Wednesday, January 1, 2020

How to control what you see in your Facebook feed

How to control what you landsee in your facebook inc feedHow to control what you see in your Facebook feedStep one log into Facebook. Step two get bombarded by deutsche post dhls from family, friends, news outlets, and everything in between.Its clear that what you see on your Facebook feed can influence the way you see the world - and even your happiness.Research by Pew Research Center in 2016 showed that 66% of Facebook users receive news on the platform.While its important to understand whats going on in the world and how others are affected, there are waysto take control of the constant stream of new information just waiting to be consumed by users like you.What we know about the Facebook algorithmNo one outside the company is certain about how the Facebook algorithm works, Will Oremus writesin a Slate article. But we do know that it checks and compiles what our friends have posted over the last week, updates from all the pages weve liked, and mora, he writes.He continuesFor the average Facebook user, thats more than 1,500 posts. If you have several hundred friends, it could be as many as 10,000. Then, according to a closely guarded and constantly shifting formula, Facebooks news feed algorithm ranks them all, in what it believes to be the precise order of how likely you are to find each post worthwhile. Most users will only ever see the top few hundred.Facebooks website says users see posts based on their connections and what they do on the siteso that they can see more posts that interest them by the friends they interact with the most. It adds that the posts type and thenumber of comments can make it more likely for a post to be in your News Feed.Facebook frequently tweaks its computer code,Fortune reportedin a June story about more adjustments to its News Feed algorithm. Facebook has also reportedly tried to improve its feed by paying people to answer questions and write about their emotions toward stories, according to a Backchannel story in 2015.So ho w do you get what you want out of your feed?How to filter what you do and dont seeFacebook says you have the option to adjust your settingsto make changes.To see your News Feed settings, go to Facebook and click on the down arrow symbol on the top right of the screen, then click on News Feed Preferences.From there, you can unfollow a person, group, or page to hide its content - once at the page or profile, scroll over Following, and click Unfollow (for a profile) or Unfollow this Page. You wont see any content in your feed from sources you unfollow.You can also hide individual pieces of material to make them disappear from your News Feed by clicking the down arrow symbol and hitting Hide. You will seeless from the source once you hit See less from name.Users can also report contentby clicking Report by the material in various ways, depending on the type.You can customize which posts appear at the top without the source knowing (30 people or pages at most, unranked). When on a profi le of page, hit follow by the cover photo if you dont do so currently, then scroll over liked or following near the same image, and hit see first. Users can also do this from their News Feed preferences.The website further points out that this is elend the same as close friends - you can choose to make people close friends and see every time they post something new.If youve hidden or unfollowed someone or something on Facebook but now changed your mind about seeing fewer of their contributions or not wanting to see them at all,what can you do?Just follow them again, and they wont even know about it- this can be done on Pages, peoples profiles and from News Feed Preferences.Its up to you to take controlIts clear that Facebook has the capacity to both educate and distract, but you can make an effort to see material from sources youre interested in more often by taking these few easy steps.