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Facebook Will Prioritize Local Stories In Your News Feed (engadget.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the high-quality-news dept.

Facebook announced today that it will begin prioritizing local news, bumping it up higher in your feed if you follow a local publisher's Page or if a friend shares a locally-published story. "We are prioritizing local news as part of our emphasis on high-quality news, and with today's update, stories from local news publishers may appear higher in News Feed for followers in publishers' geographic areas," Facebook said in the announcement. Engadget reports: Facebook, which recently announced it would be shifting its News Feed focus away from news and more towards friends' posts, says the local news prioritization will kick off in the U.S., but it plans to expand it to other countries this year. "These efforts to prioritize quality news in News Feed, including this local initiative, are a direct result of the ongoing collaboration with partners," said Facebook. "Our goal is to show more news that connects people to their local communities, and we look forward to improving and expanding these efforts this year."

64 comments

  1. How I prioritize Facebook in general: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dump the whole thing in the recycle bin and never look back.

    1. Re:How I prioritize Facebook in general: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Social(ist) Media: The only winning move is not to play.

      captcha: pelvic

  2. No need for Facebook! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I started prioritizing local news decades ago.

    You can already do the same. Get your head out of Facebook, you mindless plebs.

  3. Now that's innovation! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    How many focus groups, agile stand ups, and continuous integration cycles did this new feature have to go through?

  4. Wat? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

    How am I going to get my news about Pizzagate, her email, the deep state and the secret society tha FBI runs?

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    1. Re:Wat? by networkBoy · · Score: 1

      want to borrow a few of my tinfoil hat friends?
      I also have some anti vaxers if you really want to read outlandish stuff...

      I know I should just dump them, but it's like a perpetual slow motion train wreck.

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
    2. Re:Wat? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      I also have some anti vaxers if you really want to read outlandish stuff...

      There's a guy I know a little bit -friend of a friend of a friend- who is an anti-vaxxer and he and his wife go to extreme lengths to not vaccinate their kids.

      Lately, he's been complaining about the fact that he's got shingles and they're really painful. Karma is a bitch, but I fear for his kids, who are decent people. He's also a big Trump supporter and talks about taking that powder stuff you buy on InfoWars that's made of glands and is supposed to give you get-up-and-go and keep you virile.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re: Wat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cocaine? It comes from a plant not glands

    4. Re:Wat? by Patent+Lover · · Score: 1

      Just go to Breitbart and skip the middleman.

    5. Re:Wat? by gnick · · Score: 1

      I have 3 FB friends I went to HS with who are strongly anti-vaxx. Also strong Trump supporters as far gone as believing InfoWars. I also have an anti-vaxx cousin who's much more liberal, but no smarter. It's a crusade for idiots and FB lets them collaborate. I usually link to John Oliver and hope for the best.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    6. Re:Wat? by Mashiki · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah just wait until you see those big Hillary or Trudeau supporters, who believe things that are pumped out of sites like "natural news" and so on. The anti-vaxxer thing isn't a "right only" issue, there's plenty of very rich, successful and supposedly highly educated people on the left who are anti-vaxxers. Hell the entire sham industry built off the anti-vaccine movement started with rich idiots, and the doctors they went to who were telling them that vaccines cause autism. Those are actual doctors who have their degree to practice no less, and still have it.

      Here in Canada, anti-vaccine garbage is a full-blown leftwing conspiracy theory and is *very* popular in Toronto, Ont., Ottawa, Ont., Hull, QC., and Vancouver, BC. The recent chickenpox and measles outbreak we had happened in mainly affluent areas of the country. Something similar happened in Europe with rubella and mumps again in affluent areas.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
    7. Re:Wat? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Just go to Breitbart and skip the middleman.

      Ha! Breitbart is just a front for the Bilderberg Group. Wke up America! Do I have to start typing in all caps?

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    8. Re:Wat? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      want to borrow a few of my tinfoil hat friends? I also have some anti vaxers if you really want to read outlandish stuff...

      I know I should just dump them, but it's like a perpetual slow motion train wreck.

      And where are you going to get such cheap and disturbing entertainment?

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
    9. Re:Wat? by networkBoy · · Score: 1

      exactly why I haven't dumped them :-)
      I keep them for the lulz.

      One of my favorite tropes is to bait them with hard facts as to the prior mortality of the vax of the day.

      I actually had one come back with "Herd immunity protects my kids, so I shouldn't have to vax". I pointed out that all it takes is 5% of the people feeling the same way to destroy herd immunity... I was unloaded on about it. /sigh.

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
    10. Re:Wat? by networkBoy · · Score: 1

      I bait them with facts when I'm bored. Otherwise I just ignore them.

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
    11. Re:Wat? by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      exactly why I haven't dumped them :-) I keep them for the lulz

      I had one of them complaining about how the Government shouldn't be in the weather business.

      "Why can't the government get it's weather information from The Weather Channel just like the rest of us do?"

      Solid freaking gold!

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  5. I have blocked ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... local news in Facebook.

    Facebook is not the fucking place to get the goddam news.

    FACEBOOK, YOU ARE NOT MY REAL MOM!!!!

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  6. huh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    what about my meme pages?

  7. Here's a better idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Here's a better idea for Facebook. Stop pretending you care about people by prioritizing stories. You don't. You're doing everything you can to maximize the time people spend on the site, and you really don't care about your users. The news feed has even been a tool for Facebook to conduct experiments, like favoring positive or negative stories to see how they impact users.

    Put the news feed in chronological order. I wouldn't have a problem with a Twitter-like "stories you may have missed" section that the user can disable. But get rid of the prioritization and put the stories in chronological order. Eliminate the prioritization altogether.

    1. Re:Here's a better idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FB would do us all a favor to eliminate news altogether from its platform. Let FB uses share stories if they like, but don't give them a FB controlled feed of any sort.

      Or at least display a prominent warning; WARNING; FB news is popularity driven, not fact driven. If you get your news from FB alone, you are very likely not getting all sides of issues, are highly susceptible to group think. Please find objective sources outside of FB before drawing conclusion.

  8. Bad move in much of the world by jrumney · · Score: 2

    In much of the world, the local press is not free. With the rise of the internet, people finally had a way to get the real news about their government through the major international news organizations. Now Facebook is going to push local propaganda over reputable international news coverage. This is not an improvement.

    1. Re:Bad move in much of the world by Obfuscant · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Now Facebook is going to push local propaganda over reputable international news coverage. This is not an improvement.

      You're blaming Facebook for not showing you what you want to see, and you still use facebook?

      Who cares what Facebook pushes? If you care, don't get your news from Facebook. Maybe the improvement will be that more people will realize that Facebook is not a source of news?

    2. Re:Bad move in much of the world by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Think of the ad sales of captive users back to their gov and own nations private sector newspapers and broadcasters.
      Users by nation on social media just got sold back to their dictatorships, theocracies, monarchies, national broadcasters, newspaper publishers.
      If a nation, publisher, mil, faith does not pay then their nations captive social media users might get to see international news again.

      That is going to be so great for gov, police and mil in nations. Their own citizens using local social media been reported, banned, tracked, interviewed after interacting with local media and within their own nations laws.
      Social media has handed political conversations by citizens back to their own governments.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re:Bad move in much of the world by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      People who get their news from Facebook should not be considered critical thinkers. As such no matter the news presented, they will either 'believe it' or not 'believe it' based upon their pre-existing preferences for what they believe is the truth. Facebook can fuck with the news all they want, it will pretty much change nothing.

      It's the opposite affect when government propagandists target slashdot. They are presenting stuff to critical thinkers who will check everything presented to them or ignore it, based upon their own mood. The propagandist think they win, think they dominate with first post nonsense but they win nothing.

      Interesting on Facebook the news people don't like is ignored on Slashdot the news people find boring and not worth checking via the many resources of the internet is ignored, in either case presenting news marketing, propaganda is totally pointless. With slashdot is all about presenting ideas and challenging, no one believing anything. On Facebook, it is about existing beliefs that people already have and they believe nothing that challenges them, if fact they will attack it, regardless of facts or truths.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    4. Re:Bad move in much of the world by tinkerton · · Score: 2

      This is not how it works. Facebook represents a lot of internet traffic and if you can control that it means power. The idea that critical people don't use Facebook is nonsense. A large part of control is directing attention. That is not directly about believing claims but about believing where to look, what to look at. Of course the same way most people don't look behind headlines it is often enough to point to a claim in order to make people believe in it. Critical thinking is mostly about evaluating whatever your attention is drawn to. It is often weak at directing attention. If you allow someone to direct your attention to whatever supports his case it becomes likely that you'll end up agreeing to some extent even if you area very critical person

      I don't have facebook or twitter but I follow a few twitter accounts. I trust these twitter feeds to direct my attention.

  9. Yeah right by sit1963nz · · Score: 3, Funny

    Facebook showed me a "Top 5 places near you" which included a restaurant that closed a year ago.
    Facebook keeps showing me "groups" to join that I have zero interest in, and keeps showing the same ones again and again.
    Facebook keeps showing free flights scams
    Facebook keeps telling me I want to play certain games, or takes quizzes etc and I don't I won't and they can bugger off
    Facebook keeps telling me there are these women in Russia, Ukraine, etc who want to be my friend ..SCAM SCAM SCAM

    So given how completely incompetent Facebook show themselves to be, they think they should now be in between me and my trusted news sources.....
    Yeah, I would trust Kellyanne Conway to tell the truth first.

    1. Re:Yeah right by Obfuscant · · Score: 2

      So given how completely incompetent Facebook show themselves to be, they think they should now be in between me and my trusted news sources.....

      If Facebook is in between you and your trusted news sources, it is because you have put Facebook between you and your trusted news sources. Don't go through Facebook to get there, and your problem is solved.

    2. Re:Yeah right by Trogre · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Incompetent? You realize their mission is not to keep you happy, right?

      Their mission is to keep you (the product) using their service and to manipulate the content you are exposed to in order to maximize exposure for their customers (the advertisers).

      They just have to keep it entertaining enough to keep you below the threshold of annoyance below which the cost of leaving exceeds the cost of staying.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    3. Re:Yeah right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Apparently you are incompetent enough not to have figured out how to turn off most of these notifications, especially the one for the dumb game invites. I have't seen a game invite since the flood of people sharing candy crush made me seek out a way to block them. It's there in your settings, go dig around a little bit.

    4. Re:Yeah right by sit1963nz · · Score: 1

      Hence I said "they think they should now" rather than "They are"

    5. Re:Yeah right by sit1963nz · · Score: 1

      Facebook cleaner + ghostery + large hosts file makes facebook just bearable so I can keep in contact with various friends and family . Without then its went past unusable many years ago.

    6. Re:Yeah right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also consider what "friends" you have in your circle, a lot of facebook's suggestions are coming from shit they are sharing and posted. This last election cycle cleared up my follow list on facebook a lot. The fake news shit slinging from both sides got so bad, that I spent a week unfollowing anyone that posted anything politically charged during that week, My news feed is a lot nicer now from taking the time to do that. Unfollowing them still keeps them your friend, you just don't see any of the BS that they are spewing unless you purposely go look at their feed.

    7. Re:Yeah right by Known+Nutter · · Score: 2

      Why do people feel the need to make excuses for using Facebook?

      How did you keep in contact before Facebook? Try that.

      Or use Facebook if you wish. Itâ(TM)s your life, and your soul. But personally, I grow weary of hearing the excuses about keeping in touch. Itâ(TM)s ridiculous.

      --
      Beware of the Leopard.
    8. Re:Yeah right by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      Hence I said "if".

    9. Re:Yeah right by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      How did you keep in contact before Facebook? Try that.

      You don't get to control how other people, for example, invite you to parties. They'll just check everyone's name on facebook and be done. Be on FB or don't get invited. It's that simple.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    10. Re:Yeah right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can't be bothered to invite those not on facebook?

      Seems like a party not worth going to, then. No loss not being on facebook.

      When I was young - before the web & mobile phones - the landline phone was what we used. Still, we had no problem inviting the occational oddball who didn't have a phone at home.

      People still meet face to face and can talk. Are they really keeping silent about upcoming parties in order to enforce 'facebook users only'? Don't think so.

  10. Not MY news feed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't use facebook. Don't care.

  11. Stop trying to decide what I should see by vanyel · · Score: 2

    I explicitly don't use the News Feed because of crap like this - I just want to see *all* posts from friends and pages I follow in chronological order. Although facebook still fiddles with things a bit, I use a list and follow it to avoid the majority of the News Feed filters and nonsense.

    1. Re:Stop trying to decide what I should see by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Imagine using social media and never been able to read any news on what no script is, what an ad blocker is.
      Thats the real power of pre sorted, pre approved regional news. Topics just never get to be news. The users can interact with a list of news approved by their nations broadcasters, select private sector publishers, their mil, their gov.
      Search deranking will hide the rest.
      Comment in the wrong way politically and police will do an interview. Blasphemy? Thats going to get an account reported to the police.
      A bad comment about a pre approved good movie review? Never seen by other users in that nation.
      Social media is not just going to sort the news, they are going to hide comments, hide news, hide words, hide tech that blocks ads.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  12. Post everything in chronological order? by X10 · · Score: 2

    Why can't facebook just post everything you subscribe to in chronological order? Why do people accept that Facebook manipulates your timeline? Geez...
    Not that I care, I quit fb long ago.

    --
    no, I don't have a sig
    1. Re:Post everything in chronological order? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why can't facebook just post everything you subscribe to in chronological order? Why do people accept that Facebook manipulates your timeline? Geez...
      Not that I care, I quit fb long ago.

      Because Facebook knows that you read what that hot girl that isn't your girlfriend posted more than those other dudes you know. They also know that if they show you her posts, you'll log back in in a couple of hours. You can deny it, but they have data to prove you're full of crap, based on when the app/browser requests more data to scroll past.

  13. I want trn 4.0 by Mike+Van+Pelt · · Score: 1

    I want stories I have not yet read. I want them starting with the oldest one I have not yet read, going forward in chronological order.

    I want kill patterns. Anything referencing topics I have no interest in, and any of the many screed sites, clickbaity crap sites, glurge sites, etc., that impinge on my awareness. When I mark a pattern as "kill it" I want *NO* stories that mention it, no matter how deeply nested share of a share of a share of a share it is.

    I want, when I find a discussion has become tiresome, to say "Give me no more updates to this", and it NEVER shows up again.

    Yeah, every time I put any thought into what I want the UI of a social networking platform to look like, I soon find out I'm re-inventing Usenet and trn 4.0 with kill files. Maybe with graphics and stuff added, but I want that kind of functionality.

    Facebook is grimly determined to keep flinging the same old crap I hated the first time I saw it back in my face over and over again, with actual new content I want hidden many pages down beneath the crap. If it weren't for family and friends who use it who I want to keep in touch with, I'd have bailed on Facebook long ago. It's an abomination.

  14. Local news by SimonInOz · · Score: 1

    In the USA, itâ(TM)s easy to totally ignore the rest of the world. The news is incredibly local, to the point where youâ(TM)d scarcely believe the rest of the world even existed. Indeed it takes a certain amount of effort to even get news from other states.
    This is a bad idea by Facebook. The world does exist, itâ(TM)d be good for people, especially Americans, to hear news from other counties, like France or Australia, Macedonia, or Malawi.

    --
    "Cats like plain crisps"
    1. Re:Local news by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

      Isn't this true of European news as well? I don't mean the US centricism, but local news being... local.

      --
      Your ad here. Ask me how!
    2. Re: Local news by SimonInOz · · Score: 1

      No. In most places, you hear quite a lot about the rest of the world. Youâ(TM)d find everyone in australIa, where I live, would be aware of the joys of Trump, and May, and Angela Merkel. Iâ(TM)d bet a majority of Americans would be unaware of all but trump. Or at least a fair proportion.
      I doubt many Americans could name the Aussie prime minister, and we are one of your closest allies. Quite a lot could not even find Australia on a map, but thatâ(TM)s a seperate issue. (Some canâ(TM)t even find USA, which frankly is pretty scary, but I digress).
      Iâ(TM)d really prefer that people saw more than local news. It makes them better people, less insular, less prejudiced which surely has to be good. Living in a very small echo chamber cannot be good for anyone.

      --
      "Cats like plain crisps"
  15. Alternatives to Facebook by MendozaChingada · · Score: 1

    Hi guys, I know that Facebook is number one and all of us can't stop using it, but we can also find great alternatives online. Here is a list of great places that are also easy, user-friendly and fun to discover. http://goodsiteslike.com/sites...

  16. Facebook KNOWS i am in caracas... by williamyf · · Score: 1

    ... because I told them, and yet it insists in showing me events in Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, Piladelphis, Fort-Worth Irving, Madrid and some other places, just because some of my closests friends showed interest. Dear facebook, I( am not about to board a plane to see a concert in Toronto, but if I fly to toronto I'll let you know.

    Facebook knows I speak English, spanish and french. Because I told them. With 700 contacts, that should be enough to keep my timeline filled. And yet they insist obn showing shared-regurgitated-"viral"-chains in arabic, Turk, Armeninan, Hungarian, Chech and some other eastern european lanugages just because some of my contacts speak those languages (but they also speak english, spanish or french, and often post in thoise languages).

    Facebook has a lot of room to inprove, but they have their colective heads in the sand (or some other place with a fowler smell), so, they move so glacialy, that this type of trivial thing is seen as newsworthy...

    Go figure...

    Nowadays, for me, facebook is mostly a contacts repository and quick joke factory.

    no more, no less.

    --
    *** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
  17. Local is a mistake by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Reddit tried this briefly (default homepage prioritizes news from your state), and there was a pretty large backlash.

    tl;dr: People actually do like to read about stuff from outside of their echo chamber.

  18. Obligatory Oatmeal by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

    Obligatory Oatmeal
    http://theoatmeal.com/comics/reaching_people

  19. Israel interfered in the election by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and nobody cares.
    ae911truth dot org

    RIP Rachel Corrie

  20. waiting for backfire... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yeah, because giving people more localized bubbles is so much better than their regular bubble... mm kay

  21. Dump Zuck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I've been gone for years, and it has had NO material negative impact on my professional or personal life. Who wants to give these Orwellian creepers all your info? Later, Zuck!

  22. Who is Q? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    #qanon
    #thestorm
    #followthewhiterabbit

    Rothschild gang being taken out by the military.

  23. Right Decision by Joe_Ismail · · Score: 1

    Yes you right. I agree with you Thanks https://elynck.com/

    --
    Elynck LLC
  24. No, they won't by jenningsthecat · · Score: 1

    The implicit assumption in TFS is that EVERYONE is on Facebook. I'm not, and many people here are not. Just stop with the BS Kool-Aid dreams that suggest being plugged into FB is as natural and necessary as having air to breathe, water to drink, and food to eat.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
  25. Poor retarded APK is mad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Poor retarded Alexander Peter Kowalski is mad that someone mocked his idols Alex Jones and Trump.
    He is just on a tear because he gets spanked every time he posts and people call out his BS, and he got spanked hard yesterday.
    APK knows he can't defend his work so instead he lashes out.
    I'm surprised he hasn't posted one of his unsigned anti-semitic conspiracy fueled rants that involves Zuckerberg and George Soros here as this is a Facebook story.

  26. Muh Russia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Russia, russia, russia russia russia.....russia. Russia russia russia. Russia: russia russia russia.

    1. Re:Muh Russia by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 1

      Russia, russia, russia russia russia.....russia. Russia russia russia. Russia: russia russia russia.

      That takes me back to a simpler time,,,,,

      Badger badger badger badger badger badger badger, snaaa-aaa-ake!

      --
      The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  27. So we can be served local propaganda? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    First we have Facebook censoring posts regarding Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

    Then we have Facebook censoring News that they now deem Russian Propaganda because it allowed us to see the information the media was hiding from us regarding Hillary and ISIS as a tool of regime change, while at the same time Facebook was 'Trending' articles from sites with no traffic (according to Alexa) with fake news attacks on Trump.

    Now we have Facebook giving us local News?

    I don't know about everyone else, but I think facebook should get right the hell out of the News and Censorship business because it's bloody obvious what it's starting to be used for - Domestic Propaganda.

  28. prioritizing local sounds as new RegionCode by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So another channel goes way to maximize ads revenue.
    Priority for "local" news sounds like - you are in another Region Code , you cannot access this content ...
    See youtube - "this video is not available in your country"
    See DVD & BlueRay
    finally see Amazon Kindle library and their approach - your country was not British colony so you are not allowed to read this ebook. Please patiently wait 2-3 years perhaps you will be allowed to access poor translation into your native language.
    What? You do want to learn English? Perhaps to steal jobs as offshore worker? Go back to your kennel ...

  29. Why won't Facebook let us set our OWN priorities? by shanen · · Score: 1

    It's because Facebook's goals are NOT our goals.

    I hate to give it away so soon, but I know most of today's Slashdot readers have rather limited attention spans. I'll say a bit more, but mostly I feel like I'm wasting my time. To a degree I might even blame Slashdot, but I think Facebook is the leader in wasting time by chewing it to pieces, and Slashdot is merely contaminated by the trend.

    Remember that the "value" of Facebook is primarily linked to how much time the "members" of Facebook spend on the website. The more user time-on-site, the more user attention Facebook has to sell to advertisers, even if Facebook is doing a piss poor job of selling it. (Actually the market cap of Facebook is mostly speculative fantasy, but that describes most of today's stock market, eh? The stock price bubble is a mostly separate problem.)

    The problem is that we think our time is valuable. We might value the quality of our time, but Facebook has no reason to care. Time is time as far as Facebook is concerned. Actually it might be even more evil than that. If the decision makers are behaviorists, then they know that random reinforcement is more powerful in preventing extinction...

    Oh well. That's enough for now. Additional opinions available upon polite request, but politeness is another thing in short supply on today's Slashdot.

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
  30. The power of intermittent reinforcement by shanen · · Score: 1

    Good comment and you deserve the insightful moderation. However, I think the reality may be worse than you indicated if they are using behaviorist strategies.

    If you reward (or punish) a behavior on a continuous basis, then it is quickly extinguished. For example, if you reward a certain behavior every time it happens but then stop the rewards, then the behavior soon stops (is "extinguished" in behaviorist lingo). Alternatively (obviously), if you punish a certain behavior every time it happens, then that behavior soon stops. (Would anyone visit Facebook if every visit was an annoying waste of time?)

    With intermittent (random) reinforcement you can create behaviors that are extremely hard to extinguish. There's always the chance that a reward will be coming on the next attempt. That's how gambling works and why addicted gamblers are so hard to cure. A couple of early wins and you may be hooked for life.

    As it applies on Facebook, as long as some of your visits are positive experiences, Facebook feels they can rely on your coming back. Sure, they have so much content that they could provide you with good quality stuff all the time, but they probably regard that as a stupid idea. What would happen when another bug in their buggy website started feeding you garbage? How many "members" would leave, never to return? Much better to use the random mix of good stuff and crapola.

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
  31. My favorite thing to say about this by DarkRookie · · Score: 1

    To get news:
    1. Delete your Facebook account
    2. Bookmark https://www.apnews.com/tag/apf...
    You don't get news from facebook

    --
    The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.