Facebook rolling out changes to its News Feed Algorithm

Facebook finally decided to focus on one thing it was actually meant to “Connecting People”. When launched it used to be a platform to connect and interact with people you cared about. But for quite some years now the news feed is actually filled with advertisements, videos, and memes. Facebook users were getting irked by this fact and gave their feedback, and Facebook listened.

Currently, the way news feed works are that each post is given a score to predetermine the place of the post on it. According to Mark Zuckerberg who announced these planned changes on Thursday, the new algorithm will favor posts from friends and family over those from publishers.

For example, there are many communities around TV shows and sports teams. We’ve seen people interact way more with live videos than regular ones. Some news helps start conversations on important issues. But too often today, watching the video, reading news or getting a page update is just a passive experience.

Due to the limitation of space on the news feed some posts will suffer, for instance, a post from pages will show up less, and further down in your Feed. Facebook says it expects the reach of posts made by companies to decrease, but users can still find content from pages they enjoy by clicking the “Show First” option. The impact of these changes will vary by page, but it seems like those who spur conversation won’t be hit as hard.

The announcement also brought light to the engaging nature of live videos, which, on average, receive six times as many interactions as regular videos. Video viewing has boomed in India as the carrier war has caused the data to be cheap and affordable by most.  As video viewing on Facebook is very passive by nature, users don’t tend to comment a lot, or chat with your friends a lot, or read articles.”

Facebook has acknowledged the adjustments may lower engagement time on the platform in the short term. Video watch time is also going down, which is driving the drop in time spent on the Facebook platform. Still, nevertheless, News Feed shift will allow people to have more valuable and relevant conversations on the platform which will improve well-being.

Are you one of those users who is irritated by the current Facebook news feed. Let us know in the comments section below about how you feel regarding the changes.

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