Facebook is changing what its users will see to highlight posts they are most likely to engage with and make time spent on social media more B次元官网网址渕eaningful.B次元官网网址�
By cutting back on items that Facebook users tend to passively consume, the change could hurt news organizations and other businesses that rely on Facebook to share their content.
The idea is to help users to connect with people they care about, not make them feel depressed and isolated.
B次元官网网址淭he research shows that when we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for our well-being,B次元官网网址� Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Thursday.
B次元官网网址淲e can feel more connected and less lonely, and that correlates with long term measures of happiness and health. On the other hand, passively reading articles or watching videos B次元官网网址� even if theyB次元官网网址檙e entertaining or informative B次元官网网址� may not be as good.B次元官网网址�
Shares of Facebook slid more than 5 per cent to $177.31 in premarket trading Friday after the change was unveiled.
Under the revised regime, there will be fewer posts from brands, pages and media companies and more from people. There will be fewer videos, which Facebook considers B次元官网网址減assive.B次元官网网址� People will likely spend less time on Facebook as a result, the company says.
ThatB次元官网网址檚 because even if people read such content on Facebook, they donB次元官网网址檛 necessarily comment or interact with it in other ways.
But Facebook gave scant details about how it would define whatB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址渕eaningful.B次元官网网址�
The changes could shrink the social media giantB次元官网网址檚 role as a major news source for many people.
B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 in the same direction that Facebook has been pursuing for a while: offering a place for discussion among individuals, a community space, rather than being a news source,B次元官网网址� said Oh Se-uk, a senior researcher on digital news at the Korea Press Foundation.
B次元官网网址淚t wants people who have been friends to become even closer, to have deeper discussions (on Facebook). Traffic to news mediaB次元官网网址檚 websites via Facebook will likely fall,B次元官网网址� he said.
The move will not affect advertisements B次元官网网址� users will continue to see the same ads they have before, B次元官网网址渕eaningfulB次元官网网址� or not. But businesses that use Facebook to connect with their customers without paying for ads will also feel the pain.
Facebook has long been criticized for creating B次元官网网址渇ilter bubbles,B次元官网网址� the echo chambers of friends and like-minded people whose views are reinforced by their friendsB次元官网网址� posts on the platform.
The company says thatB次元官网网址檚 similar to how people make friends and interact with each other offline. Facebook says its research shows that users are exposed to more divergent views on its platform than they would be otherwise, but thatB次元官网网址檚 hard to verify independently since the company is cautious about providing data to outsiders.
Oh, the researcher at Korea Press Foundation, said it was too early to say whether the latest measure would reinforce FacebookB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址渇ilter bubbleB次元官网网址� effect or not. B次元官网网址淲e wonB次元官网网址檛 know until we see what happens.B次元官网网址�
The changes come after a tough year for Facebook that included congressional hearings on how Russia used it to influence the 2016 U.S. elections. Former executives and Facebook investors have spoken out about how it and other social media sites might be hurting rather than helping society and usersB次元官网网址� psyches.
Last week, Zuckerberg said his B次元官网网址減ersonal challengeB次元官网网址� for 2018 (something heB次元官网网址檚 done every year since 2009), will be to fix Facebook.
B次元官网网址淔acebook has a lot of work to do B次元官网网址� whether itB次元官网网址檚 protecting our community from abuse and hate, defending against interference by nation states, or making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spent,B次元官网网址� he wrote.
Tweaking usersB次元官网网址� feeds may cause the social media platform to lose some of its lustre for content producers or media companies, especially video makers that cannot make money on Facebook regardless of how many of their videos go viral, said Cho Sodam, founder of Dotface, a youth-oriented media startup based in Seoul, South Korea.
B次元官网网址淣o matter how well we do on Facebook and how great our videos are, making high-quality videos itself does not bring us any profit,B次元官网网址� said Cho.
The 1-year-old Dotface has 110,000 fans on its Facebook page, its primary channel for reaching viewers. DotfaceB次元官网网址檚 videos about a South Korean mother giving a hug to young sexual minority people who could not tell their parents about their sexual orientation struck a chord with viewers around the world, accruing 5 million views and many shares, comments and likes. But those views, comments or share generated no revenue for Dotface.
Cho said her company is expanding links to other platforms, such as YouTube, that share profit with content creators.
___
AP Technology Writer Youkyung Lee in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this story.
Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press
