“The like and the favorite are the new metrics of success—very literally. Not only are they ego-feeders for the stuff we put online as individuals, but advertisers track their campaigns on Facebook by how often they are liked,” Mat Honan reports for Wired. “A recent New York Times story on a krill oil ad campaign lays bare how much the like matters to advertisers. Liking is an economic act.”
“I like everything. Or at least I did, for 48 hours. Literally everything Facebook sent my way, I liked—even if I hated it,” Honan reports. “I decided to embark on a campaign of conscious liking, to see how it would affect what Facebook showed me. I know this sounds like a stunt (and it was) but it was also genuinely just an open-ended experiment. I wasn’t sure how long I’d keep it up (48 hours was all I could stand) or what I’d learn (possibly nothing.)”
“In 2014 the News Feed is a highly-curated presentation, delivered to you by a complicated formula based on the actions you take on the site, and across the web,” Honan reports. “I wanted to see how my Facebook experience would change if I constantly rewarded the robots making these decisions for me, if I continually said, ‘good job, robot, I like this.’ I also decided I’d only do this on Facebook itself – trying to hit every Like button I came across on the open web would just be too daunting. But even when I kept the experiment to the site itself, the results were dramatic.”
Read more in the full article here.
Oh for a “dislike” button. I would hit it constantly for Facebook, and for Google+, and for every other tracker.
Short the “dislike” button I just avoid all those site/services.
I don’t hate ads, I like them and need them to stay current on products. Why can’t I just fill out a form to generate my profile for targeted ads instead of having creepy software and creepy people tracking my actions?
If you clicked this theoretical “dislike” button, my guess is that Google would serve up even more sites/services in the certainty that you will eventually find something to like. Either way, you get more stuff and they get more info.
The best way to deal with this is to block Google and ads.
What a pathetic use of today’s technology. Facebook is greed/ voyeurism/ surveillance.
I’ll consider using social media when it’d done by a Wikipedia-like medium. And I would donate to support it. Anyone listening?
MCD: “Facebook is a weird place and it’s getting weirder.”
hilarious. i loathe facebook except for it’s most simple and obvious value. everything else associated is like mr incredible when he got hit with all the sticky balls.
Got tired of reading that article. The like system sucks. And frankly we have lost what we originally came to Facebook for.
Okay, how to we get that back? All the cool friends left already.
I agree about getting tired of reading the article. Does Mat ever get to the point? First I got up, then I put on my shoes, then I walked to the kitchen, then I turned on the light, then I saw the bread, then I walked over to open the drawer . . .
The few, the proud, the non-Facebook users. There’s just a few of us, we are the survivors.
I must admit, I hated Facebook the moment I saw it.
The de rigur FB Messenger transition has reminded how much I detest the power FB has on my life. But I do really love the connection I have with my friends through it, and I find many interesting articles through liking various organizations and adding them to my newsfeed.
You can still use messages on the mobile website. I’ve deleted the fb app because it drains my battery.
Whenever I see or hear “like us on FaceBook” or “hashtag” something in an ad, I tend to “dislike” whatever is being advertised.
There was a time, about two years ago, where I was strongly tempted to become a Facebook user. My wife is on it, uses it for communication with her friends, and told me how all these people I used to know were on it. But after thinking about it, I decided against it, because I didn’t think I’d enjoy it. It seemed like too much work to keep up with it.
I cannot read an article like this without feeling grateful that I never joined Facebook. I don’t need it. I’m never going to need it. The rest of the world can have it.
(And I’m not against social media in general. I read Twitter and even tweet once in a blue moon. But Facebook is just too damned much.)
——RM
“But Facebook is just too damned much.”
No, it’s not. You’re making it too much. Facebook can be as simple as searching for a person’s name, like an old friend or relative, and then viewing their timeline to see what they’ve been up to. You can then move on or come back and check up on them when you’re interested.
You don’t have to share anything yourself, or do anything for that matter.
“I cannot read an article like this without feeling grateful that I never joined Facebook.”
This article, and all the comments here complaining about Facebook, are all missing the fact that you don’t have to participate in much of what they’re complaining about.
You never have to “like” anything on Facebook, and the author is describing what happens if did that incessantly.
For my use, I’ve connected with a lot of old friends, and found it to be an easy way to share photos and keep in touch. I don’t “like” articles or ads, I don’t install apps, I ignore pokes, etc…
Same here, I think it’s great for the fact of keeping in touch with family and friends all across the world. I’ve gotten to know and see (pictures) distant relatives that I probably never would of if it weren’t for Facebook. I ignore game requests and all that garbage, and if I partake in a survey or something like “what’s your IQ”. I choose not to share it.
Well, sure… I guess I could join Facebook and just not share. Be something like a Facebook lurker. But doesn’t that kind negate the whole point of Facebook?
——RM
Not at all. The point of Facebook is that you’re free to share as much or as little about yourself as you want. There’s nothing wrong with not sharing anything and just lurking around and following friends and relatives when you want to see what they’re up to.
On the other hand, you might find that on a scale of 0-10, with 0 being not signed up, and 10 being someone who spends the whole day on Facebook sharing crap and using apps, that while being level 1 (lurker) is easy enough and allows you to see what your friends and relatives are up to, being a level 2 and sharing just a little bit about yourself, and only to those you’ve accepted friend requests online, isn’t that much of a leap/effort/invasion of privacy.
I have no vested interest in Facebook, but the service has allowed me to connect and reconnect with people I never would have had I not used the service, and I’m about a level 5.
What’s Facebook?
Flash is far from dead. Try watching HBO GO on a Macintosh without it. Then there is Adobe Air, which is also used for many forms of media such as Zinio Magazines.
Wrong place.
Facebook. Because you’ve got no life. At all.