I’m not seeing my friends’ posts on Facebook anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I’m seeing a lot of their activities, their comments, their likes, but I’m not seeing their actual posts on my news feed. I don’t know why. Then again, on a good day my care less factor when it comes to Facebook ranges between 9 and 10. So, yeah, I guess I’ll tell you a bit about my experience with the platform for Freedom Friday and hopefully I’ll make some sense of this predicament.
The news feed is a good place to start. I loved Facebook a few years ago. I could pop in, check to see how my friends were doing and if I found anything they had written interesting, I’d interact with them like a cool drop-in or social. I loved the photos they shared and the cute stories attached to the memory.
I don’t see any of that now. My news feed has become a mishmash of so-and-so commented on this and so-and-so liked that. It’s become more of a reporting system for anyone curious to see what their friends are into. I liken the current environment to someone walking through our backyard and peeking through our window to spy on who we’re hanging with. The whole idea has shifted from seeing what others are posting to what others are commenting on and liking. I’m not sure when it changed, but lately I’ve been trying to bring back the old news feed in order to not feel so much as a Peeping Tom than anything else.
First order of business was playing around with the “Follow” button. I notice when I unfollow someone on Facebook, I don’t see anything of theirs on my news feed. No likes. No comments. Nothing. That sort of defeats the purpose of wanting to only see their posts. Next, I worked through all my friends’ walls to like and comment on things I found interesting much like I would have as if the posts had appeared on my news feed. Facebook took my actions to indicate I enjoyed following those friends and shortly thereafter, my news feed once again became a hodgepodge of nonsense. You got it. Facebook enabled the “Follow” button for my friends’ activities and thought I’d appreciate knowing what my friends commented on and liked. I was back to the very beginning.
For several days, I worked through the problem trying various combinations of “Follow” button and “Acquaintance” status changes as a way to achieve my goal of bringing back the old news feed. Nothing worked. No matter what I did, Facebook wanted to show me what my friends were doing through their kitchen windows as opposed to admiring their rose gardens out front.
Then, in the middle of dinner one night, a bright idea hit me. I say a bright idea because it was as if someone had flipped the switch in my brain and I could finally see the answer in front of me.
Lists. Yep. Lists.
Apparently, if I add all my friends to a list I can see their posts just like the good ol’ days. Well, guess what I did? Yep, I added all my friends to a list and I’m back to the way I like it—admiring the rose gardens at the front of my friends’ homes.
Facebook makes sense again.
Do I regret not going to my news feed to check out what my friends are commenting on and liking? Not really. I just want to know what they want me to know, not what Facebook thinks I should know.
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Have you had a similar experience with Facebook? What have you done about it? What is your experience with using Facebook? Do you like it?
Looking to God 
I am over Facebook. My Facebook seems to be full of cousins I barely know and people I went to school with and didn’t really like then. It use to be fun, catching up with old friends, talking to my family and sharing photos and life updates. Now its just trying to filter the junk to find something I actually want to know about. In short, its boring. These days I use it simply to make signing into other webpages easier or on messenger to keep up with my own kids. I don’t often go to Facebook at all. Its a waste of time.
I’ve been getting that a lot lately from my family and friends, too. We now keep in touch texting to each other!
I don’t use my Facebook as much as other things, but I’ve not had this problem yet. I still just go to my “Home” page and it just shows the latest posts rather than likes or such. Hopefully, I won’t face this problem any time soon.
I have found much the same re: Facebook. I check in and send birthday wishes, wonder who the person is who is trying to friend me, and notice that 29 people are trying to get me to play a word game I stopped playing two years ago.
I’ll have to try that too. Facebook’s algorithms are a pain, but I’d rather stay connected with everyone from all the circles of friends I’ve had over the years.
Me too. I like the fact I can check to see what my friends are up to without having to call or write. It’s great in that sense.
When some of my acquaintances get on a roll, my feed is filled with their shares and likes and comments about whatever political issue (but usually politician) has them foaming at the mouth in rage.
So much rage on my feed. I don’t know how that happened. I guess I need to “vet” better before I accept requests??
I’ve had an on off relationship with Facebook for a couple of years, but earlier this year finally gave up on it. I’ve read about Facebook messing around with what the news feed delivers, but with my interest level at zero I can’t remember what it was about.
When I grow to dislike something it tends to reach a level of contempt that goes beyond even my abilities with the written word. Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg fall into that category. I don’t like it, so I don’t use it, and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. I never understood how it worked, it was never a useful tool for my writing.
Sometimes you have to accept there are only so many hours in the day and your time can be more productively spent than navigating Zuckerberg’s seven levels of hell. Give me WordPress any day.
I’ve heard for several years how all fired supercalifragilisticexpialidosciousally wonderful Facebook is / was, that, instead of making me curious, caused me to feel a growing level of aversion towards trying it. People have expounded on how great it is, that I was basically thinking ” Yeah. Facebook’s a 24 hour party. Whoopty – doo ! Now go far, far away. ” 🙂
Brilliant Jack! This discover will change my FB experience, I have been equally frustrated with it and this solution is amazing, am going to try it! As always, thank you for sharing your thoughts and awesomeness!
It’s funny how we have to unfollow “friends”….seems one sided now. My blocked list is almost up to my friend list. Size wise. I like the hide (fill-in game or page name here) I have friends who just reshare endless things and never post original thoughts.
Lists – I must try that! I too feel like I’m peeking into people’s kitchens when I see what they’re liking and commenting on. It’s a little distressing, especially when it’s a new friend!
I’ve also noticed a change in my “likes” and whatnot because I now know that everyone can see what I like if the liked post is set to “public.” The peeping Tom thing is not good for the self-conscious! 🙂
I’m on Twitter, joined Google + roughly a year ago, WordPress ( ! ) heaven knows how long ago, I subscribe to numerous online ” newsletters “, a member of Deviantart ( Contributor & commentator ). The last thing I need is a Facebook account. Maybe if I had a small business….. But otherwise no.
I actually try to go offline for 2, 3 hours – not counting time asleep.
I avoid social media completely on Saturdays. It’s my way of enjoying sleeping in and living in the real world rather than the online world we’ve created for ourselves.
I do much the same thing, just for limited periods. I need to get on a fishing trip, learn golfing, something that I can get totally caught up in. Like poker, which has free online tutorials ! 🙂
I’ll try that, Jack!! Thank you for sharing this. I thought it was just me.
I need to do that, but I’m really getting sick of Facebook. Not just the system too. It’s weird now because I have friends and family who only communicate through Facebook. I feel like I’m stuck on there because I’d miss out on stuff. Not just unimportant entertainment things that I could live without, but wedding, divorces, births, pregnancies, and all these life milestones. People put stuff on Facebook and assume everyone they know will see it. Yet with the way the wall works now, it’s just a mess. Also, I’ve noticed over the last few months that I see nothing more than negativity and complaining. Honestly, if I didn’t have one or two friends that chatted with exclusively through the messenger then I’d probably have left it long ago.