So today I was reading my news feed and there were several times friends of mine posted on various groups they belong to. These groups hold no interest for me, so I selected to hide the group’s notifications.
And Facebook wanted to know why. So I clicked on the link to be asked if I wanted to stop seeing my friends feed altogether, you know, if I didn’t want to see every group they belong to.
No. I don’t.
You see I have lots of friends. And, guess what? Some of them don’t have all of the same interests as me! Shocking, I know. Completely.
Or, you know, only to Facebook.
I mean, you probably know lots of people, right? And you know them from different places. Some are from your child’s school or your work or maybe another web site you belong to. So you have that one point of connection.
That doesn’t mean you don’t want to see them talk about themselves, or their child or what have you. But it might mean you have no interest in their underwater basket weaving group. I’m sure it’s something that is totally thrilling to them. But that doesn’t mean it’s thrilling to me.
And I can’t believe it’s thrilling to Facebook staff, either. Surely, if they use Facebook, they’ll know how incredibly frustrating it is to have someone say ‘Hey, I was hoping you’d comment on my question about X Y Z on Facebook, since it’s your area.’ and you have to respond ‘I never saw it. Probably because Facebook thought it was more important that I saw B’s comment on her underwater basket weaving group.’
Yes yes, I don’t pay for Facebook. They get money through advertising, they don’t have to keep anyone happy but their advertisers.
But how happy will those advertisers be when more and more people go to Twitter or G+ because they get to see what they actually want to see?
Enjoyed this one!
Thanks Cait!
Yeah, I block posts all the time (never yours, of course 🙂 ) but that doesn’t mean squat about them overall. Between disinterest in something (I generally block sports stuff, for instance) & wanting nothing to do w/ my friend lies a whole world. I want to see All The Posts – every single one – from my friends & pages I’ve liked or followed & decide *myself* which I want to keep in view.
AFAIC, they can monetize by (lowish) paid membership, like flickr, and I’d vastly prefer it to the vagaries of their algorithms & the constant drumbeat of their pay-to-promote bullshit.
It’s only a matter of time before something better comes along, and then facebook (or whoever Zuckerberg sold facebook to for an obscene amount of money shortly before everyone decided to switch to the better thing) will be left sitting on their thumbs wondering what the hell happened (see also: Usenet, AOL, Livejournal, and Myspace.) I am waiting for that day.
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