Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Facebook to Change News Feed to Focus on Friends and Family

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 123 posts

Re: Facebook to Change News Feed to Focus on Friends and Family

#31

Post by nikanj »

system16 wrote: post #11

I guess they need to do something to increase engagement because - anecdotally, yes - the amount of sharing and engagement in my feed has dropped dramatically in recent years. A rough guess would be ~3/4 of the content I see now are just likes/reactions and comments my friends made on other content (usually articles or memes). I'm sure most of my friends have no idea I'm seeing this, and if they did they would probab…

Psychology says most people get more addicted when ~3/4 of the games played end up with no reward.

Gotta love addiction optimization, one of the many wonderful sciences the modern age has brought us. See also: drop rate optimization in games.

Re: Facebook to Change News Feed to Focus on Friends and Family

#32

Post by raverbashing »

halviti wrote: post #2

i.e. - facebook wants to be paid by advertisers instead of being a free promotion platform. Really it makes sense all around though, and you have to wonder what took them so long.

They are already getting money for ads, I don't know why you think they aren't

Re: Facebook to Change News Feed to Focus on Friends and Family

#33

Post by jacobush »

tyfon wrote: post #22
itchyouch wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's it. I use it purely for answering invitations to events and a handy address book. Otherwise my social media time is away from FB, though, I still spend time on FB in the form of Instagram.

I deleted my FB account several years ago and you'd be surprised how many actually find my email when they want to invite me for something. If someone can't be bothered to send me an email I'm not too concerned about going to their party.

They (FB) prey on us with perceived or actual low enough social standing for us to not be found by email.

Re: Facebook to Change News Feed to Focus on Friends and Family

#34

Post by jacobush »

Thlom wrote: post #30
system16 wrote: post #11

I guess they need to do something to increase engagement because - anecdotally, yes - the amount of sharing and engagement in my feed has dropped dramatically in recent years. A rough guess would be ~3/4 of the content I see now are just likes/reactions and comments my friends made on other content (usually articles or memes). I'm sure most of my friends have no idea I'm seeing this, and if they did they would probab…

Yeah. When you are "friends" with your grandmother, boss, Mary from elementary school and your ex's mother you won't share that much. And those who will share anything in that kind of environment are the people you don't want to hear from ... Yes, you can group your friends and just share with some of them, but who has time for that? I'm even hesitant to write anything in semi-open groups as I'm not sure if what I wr…

This seems to be very much down to disposition

Re: Facebook to Change News Feed to Focus on Friends and Family

#35

Post by grenoire »

raverbashing wrote: post #32
halviti wrote: post #2

i.e. - facebook wants to be paid by advertisers instead of being a free promotion platform. Really it makes sense all around though, and you have to wonder what took them so long.

They are already getting money for ads, I don't know why you think they aren't

Free promotion in the sense that you could create a page for a product or company, and be promoted significantly solely by the likes and shares you get.

Re: Facebook to Change News Feed to Focus on Friends and Family

#36

Post by BillyParadise »

adrianratnapala wrote: post #25
ryanSrich wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I don't think I've ever used Facebook for anything productive (like RSVPing to something). My newsfeed is a complete and utter wasteland, but there's something interesting and addicting about it. It's like watching a car wreck. It's awful, but you can't look away.

I find Facebook pages visually ugly -- unpleasant to look at at a level that has nothing to do with my opinions about the site. But that's just me. I find that British tabloids like the Sun look similar -- and they are designed that way to attract rather than repel eyeballs.

If you think Facebook is ugly, remember Myspace.

Re: Facebook to Change News Feed to Focus on Friends and Family

#37

Post by rdslw »

It's smoke screen move. FB knows that family and friends emit not enough content to keep us on FB as long as FB would like to.

This is simply to be able to charge companies more for sneaking their content into your so-called FriendsAndFamilyAndHighPaidAdContent.

In other news: Tesla can give you any model you want. If you pay.

Post reply on HN