Parenthood posted another story, an animated gif with the words "I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me," and later there were just three posts on its Instagram page, all about condom use.

As speculation swirled about the mysterious disappearance of the posts, many pro-life advocates started to call for the defunding of Planned Parenthood. This also comes just days after a conservative watchdog nonprofit founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, urged the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut federal spending on Planned Parenthood.

DOGE MUST 'DEFUND' PLANNED PARENTHOOD, MIKE PENCE'S WATCHDOG GROUP URGES MUSK

"For the sake of the American people and generations yet unborn, the time has come for the United States to finally defund the largest abortion provider in America," Tim Chapman, president of Advancing American Freedom, wrote in a letter to Elon Musk.

Planned Parenthood health centers received nearly $22 billion in HHS grants and $53 billion from public health programs from 2019 to 2021, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

RFK JR TELLS LAWMAKERS THAT ‘EVERY ABORTION IS A TRAGEDY’ AT CONFIRMATION HEARING

During his confirmation hearing, Kennedy said that he believes "every abortion is a tragedy," and expressed support for President Donald Trump’s assertion that states should handle the issue.

"I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy," Kennedy said. "I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year. I agree with him that the states should control abortion. President Trump has told me that he wants to end late-term abortions, and he wants to protect conscience exemptions."  

Kennedy, who has expressed support for abortion in the past, vowed to implement Trump’s policies.

With Kennedy at the helm of HHS and Elon Musk at DOGE, pro-choice advocates fear that Planned Parenthood will be on the chopping block.

On Feb. 3, Planned Parenthood Federation of America put out a statement warning that "defunding" the organization could put patients at risk of losing access to "sexual and reproductive care."

Planned Parenthood Federation of America said that in 2022 the organization treated 2.05 million patients. The services mentioned in the organization’s included more than 4.6 million STI tests, nearly 213,000 breast exams and more. However, no data on the number of abortions performed in that time was listed.

Planned Parenthood did not respond to a Fox News request for comment.

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