The Psychological Reason We Need Everything To Be Connected
Conspiracy theories, algorithms, and patterns.
Humans are funny. We are inherently ordered, organized creatures. When we see an unstructured mess, we instinctively look to find patterns and order.
Take this example: I don’t understand the Instagram algorithm one bit. Some pictures I post do really well, and are “picked up” by the algorithm for further distribution to Instagram users, while others, very similar ones, get passed over completely.
I can never predict which will succeed. Things I would anticipate to matter — photo quality, caption humor, theme — don’t seem to make any difference. Sure, there are some trends, but enough outliers occur that I can’t guarantee a post will do well or not.
I did notice a trend happening with completely external factors, though.
On days when my hair was especially bad, greasy, flat, or uncooperative, the Instagram posts did better.
I’m not joking. I even made a chart to track it.
