Facebook Is Watching You, Or At Least What You Read

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Have you ever came across a news story or post from a friend that is tragic in nature? We all have. The hard decision to make is whether or not to like the post. If you like it, does that make you a bad person? Or does that show empathy? That is a debate to have by itself.

Facebook is making a change to it’s algorithm to account for the amount of time users send looking at items in the news feed. It will not matter if you engage with that post.

They will be looking at things like if you scroll fast past a news feed item or if you stop and hover for a while. Just by leaving the post visible while you read the headlines or check the comments, Facebook is learning that you like this type of content or are interested in it.

You may be scrolling in your newsfeed and come across some pictures of a friend’s vacation and stop to look at the images, but you do not comment of like the post. Facebook will still take this as you consuming the content.

Over time, Facebook will start to learn more about what you like and show you more of what you like and less of what you do not.

Facebook will start rolling this change out in a couple of weeks, as mentioned here. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think that Facebook can learn what you want to see in your news feed?

Author

  • Hank Hoffmeier

    Hank is an author, speaker, podcast host and Sr. Manager of Marketing Operations at Kickbox, a Ziff Davis company. With a passion for all things digital and social, combined with more than 25 years of experience in sales and marketing, he has been dubbed the Digital Marketing Infotainer because he makes marketing fun and successful. 

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