I used to hate seeing OOTDs and photos of food my social media friends ate for lunch on my Facebook feed. Now, they’re a breath of fresh air amid fake news and exhausting political bickering.
But it seems like I’ll be seeing more of those personal stories on my Facebook feed now.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised changes to the social networking site’s news feed. Over the next few weeks, users will see more of what their friends posted and less of businesses’ and media outfits’ content. This is in line with what Zuckerberg believes Facebooks is for: connecting with people we value in our lives.
And Zuckerberg’s goal for this change of news feed algorithm? “Helping you have more meaningful social interactions,” he posted on his personal account on Thursday.
Looks like Facebook’s going back to basic. After all, the social networking site is a lot of things now—for socializing, advertising, and dissemination of news, real and fake ones alike. And to the CEO, consumption of the latter two just gives us a passive experience; even if it’s informative or engaging, it’s not as good.
Now, this would bat publishers hard. Those that have invested building up their presence on the social networking site would be hit and their efforts would probably just go to waste. Posts that bait users into engaging with them (“LIKE this if you’re an Aries!”) will be de-emphasized, too.
Expect more changes to come on Facebook as this is the first apparent one, at least to the users.
Header image courtesy of Picjumbo
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Writer: YAZHMIN MALAJITO
