Facebook Overhauls News Feed to Focus on What Friends and Family Share

[Guest Nicole]

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook has introduced sweeping changes to the kinds of posts, videos and photos that its more than two billion members will see most often, saying on Thursday that it would prioritize what their friends and family share and comment on while de-emphasizing content from publishers and brands.

The shift is the most significant overhaul in years to Facebook’s News Feed, the cascading screen of content that people see when they log into the social network. Over the next few weeks, users will begin seeing fewer viral videos and news articles shared by media companies. Instead, Facebook will highlight posts that friends have interacted with — for example, a photo of your dog or a status update that many of them have commented on or liked.

The changes are intended to maximize the amount of content with “meaningful interaction” that people consume on Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive, said in an interview. Facebook, he said, had closely studied what kinds of posts had stressed or harmed users. The social network wants to reduce what Mr. Zuckerberg called “passive content” — videos and articles that ask little more of the viewer than to sit back and watch or read — so that users’ time on the site was well spent.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/technology/facebook-news-feed.html

[Guest]

Facebook is in decline and is scrambling to "fix" itself.

They first shot themselves in the foot when they throttled Facebook Pages.

They earned some $ by forcing publishers to pay to play so to speak.

Yet they are in decline.

Now the big idea is to turn off publishers altogether.

Genius' over there.

I can foresee it becoming (having trouble remembering the name). ... MYSPACE!!  Remember Myspace.com?

 

Facebook should acknowledge that publishers using their platform was a symbiotic relationship. Instead of trying to squeeze money out of publishers they should have realized that publishers are the ones actually SHARING .... what people really want to talk / argue / debate / rail against.....

 

Getting my popcorn out to see how quickly I hear crickets over on Facebook. I know personally I check it now maybe once a week and maybe 10 posts at that.

How about you?