In the past year, I started to hate my Facebook feed as it brought me nothing but lowbrow videos. (You know what videos I am talking about.) So, I tried to change how Facebook is suggesting more content to me. And here's my journey so far.
Background
Obviously, Facebook runs on algorithms to understand what content users like and suggest more similar content. And recently many Facebook users, like me, begin to see lots of short videos from another "popular" social platform. But I do not enjoy those videos at all. So I have started to "teach" the Facebook algorithm in September 2020.
Some Knowledge to Begin With
I work in the digital marketing industry so I have some understanding of how social platforms are suggesting content to users. If you have no idea how social media determine what content to suggest, here is a brief introduction.
Algorithms, or artificial intelligence, do not work like humans. Instead of reading your facial expressions and mood, it uses objective data to understand your interests.
Some of the known collected data include the time you stayed on a post, the video watch time, have you tapped on the post to engage with the post (including tapping the "read more" button, likes, share, comments, and more), how many times have you engaged with the post (for example, liking and commenting on the same post counts as two engagements), and how many times have you engaged with posts from the same account or page.
But Facebook also provides website tracking to marketers to track user behavior on a website. Named Facebook Pixel, it helps Facebook to further its reach into your browsing behavior, such as the products you viewed, the time you spent on a page, the buttons you clicked on the website, and more. With browsing data on websites, Facebook is able to provide you with "tailored" content.
How do I manipulate my Facebook feed?
As I said that algorithms are basically fed with these data inputs and determine what content to suggest, my plan is to "fake" my interest at these data points.
The first step was actually clicking on a suggested article by Facebook of a topic that you rarely read on Facebook. I previously used Facebook primarily for entertainment. So, I began to read suggested articles that were business-related, such as "how to create a start-up company?" and "how to make me a better manager?"
(For this step, I do wonder if everyone's feed will suggest articles that are away from your usual interest. I have heard about long-time social users created a bubble of interest that limits posts of other interest to show? I am actually facing this "content bubble" situation on YouTube. But it's too complicated to discuss here.)
The second step was to find some relevant pages to follow and groups to join. In my case, I went on liking pages of magazines about management and join a group that discusses dropshipping.
The third step was to "pretend" that I enjoy those content. (I actually do enjoy those content. However, if manipulating your social feed is your aim, it will be "pretend" for you.) Other than liking those posts, I clicked into most of the articles and spend some time reading them (or at least stayed on the page for half-a-minute if I am not interested in that particular article). Occasionally, I also click to visit other pages of the website.
(Note: I was using the Facebook app and its in-built browser to perform all these actions. If you use Facebook on web browsers, your mileage may vary. If you have tried to manipulate your Facebook feed through web browsers only, I am interested in your results.)
The fourth step was to refrain from watching and reading content that you are previously interested in. But I have to admit that I still, sometimes, watch or read those content during this test. But I yielded positive results anyway.
So, the results?
Well, there are actually fewer short videos on my Facebook feed (as of 8 October) which I was very pleased with. And I also saw more posts with richer content, though the content is not necessarily business-related. And there are lots more posts that have an article to read (which I guess the algorithm thinks I enjoy posts with articles?).
Was I able to steer clear from short videos? Short answer: no. Sometimes short videos still show under the "suggested for you" tab. And they still filled the Facebook Watch section. But, generally, it is a lot less than August.
From this experiment, I think Facebook will try to check if you will be interested in some of your past interests. Since starting this experiment (which was a sharp shift in interest tbh), I have seen Facebook trying to bring back posts from pages that I followed years ago but also ignored them since I followed the page.
And, I also found that even you recently liked and followed a page, the frequency of seeing posts from the page was about the same when you have not yet liked the page. It was not until I engaged with the posts a few times more that posts from the page were in my feed more frequently. My assumption is that the sharp shift in interest had the algorithm confused.
But I found that posts by Facebook friends were quite powerful. Even for friends that you did not interact with them for a long time (those stagnant friends that many of us may have), their posts and shares will still appear on your feed. But most of my friends do not use the other "popular" short-video social platform (or at least those frequently on my feed do not). If I had a friend who loved that platform, I wonder if I will still see short videos.
Overall, the result is quite positive for me. I have met my goal of kicking short videos from my main Facebook feed. And I am actually getting more insightful content from Facebook. There are more articles that I actually enjoy reading.
But this is nowhere like a proper scientific investigation. Algorithms change with time and users so your mileage may vary by a lot. If you have tried to manipulate your Facebook feed, I would love to hear your results.
Any follow up?
I am trying to think of some other ways that I can play with my Facebook feed. But what I am more interested in recently is to get myself out of the content bubble on YouTube.
The reason why is that I believe YouTube's suggestion is much less sophisticated than Facebook. Unlike Facebook that most content is textual for artificial intelligence with linguistic capabilities to better understand what the post is about, YouTube is filled with videos that are more prone to errors when analyzed by the current state of artificial intelligence.
Ending
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this article.
This website is basically a place for me to post what I have explored or created (or whatever I want to post, really). Explore more of this website if you want to. And leave me comments if you have any. Cheers.
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