Can you imagine going on to Facebook and seeing less of clickbait and more interactive posts and stuff that is technically not pushed or related to news or business organisations? Well, the new year sure is ringing a lot of new bells with Facebook's new decision to cut back on posts deemed unnecessary for its users and highlighting only stuff that is more engaging to make the entire experience more meaningful.
"The research shows that when we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for our well-being," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post on Friday. "We can feel more connected and less lonely, and that correlates with long-term measures of happiness and health. On the other hand, passively reading articles or watching videos - even if they're entertaining or informative -- may not be as good."
People will likely spend less time on Facebook as a result, the company says. That's because even if people read such content on Facebook, they don't necessarily comment or interact with it in other ways. The move to highlight posts that Facebook considers "meaningful" and reduce the emphasis on others could shrink the social media giants role as a major news source for many people.
"It's in the same direction that Facebook has been pursuing for a while: offering a place for discussion among individuals, a community space, rather than being a news source," said Oh Se-uk, a senior researcher on the digital news at the Korea Press Foundation.
"It wants people who have been friends to become even closer, to have deeper discussions (on Facebook). Traffic to news medias websites via Facebook will likely fall," he said.
The move will not affect advertisements users will continue to see the same advertisements they have before, "meaningful" or not. But businesses that use Facebook to connect with their customers without paying for ads will also feel the pain.
Facebook has long been criticized for creating "filter bubbles," the echo chambers of friends and like-minded people whose views are reinforced by their friend's posts on the platform. The company says that's similar to how people make friends and interact with each other offline. Facebook says its research shows that users are exposed to more divergent views on its platform than they would be otherwise.
