Kōkiri Learn

Background reading · Health and Physical Education

Footprints and feeds: how the online world works

Why posts last and spread, who your invisible audience is, and how feeds use your clicks to decide what you see next.

Walk along a beach and your footprints wash away with the next tide. Online, footprints work differently. Everything you post, like, search and share leaves a trail, and it often stays there.

Four features of online posts

  • Persistence: posts can last for years, even in apps that say messages disappear, because anyone can take a screenshot. - Visibility: a post can be seen by far more people than the ones you had in mind. - Spreadability: copying and forwarding takes one tap, so a message can travel fast. - Searchability: posts, names and photos can be found later by people you've never met.

    • Your invisible audience

    When you talk to friends at lunch, you can see who's listening. Online you can't. A joke written for your best friend can be read by their cousin, their cousin's friends, a teacher or a future boss. Researchers call this the invisible audience. Before you post, picture everyone who might end up seeing it.

    How feeds decide

    Apps use algorithms, which are sets of step-by-step rules, to choose what goes in your feed. They notice what you click, how long you watch, what you like and share, who you follow and what you search. Then they show you more of the same, because that keeps you scrolling.

    That can be handy: more of the sport or music you love. It can also trap you in a bubble where you see only one kind of view, the same worrying news, or the same unrealistic bodies over and over. Watching something to the end, even if you didn't like it, can tell the app to send more.

    Taking back some control

  • Follow on purpose: follow people and pages that make you feel good or teach you something. - Mute and hide: use 'not interested' or mute buttons to change what you see. - Privacy settings: set accounts to private, but remember that settings can't stop someone copying a post. - Pause: if something makes you feel bad, stop, close the app and talk to someone.

    • Sources and further reading

    Written for Kōkiri Learn students in our own words. Check facts against the sources.

    Used in: Kind Online, Strong Offline