Lemon Shortbread

& pushing back against algorithms

Jun 20, 2026

Ingredients & Tools

3-Piece Glass Mixing Bowl Set ($17.99): Microwave safe nesting bowls.
3-Piece Non-Stick Baking Sheet Set ($15.29): Standard-sized heavy-duty pans.
2-Piece Silicone Baking Mats ($5.99): Reusable, non-stick pan liners..
6-Speed Electric Hand Mixer ($24.99): Reliable and quick mixing.
5-Piece Star Cookie Cutter Set ($5.98): Nesting stainless steel cutters.

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Aftertaste

In the age of algorithms it’s hard to decipher what you choose to watch and what is merely served to you without you even actively processing what you’re watching. There are the obvious offenders like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok where the endless scroll is the whole purpose of the app. Every scroll is a gamble as to whether you’ll like what the algorithm has fed to you or not which is what makes the act of scrolling so addictive.

Then, there’s apps for streaming music, like Spotify and Apple Music that feed you music they think you’ll like. I’m currently making a YouTube video (stay tuned!) about how I quit Spotify in an attempt to listen to music more mindfully, and it has made me realize not only how passively I’ve been listening to music but also how passively I’ve been consuming most of my entertainment.

Is it risky to criticize the app we’re on right now? Maybe. But, Substack also falls into this trap. The trick is that Substack feels like it’s better for you than other social media in terms of its long form content and focus on sharing thoughtful essays with a small community, but the homepage comes dangerously close to the feel of doom-scrolling on Twitter. Sure, the goal is to find an essay you want to read or a niche you want to engage with, but when a social media app focuses on the scroll, it is not the user’s fault when they have a hard time stopping the scroll.

Pinterest recently came out with an ad that encourages users to put down the phone, stop the scroll, and live the life they are trying to curate. Their ad titled “Pinterest’s latest campaign wants you to live your life, not just scroll it” writes a quote from Pinterest’s Chief Marketing Officer, Claudine Cheever in which she says “most platforms are engineered to keep you scrolling through other people's lives. Pinterest is engineered to get you off the app and into yours.” This is a refreshingly human ad campaign from one of the major social media sites, and it gives me hope for our future in experiencing life in the real world.

All in all, social media is not inherently bad for you, but these businesses are making money off of their users time, so why wouldn’t they try to make their apps as addictive as possible no matter how it affects the average person? Social media is a great way to connect with people and share what you love, but these businesses are making it hard to use their apps mindfully.

To make sure I spend my time doing what I actually want rather than what my algorithm thinks I want, I am trying stop the scroll and use social media as the tool it really is. This could be done by curating a “Watch Later” playlist on YouTube to make your own for you page, searching for a specific piece of art or entertainment and watching it on your own terms, or even just scrolling until you find something you want to do (i.e. a craft you want to try, a recipe you want to make, or a podcast you want to listen to) then exit the app and do it!

Text someone you love. They miss you.