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Meta Just Proved People Hate Chronological Feeds
(www.wired.com)
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this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2023
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Technology
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Using engagement for metric will ofc render algorithmic feed "better", i.e. addictive. Their value is not about mental wellbeing.
The fact that they switched to a different algorithmic feed instead of reducing use time indicates that it's a problem that needs legislation to address, since it will not be in any individual company's interest to stop.
I found that back in the old days of Facebook (pre-enshitification, or at least full steam enshitification) I could log in, catch up on what all my distant relatives and friends were up to, leave some comments, maybe post something myself, and log out in around 10-15 minutes max. Then they started "improving" things, and suddenly there was "engaging" content, and it took at least ½ an hour.
I think it makes sense that from Facebook's perspective, a chronological feed is worse.
Having said that, some people post more than others, so I do appreciate using the Hot and Active sorts for Lemmy in addition to Top - Day. It's a feature I miss from Mastodon. There is a headline bot that I like following, to catch the recent headlines, and the weather. Problem is that something like ¼ of my feed can just be the bot, and yesterday's headlines aren't news anymore, I'm more interested in the ongoing discussion. So I do appreciate the non-chronological sorts, when they make things better for me, and not a corporation's bottom line.
Yep, I basically stopped using Facebook when it changed away from that. It also changed in other ways, in that people would be posting about politics and memes instead of just life updates and holiday pictures.