A Shocking Start
How Signing up for an X Account Validated this Endeavor
We finally decided to dive in. I purchased the knowcurtains.com domain and started securing the user handles across platforms. Sick of data breaches and SPAM emails, I naively used a proxy address to setup an account in X. It was a mistake. Why? It’s the only logical explanation for what happened next.
I entered my details, set my password, verified my humanity, selected topics like technology and news, and followed a bunch of tech blogs and social media X accounts. It said I was all set and took me to my tailored “For You” feed… filled with not a shred of tech news, but instead… adult content.
I couldn’t believe it. Filters have been gold for us, but this particular video editing computer didn’t have the software active. I closed the tab, opened a new one to refresh and it only got worse. I closed the tab again and told my wife what happened.
Returning to the PC, we installed a Firefox extension called “Social Focus.” Once enabled, it can hide thumbnails and all image/video previews when accessing social media accounts via a browser. Its intention is to make social accounts less curiously enticing (a YouTube conversation for another day), but in this case it helped me avoid explicit imagery and begin the process of algorithmic “learning” to avoid accounts like this. Click the three dots… choose not relevant. Rinse and repeat over and over again. I switched to my “Following” feed and started clicking on legitimate tech news posts. After a while, artificial (un)intelligence started filling my feed with the tech news I initially intended to view.
My ignorance got the best of me, but in a way it confirmed the necessity of starting something like Know Curtains… providing adults and teens with insight on the humans and machines behind social media to help them make informed choices about their own social media usage. We hope to curate and produce content that shines a light on the ever-evolving world of social media. As parents of a teen and pre-teen, we realize it’s more important now than ever… for all of us. Because I’m willing to bet I’m not the only well-intentioned ignoramus out there.