Facebook has grown into one the highest used social platforms. However, its recent abundance of ads and video content has many mindlessly consuming products as people scroll down their feed. Facebook has become the new television; it has created a passive consumer that is no longer interacting with Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg is looking to change this by changing the algorithm that determines what each user would like to see in their newsfeed. What does this mean for you? It means that you will be seeing more posts from friends and family. This will ensure more interaction with Facebook and posts as a whole.
A report by the New York Times presented a lot of the information used in this article.
Content being replaced
It is no secret that Facebook has become filled with business ads, cooking videos, clothing sales, etc. The overwhelming amount of ads had turned off consumers, which was not the case when these ads and memes first came onto the Facebook scene. This news could be welcoming to some, but disastrous to those publishers that depended on Facebook as a platform for creating sales. This change does not mean that you will never see ads or content from pages that you have liked. A user must merely change their settings under their newsfeed tab to allow such material to still appear in their newsfeed.
Family and friends come first
With this new algorithm that Facebook is developing, users will be able to see friends and families Status Updates and posts at the top of their feed. Facebook will determine, what they believe to be your preferred friends, by looking at comments made, likes given, and shares. Because Facebook is trying to once more be an interactive social media platform, as it was once before, they will rely on your actions to determine your needs.
You may also turn off annoying posts from users you may not favor for 30 days, you will just have to hit the "snooze" button.
Why the change?
Facebook relied on interactivity between users at its start. It slowly moved to more ad content and business promotion. This move to more valuable content will lessen user time, but as Zuckerberg stated he prefers quality over quantity.
His goal is to create more meaningful use of the app, rather than brainless scrolling that only leaves people empty and feeling worse. With allowing fewer, more meaningful posts, Facebook hopes that users will leave with a more favorable impression of this platform and spend more time creating a meaningful conversation that leads toward personal and social change.