How to make Facebook work better for you: Quit the 'Like'

[KamaAina]

http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/17/how-to-make-facebook-work-better-for-you-quit-the-like/

The “Like” button on Facebook seems harmless enough: It’s an easy way to express your appreciation of something.

But as some people are discovering, that innocuous little like has some unintended consequences.

Wired writer Mat Honan found out what happens when you like every single thing that shows up in your Facebook feed. The results were dramatic: Instead of his friends’ updates, he saw more and more updates from brands and publishers. And, based on what he had liked most recently, Facebook’s algorithm made striking judgements about his political leanings, giving him huge numbers extremely right-wing or extremely left-wing posts. What’s more, all that liking made Honan’s own posts show up far more in his friends’ feeds — distorting their view of the world, too.

But Medium writer Elan Morgan tried the opposite experiment: Not liking anything on Facebook. Instead of pressing like, she wrote a few thoughtful words whenever she felt the need to express appreciation: “What a gorgeous shock of hair” or “Remember how we hid from your grandmother in the gazebo and smoked cigarettes?” The result, as you might guess, is just the opposite of Honan’s experience: Brand messages dwindled away and Facebook became a more relaxed, conversational place for Morgan.

Might be worth a try. I tend to be rather chatty, anyway, as some of you know all too well.

[arcane1]

1. Hmm, very interesting.

Perhaps I'll look into this!

[Xyzse]

2. I don't have FB, and I never log in to google when doing searches and other things.

I tend to use Incognito mode for most searches.

Not because I want to hide, it is more so that I don't get as much targeted results.

My results in any sort of search tends to be different from others.

Also, everyone's auto-fill in the google search is slightly different. Type in a few letters or a one word subject in google, and it will fill that thing up.

My brothers and I, as well as some people would type in the name:

"Kate"

Whomever has "Kate Upton" furthest from their top suggestion for auto-fill wins, or something like that.

Also try to type:

"How to"

Whomever has the worst auto fill gets laughed at.

[Skittles]

3. omg people actually writing a reason instead of clicking a button

who could have thought of something so dramatic???!!!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. I routinely use "like" when I'm in too much of a hurry to write something...

But I don't have any ads.

AdBlock.

It works!

[pipi_k]

6. AdBlock

truly is a wonderful thing!

[olddots]

5. facebook became depressing then annoying

The addiction became very sad fast it was like cocaine ...all hype no high an empty calorie ..the saddest thing was reading a old lovers posts about her love of all things right wing and racist ...7.3 billion lonely people .