Help. I have apparently created my own personal echo chamber of sorts on Facebook. I have unwittingly painted myself into a corner where I live inside a bubble. Escape is possible, but tedious. Facebook needs to provide some sort of a “reset button” that lets me wipe the slate clean and start over with a fresh algorithm.
Facebook made the decision a while ago to filter the posts you see by default based on an algorithm. You have control over that algorithm to an extent—Facebook determines what to show you, and what not to, based on your own history of the types of posts you’ve “Liked” or commented on. There is an overwhelming amount of information flowing through Facebook, and I understand the value of something like the algorithm to try and sift through the noise to prioritize the posts you’re most likely going to prefer anyway.
Here’s the problem, though—and the reason I am not a fan of filtering by algorithm: I didn’t know I was making decisions that were going to be used against me later. I didn’t know that the posts I Liked, shared, or commented on were part of some social experiment that would eventually dictate—more or less—what kinds of posts I get to Like, share, or comment on.
Yes, it makes sense to proactively filter the countless posts on Facebook to try and show me the content I am most likely to be interested in. It also creates a self-perpetuating information bubble. Someone who frequently Likes, shares, or comments on conservative or right-wing posts is going to see a higher percentage of those posts in their feed. That has two consequences: 1) They end up with a potentially false sense of confidence in a particular point of view. It seems popular—even if it’s considered ludicrous by most of the world—because everyone in their social network bubble is talking about. And, 2) It means that they’re less likely to even be exposed to opposing or alternative viewpoints because the algorithm is focused on showing them stuff they agree with.
Technically, it is possible to bypass the algorithm and just see the posts on Facebook in pure chronological order. Toward the top of the menu in the left pane when you’re viewing the Facebook feed, you should see an option for “News Feed”. There is a dropdown arrow to the right of it that lets you select between “Top Stories” and “Most Recent”—the Top Stories being the algorithm view and the Most Recent being chronological.
In theory, by switching to the Most Recent view and changing the types of posts you Like, share, and comment on you could eventually sway the algorithm. There is no way of knowing offhand, though, how long that will take. The other problem is that even if you choose Most Recent Facebook keeps randomly defaulting back to Most Recent, so it takes a fair amount of vigilance to actually stay outside of the bubble you’ve created.
What would be nice is a “Reset Button” feature. Facebook should have an option that allows a user to wipe the slate clean and start a new algorithm from scratch. I’d like to be able to periodically hit “Reset” and start over so I can build a new algorithm.
If Facebook is opposed to that, though, even just a one-time “Reset” would be nice—and that goes for Instagram too. There should be some sort of clean slate where Facebook announces that on XYZ date the algorithm tracking will begin, and gives you the opportunity to start from scratch so you aren’t left with a Facebook feed full of posts from your wacky uncle in Louisiana who is sure that Hillary Clinton is Satan incarnate, and Donald Trump is here to save us all.
