The Facebook News Feed Fix: Is “Why Am I Seeing This” Enough?

I remember the days when Facebook was the hot thing and scrolling through the News Feed every day was as mandatory as eating food. Breaking the flashback bubble and coming back to the present, Facebook is a mess now. With data breaches and a lot more happening, the Mark Zuckerberg-owned platform (which we all adored even more after watching “The Social Network”) is something we hardly use now.

Amidst all the fiascos the social media platform has been getting entrapped in, it is still trying to come up with ways to keep all its users (active for now) stuck to it. And, one such feature is the new “Why am I seeing this?” which is a new option in the drop-down menu of any post on your FB feed, trying to make it an improved (if not better) place.

The New “Why Am I Seeing This” Tool

The new tool is introduced to allow you to have more control over your feed. For instance, there are situations where I am randomly going through my Facebook and ending up asking one question — “Why do I have this post on my feed?” or “Did I even follow this page?”

Facebook precisely tries to answer this. Each post on your Facebook News Feed (posts from Friends, posts from Pages you like, or Groups) will get an option in the form of the “Why am I seeing this?” question and clicking on the same will explain it.

Additionally, Facebook provides users with Shortcuts (See First, Unfollow, News Feed Preferences, and Privacy Shortcuts) as a helmet, in case you get agitated by the post and want to sue Facebook.

Facebook’s explanation involves two parts: Part 1 tells you why you are seeing a particular post which could be due to a page you have liked, a group you are a part of, or maybe a friend like it. The crux is that Facebook assumes the post is relevant to you and it actually could be in some cases. So, it just pops on your feed.

Part 2 is the sub-part of Part 1 and explains to you about the kind of interactions with the friends, pages or groups you had, and thus, the posts!

A Similar Feature For Ads

This is not the first time Facebook has dived into the pool of user questions it tries to answer. Back in 2014, it started displaying a similar question for adverts. When we started feeling a little too annoyed when Facebook became all about ads instead of being social, it tried to provide an answer to it, and those answers will soon see new improvements, allowing you to take action against an ad if you wish to.

The Current Facebook News Feed

As the tool isn’t available everywhere, I would like to give a brief on the News Feed minus the tool and how I feel about it.

Presently, the Facebook News Feed provides us with the same posts (from friends, from pages you like or the Groups you are on) with options such as Save post, Hide post, Snooze, Hide all posts from that particular page, group, or friend, Give feedback, Turn on/off notifications, and Copy Link.

Just one added option, and we can get answers to most of the questions in our heads (well, that’s what Facebook thinks).

While I exactly don’t remember the overall the changes Facebook’s Feed has gone through over the years, the one at my disposal is currently not to my liking and here comes the question of whether or not Facebook is genuinely making our experience a seamless and unquestionable one!

The Feed is 70% posts I might not be interested in viewing (Facebook thinks otherwise though), and the posts I am interested in (posts from my Facebook friends) constitute just 30%. So, Facebook that’s not really what me (and most of the people) want, and you better change this.

Is The “Why Am I Seeing This?” Tool Useful?

The tool aims to clarify that all the content you see on your feed is based on the level of relevancy and not Facebook spying on you. It tries to provide you with reasons for the same, and you can decide what you want to do if you still consider the posts irrelevant.

One might feel this gets the work done from Facebook’s part of providing reasons for its actions and makes it feel that it is sorted but, in reality, it isn’t.

We get all the required information about the posts we see and it’s necessary as well, but what about the overall user experience? Facebook also needs to enhance the user experience other than listing down reasons and unburdening itself.

We need a platform that maintains the main idea of Facebook — to socialize. Not to spread fake news, not put up all the exasperating ads, not show us posts we are completely disinterested in, but just socialize.

Also Read: Why Is April Fools Day Still A Thing In The Fake News Era?