Facebook to Overhaul News Feed With More Content From Family and Friends, Less From Publishers

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

if that's what I want give me the option. or let me choose to see everything from my friends and the most popular from my feeds. and maybe even with options to see all the stuff from a feed together and to expand out to everything for that day/feed. with a way to mark things that I've read that I don't want to see in my feed anymore (or reduce it to just a headline to make it easier to scroll past quickly.

lots of ways they could do it

Why let you choose if their data shows it'll just make you less likely to use Facebook? Why would they make a move that they know would hurt them?

Look at Apple. They're another great example of the fact that it's not beneficial to give people a choice in every situation.

 

[C DM]

Why let you choose if their data shows it'll just make you less likely to use Facebook? Why would they make a move that they know would hurt them?

Look at Apple. They're another great example of the fact that it's not beneficial to give people a choice in every situation.

And if it makes me use it more while the other way makes me use it less?

As far as Apple goes, when they do change things compared to how they did them before and give more options or open things up more seems like many find it beneficial, including Apple themselves.

 

[nfl46]

I haven't had Facebook in nearly 9 years. I asked my mom for her username and password to log into her account to check something, and my goodness, it was ads and craps everywhere. It was a cluttered mess! SO many settings, and confusion. I'd never join Facebook again.

 

[jarman92]

Sooooo back to how it used to be before they ****ed it up?

 

[Fozziebear71]

I deleted my account a little over a month ago and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I am convinced that Facebook is one of the worst evils in our society.

 

[tennisproha]

This is good. Step in the right direction. But I still think twitter has massive untapped potential. It could be the ultimate social media if they'd build it correctly.

 

[JediZenMaster]

I really wish they never got rid of the Paper app. That hands down was the best app they made.

 

[IJ Reilly]

That's never coming back. Average user would see more than 1500 updates a day. No one would scroll through that and all the garbage updates would turn them off from Facebook.

People don't realize how many stupid, pointless, updates Facebook keeps them from not seeing each day. You should be glad you don't see most of the crap that gets posted because you've made it clear through your actions on Facebook that you don't want to see it anyways.

Nonsense. On the desktop I always switch to “most recent” so I at least have a chance to see posts from friends who may be less frequent Facebook posters, but it always switches back to “most popular,” which rewards advertisers, babble, and addictive Facebook posters. I don’t need Facebook to decide what I want to see.

 

[Jimmy James]

"I'm changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content..."

So you gave the original goal to focus on relevant content [ads] and not social interactions in the first place? On a social networking platform?

 

[itsmilo]

I feel like either no one of my friends posts on fb anymore or fb filters out everything. All i see is news stuff i liked or random memes and „funny“ videos people have liked.

Just give me a freaking chronological order of everything. Cant believe they added this mixed up filtered crap on instagram too.

If i dont want to see something, i wouldnt have followed that person in tze first place! Idiots

 

[jtrauscht]

Fabulous (not). Nobody sees my business-page posts as it is, unless I pay to boost them as an ad. Problem is, most of my business-page posts are not ads, they're just something cool to share. It's really frustrating. Now I'm wondering what will happen if I actually DO have something worth paying to boost – will anyone see that?

 

[Mascots]

MAKE IT CHRONOLOGICAL BY DEFAULT. jfc i don't understand why FB/Twitter feels the need to show things out of order.

Then they can't control what posts actually propagate to people.

I think it was the oatmeal that pointed out that it would cost $20,000 to reach all 4m of his followers - people who purposely want to see his content and pressed the like button. They're charging him to deliver to his own audience by using the newsfeed algorithm to restrict what people choose to see (while forcing publishers that actually have content to pay) and still filling my feed with crap that's irrelevant that some dump company just put loads of money and tight targets on.

 

[Superhai]

I don’t understand why some folks here spend so much time defending Facebook, to others who practically stopped using it.

Problem with Facebook is that they make it one fits all, and removes any options to control and customise it, instead depending on flawed algorithms.

I still keep an account because a few of my friends prefer it for messaging, and I send birthday messages for those I usually don’t call or use other messaging services.

Sometimes I scroll through my feed, but there are only ads, memes with only mine or other friends tagged, which I feel obligated to add a like or something. Then there are endless “remember the time” posts. Because people rarely post there anymore, Facebook feels the need to revive old posts, just to remain relevant.

Usually you could choose “most recent”, but it doesn’t matter anymore, most people don’t make meaningful interaction anymore. I still keep Facebook open in the background as to be notified about messages, and maybe thus contribute to the “viewer” statistics, even though I don’t actually watch my feed.

 

[Jesse Waugh]

I cancelled my Facebook account way back, then reinstated it in 2013 to share my art. It has been useful, but the “feedback loop” of “likes” has worn thin and I’ve kind of lost interest in social media. I suppose it will retain some of its usefulness, but I think better things might come to replace it.

 

[Michael Scrip]

I cancelled my Facebook account way back, then reinstated it in 2013 to share my art. It has been useful, but the “feedback loop” of “likes” has worn thin and I’ve kind of lost interest in social media.

I understand why people hate Facebook. But it's where a billion people are. I don't know of any other way to get in front of such a large interconnected audience.

If you put your art on Facebook... someone will see it and you might get some "likes" which tells you someone appreciated it. And if someone shares your post... then their friends might see it too. It's the network effect.

What's the alternative? Are people typing in the URL to your website on their phones? Are people emailing links to websites today?

I could post a bunch of photos to my Flickr page... but who the hell would see them?

But if I put photos on Facebook... boom... instant eyeballs.

The biggest part of "social networking" is the network itself. It's where people are.

I manage Facebook Pages for quite a few organizations. If I post a photo or video on Facebook... it gets seen by thousands of people. And it can be shared to reach more people who aren't following the page. With likes and comments. Engagement.

Meanwhile... their websites get little to no traffic. The websites are basically there to serve as a business card on the off-chance someone finds it through Google. No engagement.

All the "action" happens on Facebook.

 

[pika2000]

So, how would Facebook do this and then try to convince advertisers to use their platform?
"Yeah, you should give us money, but your ads won't be seen by people. Why? Because science!"

Facebook is toxic for everyone. It is toxic to users as it is getting filled to the brim with radical and extremist groups and accounts (which Facebook refuse to cull since those things are helping their "engagement" rate). Meanwhile, it is getting less and less useful for advertisers and companies. The problem is, people are stuck with Facebook since they think it's the only way to share their photos with friends. Worse, these people are using Facebook as their sole "backup" for their photos.

 

[Jesse Waugh]

I understand why people hate Facebook. But it's where a billion people are. I don't know of any other way to get in front of such a large interconnected audience.

If you put your art on Facebook... someone will see it and you might get some "likes" which tells you someone saw it. And if someone shares your post... then all of their friends might see it. It's the network effect.

What's the alternative? Are people typing in the URL to your website on their phones? Are people emailing links to websites today?

I could post a bunch of photos to my Flickr page... but who the hell would see it?

But if I put photos on Facebook... boom... instant eyeballs.

The biggest part of "social networking" is the network itself. It's where people are.

I manage Facebook Pages for quite a few organizations. If I post a photo or video on Facebook... it gets seen by thousands of people. And shared to reach more people who aren't following the page. With likes and comments. Engagement.

Meanwhile... their websites get little to no traffic. The websites are basically there to serve as a business card if someone stumbles across it from Google. No engagement.

All the action happens on Facebook.

Yes but my question is how valuable is the attention one gets on social media? That’s the real issue here. That Indian guy who I think helped develop Facebook recently came out and said it was designed to be a black hole feedback loop - to paraphrase.

It’s a blend of socialization with consumption. It can be encouraging to get positive feedback - but it quickly goes down the drain and has little to no lasting value.

Also I don’t think websites are as dead as you state. My site http://jessewaugh.com has a healthy amount of traffic (I’ve attempted to attach a screenshot of today’s stats just for reference), and I have a decent-sized email list of people who sign up through my site. And the real value of it is that is more lasting than the social media vortex where content goes to die in a void.

Regardless of all this — who knows what the future holds? At least it might all be archived.

 

[Smartass]

Dont really care what they do with that crap, i only use it for different sites/app logins because its quicker. I dont really watch news feed anymore so for all i care they can even cancel it since there's nothing smart up there - just some stupid videos that people liked and ads..

 

[J.Dillinger]

I can’t believe a) this is on MacRumors (what happened to this site?), and b) people still use Facebook. smh

 

[pete2106]

I'm so glad I abandoned social media years ago. The only reason I still have a FB account is that my mum still uses messenger. lol.

 

[Kabeyun]

Want more “meaningful interactions”? Put down the iPhone and, y’know, be with people.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

MAKE IT CHRONOLOGICAL BY DEFAULT. jfc i don't understand why FB/Twitter feels the need to show things out of order.

Yup - I have my FB bookmark with "/?sk=h_chr" on the end, so it always loads in chronological.

And this change is *REALLY* wanted - I have a few family members who go on "sharing sprees", sharing "inspirational quotes", political diatribes, or whatever, regularly. I want to see things they actually post, but I don't want to see the latest glurge from "Happy Life!" (not a joke, just scrolled down three items to find that from an aunt,) or stupid click-bait "Name an animal that doesn't have 'o' in the name!" crap. I end up hiding the source, but they just share from new and equally annoying sources. My "Blocked Pages" list is so big, the Facebook interface errors out and doesn't even show them to me.

 

[bwintx]

I stopped using it for personal purposes (still have to at work, to manage company's social media accounts) a year ago. Really don't miss it. Partly because I was tired of my tech-unsavvy FB friends' tendency to get their accounts hacked often because they click on every fricking thing -- the final straw being when I started getting seemingly credible FB messages from what appeared to be my cousin but turned out to be a hacker who'd taken over his account, after which I was thoroughly creeped out -- and partly because most of my FB friends were constantly reposting/liking stuff I couldn't bear to see. After a while, you've had enough.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

Just another way that FB is out to screw independent artists and bands.

But of course, going back to chronological (or even having the option in Instagram) is out of the question.

 

[maflynn]

According to Zuckerberg, feedback from Facebook users has suggested content from businesses, brands, and media is crowding out personal content from friends, something Facebook wants to correct. Rather than aiming to help Facebook users find relevant content, it will now help users find "meaningful social interactions."

Yep, but for me, I opted to walk away from facebook. I've deactivated my account and I'm happy I did.

Here's what I kept seeing on FB that pushed my away.
Media content as mentioned in this news story. I kept seeing crap that didn't mean much to me.
Hate. So much hate, it doesn't matter what the topic, people are just whining, complaining and being misrable.
PRSI content, people go out of their way it seems to complain for and against the establishment. I avoid the PRSI forum here at MacRumors, I do not want to see simiilar content on FB. ** please note I'm avoiding PRSI details here as they're not permitted in the open forums, so please lets not derail this thread