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Up 'till now, I've been quite content with Facebook - I've kept it pretty clean ie, don't follow news sources, 'friends' that post objectionable content get binned quickly and the only "content' I interact with are groups around my interests, which can be generally classified into innocuous outdoors stuff, and almost entirely UK focused.
I've seen it more as a forum aggregator and has worked really quite well. Up 'till now at least.
Question being, why on earth have I been getting bombarded with ultra right wing; anti Biden, anti vax, covid hoax, plandemic bullshit all of a sudden?
It's as if Facebook has thought;
"ahh I see you just liked a photo of a summit camp on a munro with a splendid photo of the stars so here's a 'suggested for you' post claiming science is a communist ploy ffs! [true advert I got this morning].
This only seems to be within the last week or so I've been bombarded with this nonsense - what on earth has caused it? Have I just been opened up to the Pandora's box that's been there all along? Has there been a concerted effort (read funding campaign) to get more normal folk onto that side of the fence and so a proliferation of these adds?
Something your friends are looking at being directed to you? I've certainly not seen any change.
I have a different but related question - I was sick of getting particular adverts so, out of curiosity, I started to hide them and mark them as a 'sensitive topic' assuming that Facebook would then stop showing me such adverts. My 'research' meant that I selected betting adverts (I can see why they would target betting at me as I follow several sport / football pages) but they still kept appearing despite my hiding these ads continually for a good 12 months - they may disappear for a bit but then start appearing again. Surely Facebook's Duty of Care should mean they ensure all betting adverts remain out of my feed because it should be assumed that I am a recovering gambler and that's why it is a sensitive topic - I am not, but that's not the point.
Facebook’s Duty of Care
Hah, yeah, right.
Hah, yeah, right.
Okay, I see your point - I should have said 'a provider's duty of care' 🙂
I had exactly the same experience with Facebook and nearly packed it in, until I found this.
Has helped no end.
Looks a bit sketch, works perfectly. No adverts, no s****y promoted posts from nazis (although all of my spam actually seemed to be about football or stupid modified cars, FB clearly trolling me as I hate both).
I've been pissed off with the FB algorithm for a number of years, but unfortunately my addiction to FB is to large to remove the app....
My FB feed has been getting bombarded with alot of crap recently too, it started around the time of the first lockdown and has been getting steadily worse, too the point that I can't really be arsed to look at it very often anymore. I started reporting it as spam but it makes no difference, just get some other crap instead. At one point UK.GOV posts suddenly started appearing so I reported those as misinformation! 🤣😂
The only reason I'm keeping FB at present is that the marketplace is useful...
If it's ads then you'll be in the targeting group of whoever has run the ad. So I recently ran a campaign for adult learning targeted at people over 18 living in specific areas of a county. Mebbe your ads are targeted at white men, aged 40 - 50 with an interest in the outdoors (just guessing here) because their research has shown that that's the group they're most likely to 'convert'.
There's no point targeting your ads at knuckledragging extreme right wingers cos they're already onboard, you want to target groups that you're likely to get new buy in from.
I use Facebook Marketplace, but got off the main site years ago and never looked back.
#DeleteFacebook
If it’s ads then you’ll be in the targeting group of whoever has run the ad. So I recently ran a campaign for adult learning targeted at people over 18 living in specific areas of a county. Mebbe your ads are targeted at white men, aged 40 – 50 with an interest in the outdoors (just guessing here) because their research has shown that that’s the group they’re most likely to ‘convert’.
That makes sense I suppose - it's not just one "brand' I'm being advertised though. A quick, 1 min (timed) scroll and I got 7 'suggested for you' posts on the anti vax/covid hoax/we're-so-clever-we-know-it's-a-hoax/anti Biden theme each from a different page and inviting a follow.
I had exactly the same experience with Facebook and nearly packed it in, until I found this.
Has helped no end.
Looks a bit sketch, works perfectly. No adverts, no s****y promoted posts from nazis (although all of my spam actually seemed to be about football or stupid modified cars, FB clearly trolling me as I hate both).
Thanks, I'll look into that. I'd be loath to bin Facebook entirely as I'm a member of a few, genuinely good groups with little off-facebook presence I think I'd miss. I will give binning the whole Facebook thing some serious consideration tho.
It's a browser extension which I even managed to put on my work PC without any faffing (which is locked down tighter than a badgers arse). Really recommend it.
Looks a bit sketch, works perfectly.
I don't use it because Reasons but FB Purity has been around almost as long as Facebook as, it's a mature product. The website looks like it was made in Notepad ten years ago because it probably was.
A quick, 1 min (timed) scroll and I got 7 ‘suggested for you’ posts on the anti vax/covid hoax/we’re-so-clever-we-know-it’s-a-hoax/anti Biden theme each from a different page and inviting a follow.
'different' pages doesn't mean theres not more than one author behind them or with an interest in promoting them.
Being a focus for them yourself might be exactly because you keen things 'clean' in your own words. If your profile (as Facebook or advertisers see it) is very broad-ranging then there are all sorts of ways an advertiser or promotor of content can tailor content to you and more range in terms of adverts and suggestion - but if you have a very narrow profile then the more likely it is you'll feel bombarded by content of a particular flavour. You're not receiving content from groups and campaigns renowned for their nuance and subtlety - they think more like spammers than marketeers - and some clumsy use of keywords and geography (like forgetting that many US towns and cities have namesakes in the UK) means their stuff will crowd out any other content you'd see, simply because theres not really much else to be promoted to you.
I was getting all sorts of rubbish suggested. Gambling sites being a bugbear (I'm too tight to gamble) I would purge them as inappropriate and offensive but they'd return soon enough. Only had FB for friends and various groups including our Pumptrack groups.
I chucked a wobbily 23rd December as work and other stuff was nipping my napper and FB was the creme de la shit on the pile of poop .
Decided to have a two week break now not even tempted to reinstall it.
Just get it deleted ffs.
I just expect FB to be full of garbage. I've had a better experience of Twitter, but this just turned up as a recommendation. I follow some science accounts, but this seems to be a UFO crank account arguing that they have samples from a crashed UFO. I guess their algorithm can't tell the difference between science and science-conspiracies.
https://twitter.com/TheUfoJoe/status/1486386053569073152
Facebook can be useful but I only use it on the desktop PC while at work. I don't carry it around in my pocket anymore.
I deleted it off my phone and was immediately happier.
Thanks all.
Slept on the matter and then this morning deleted the app from my phone and deactivated my account.
Does this mean I have to spend more hours working instead of endless scrolling now?
I spent more time staring into space feeling my brain chemistry gradually normalising. After a while I started to imagine things again.
True fact, people who delete their facebook accounts spend more time telling people about it than they did looking at it... its actually counterproductive.