Monday, September 22, 2014

On September 18th, 2014 my professor Miss Lee, asked me to do an experiment regarding my Facebook account. I was going to quit liking things on Facebook. At the time, I simply decided that I no longer wanted to like anything on Facebook. Interesting enough the results were very facinating after a week.

I quit the Like, and it was not that hard in my case as other experiences I read last week in class.
 #1 Benefit of Quitting the Facebook Like: A Better Facebook News Feed
Like or not like? Test it your self and see how it affects your Facebook page.

It is difficult to not like stuff on Facebook, as I scrolled through updates, my finger instinctively gravitated towards the Like button on hundreds of posts and comments. I saw updates I liked or wanted others to know I liked, and I found myself almost unconsciously clicking my approval.

The "Like" button is the "I agree short digital expression" in todays world of Facebook. You see, if the like button was not there, you would have to type a reason as to what you thought of that picture or comment you saw. 

As the days wore on, my Facebook news feed changed slightly not drastically. I wasn’t sure if my experience was worth writing about. As the days went by I realized how my Facebook was experiencing a metamorphosis effect.

My Facebook feed was quite different than it used to be, I used to click on all of the Middle east news links and since I stopped clicking on the like button my news feedback diminished a bit.

Back in the early 1900 there was something known as the "Gatekeepers" (production managers) who would decide what to print and what not to print. 

Today we also have other kind of digital gatekeepers known as "algorithms" these do not understand the psychological expressions of why you might like one thing and not another even though they have comparatively similar keywords and reach similar audiences, so when I liked several Biblical prophecies, Facebook’s algorithm gave me more Terrorist news, many of them were US related but most of them were rather a mixed topics relating to the end of times and Isis. They depicted the Middle East and terrorism.

Apparently, Facebook’s algorithm mistook my interest for the Biblical prophecies as a desire to see information of Middle East chaos and terrorism.


Now that I am not taking any action on Facebook and not clicking Like on anything at all, my feed back content has changed as follow: 

Bullets of changes I saw:

• Feedback input relaxed

• Facebook page became more family oriented

• News information bombarding my account diminished

• Positive results

Give the Like a rest and see what happens. Choose to comment with words. Watch how your feed changes. I haven’t used the Like on Facebook since September 18th, and the changes in my feed have been so obviously positive that I won’t be liking anything on Facebook as I move forward that does not pertain to my family and close friends content.


Inhuman algorithms, are worst than the gatekeepers on the early 1900's. There is no human interaction, no feelings, no sense, no good feedback as a result.

6 comments:

  1. Great article Walter, I agree that inhuman algorithms have made facebook less enjoyable since "liking" things became a regular habit of mine. My facebook feed has improved a ton since I stopped liking things, it feels a lot more clean and authentic now.

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  2. Thanks for putting the test out there for others to try. That was a great idea. Based on some of the other articles we have been currently reading, I see Facebook is taking the same stance...Experiement, Experiment, Experiment!

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  3. Very good. I had similar results. In the end, users dictate how the feed looks by action. Just figuring out the right action to get the right results may be tricky when dealing with algorithms.

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  4. Thanks so much for sharing your results. I found this experiment was interesting and challenging. I found the most interesting part to be that you had biblical prophecy stuff lead you more towards the middle east conflict

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  5. Great post! I didn't notice a significant change in my newsfeed due to less use of it, but I'm excited at the prospect of rehumanizing my newsfeed. I'm considering permanantly disabling my "like," partly thank to your post.

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