Why do you not “like”
something on Facebook? Is it for some passive aggressive motive, snubbing only
certain people on your friends list while liking everything else? These people
are out there. (You are aware that people can SEE the things you like on
Facebook, right?) Is it because you simply don’t like it? Of course, a very likely
reason! Is it because you are thinking about what it’s contributing to the
algorithm? Doubtful. Wait...what? I’ve seen all of these things, but passive aggression
is not MY reason. While I think that it’s very unlikely, it is possible that
people may have wondered about my lack of likes for the past couple of months
on Facebook, but I assure you that I am an equal opportunity non-liker. I’m not
liking other things while not liking yours. I didn’t stop liking people’s stuff
because I have something against them or because I don’t like their pictures or
stories. I didn’t stop liking only certain people’s posts or pictures to be
intentionally snubbing or socially cruel. I don’t “like” anything on Facebook
anymore, period.
Some of you might have read
either of the two articles back in August from the people who both liked everything on Facebook for two days and DIDN’T like anything on Facebook for two weeks. I was intrigued after reading these two articles. I was intrigued
about our ability to manipulate the algorithm Facebook uses to determine our
news feed, if we pay attention to what we are feeding the bots. I wanted to
free up my news feed; I wanted to see what would happen. So I experimented on
my own and stopped liking anything on Facebook...well, mostly. I probably liked
two things since I stopped, only because they were posts that needed the
support, which is different than an ego boost, AND I do still like comments
under posts. This does not seem to affect the algorithm as drastically, although
I’m sure that it still does in its own way. EVERYTHING is affecting it. Big
Brother Book is always watching. Isn’t that a little scary? I wasn't sure anything would even happen if I stopped using the like, so I used my main account for this and not my Musing Through account and the results of my
personal experiment were actually impressive.
What I found at first was
how hard that it was NOT like to like things. But I like it?!?! Nope. Don’t
click it. How do you let people know that you like it? You don’t. OR...you
actually interact with them and post a comment on their status or picture.
GASP! Yes, I started commenting on things that I liked, or sharing things that
I liked instead of just simply clicking like. This led to me commenting things
such as “Word!” “Right on!” “Yes!!”, “Love it!”, “<3” or at times even just
“LIKE!” As a blogger, I can see where actual written responses are more
important feedback than a mere ego stroke with the like button. I would
appreciate feedback in word form by one person more than I would a bunch of
people liking something without saying a word. So not liking led to more
interaction, which is a good thing, right? Elan Morgan, the writer who stopped
liking things on Facebook, said it best: “The Like is the wordless nod of
support in a loud room.” This is very true. So without that silent nod we are
forced to either ignore something we like or actually chime in with a word or
two about it. We are forced to go from nodding at each other at the party to
having an actual conversation.
As the man who “liked”
everything for 48 hours painfully discovered, over liking decreased the amount of actual
human beings in his news feed and made it a big cesspool of advertising and propaganda. I found the opposite to be true; once I
stopped liking things that I even did like I was noticing a lot more posts by
people and pages that I honestly didn’t even realize that I was friends with or
followed? This can be even more confusing when these people have since changed
their names?? Who is THIS?! I haven’t seen anything from this person in over a
year. Do you assume that people just aren’t posting status updates? WRONG!
These people are alive!! They are alive and well, hidden in the recesses of
your news feed cesspool. FYI, even if you actively LIKE something on Facebook,
it will still only show you a small percentage of the posts coming from that
page if you aren’t actively interacting with it on a constant basis. If you run
a page you know how frustrating it can be when you post something and see it
has only been “served” to 3 people out of all of the people that “like” your
page. The algorithm really is a bunch of shit! So imagine what you are missing
when you don’t even like or interact with it for months because it’s hidden in
a lower tier beneath all of the things that you “like”. Actually, I probably
have more pages that I follow on Facebook than actual people. My news feed consists
mostly of articles and the like but now it's a more even mix. I enjoy this; it feeds me more. (See what I did there?)
Facebook is always
changing things, anyway, and they reserve their right to run their site in the
most asinine way possible. NPR shared how the social media giant had been
manipulating our news feeds in order to conduct psychological experiments on“positive” and “negative” moods, tracking any changes in wording by its users
in their statuses, etc. Am I the only one who thinks this is severely whacked??
BUT like everyone else, I checked that box in the agreement, allowing the Big
Brother Book to basically do whatever they want, right? What it comes down to
really is that Facebook is what it is, and it is also what you make of it. For
me, personally, Facebook is the Walmart of social media sites. I also like to
refer to it as the “high school hallway” and have big dreams about further
explaining my metaphor one day with a blog post. It is a good place to keep up
with family and friends, indeed, but we all use it differently and get
something different out of it, don’t we? It's a different monster for every one of us, an entirely personal experience! I like to maintain my stance of “I
READ IT FOR THE ARTICLES!” Riiiiight. And you just go to Walmart for milk and
bread too. Damn the man!
Good or bad? I don’t know.
I will say that I have noticed a change in my news feed and that I
LIKE this change. I am seeing people I haven’t seen in forever, but am still
seeing most of the things from people in my inner circle because I comment on
them or they comment on mine. I'm seeing a more even mix of articles and posts from pages that I follow. I’m not a
Facebook stalker so I only on rare occasions go to people’s pages and check out
their stuff, I rely mostly on what is coming through my news feed even though I
am aware this is most likely only part of the story. I was pleased to see a lot
of the pages I follow show up again in the news feed as well, because I was led to a
lot of interesting articles and reading because of this. I would have missed
all of this had I not decided to play with the algorithm. Still, it is really just a crap shoot as to what you are going to see at any given time. Who really knows? I just still find the algorithm a little unnerving; some
robot is determining what we see every day on social media sites based on what we click on, calculating and tracking. Besides, they are using our likes for statistical information on products and services. They used to pay people to collect that information, now they just pay Facebook. It is a semi-necessary evil...just like Walmart, even though neither of them are entirely necessary but still rope us in with their convenience. "Everyone is doing it!" "Allllll are welcome! All are welcome!!"
So, does this mean that I
will not be liking anything on Facebook ever again? Probably not, it's just an experiment. There is a chance I will start trying to
manipulate my feed again and bring certain pages and people to the forefront by
liking their content. So you might wonder why I even bother? Well, why not? For
one, I like the change in my news feed but also, I like that I am forced to
comment on something if I “like” it. It forces you to actually interact with
people instead of walking down the great high school hallway of Facebook giving
perpetual silent nods at each other. It forces you to say, “Hey there...I like
that!” or “That’s cool!” or “How ARE you?” And isn’t that the point of social
interactions, to really interact or to dare to connect? Isn’t that what
“friends” are for?
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