You may or may not have seen a post by Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announcing some major changes coming to the social network’s News Feed.
The changes are part of a new direction by Facebook to encourage us to actively interact with each other, not simply using the site as a place to sit back and consume content.
Some of these changes have to some degree already taken place, but there’s much more to come so to lay it all out, here’s a simple breakdown of how Facebook is changing and what it means for you.
The News Feed
You will start seeing a lot less posts from brands, business and media outlets including news organisations. This actually started happening back in 2016 but Facebook will take increasingly greater steps to hide these posts from your feed over the coming months.
You will start seeing a lot more posts from the human beings you follow.
If you do see a post from a brand or news organisation it will have to create “meaningful interactions” between you and your friends. Essentially, Facebook wants it to be a place where you talk about the news, not simply consume it.
Elsewhere
Facebook has already started investing heavily in increasing interactivity between its users through the creation of Facebook Spaces.
A renewed focus on groups and communities will allow people who have common interests to engage with each other on the site.
Video has “exploded” on Facebook in the last few years so while you’re still going to see a lot of video, it’s likely that more of it will be coming from people you know, or have common interests with rather than from brands or media organisation.
Facebook has announced no specific changes to its other products like Messenger, or Instagram but in his statement Zuckerberg did say that this new approach would roll out in its “other products” over the coming months.
Explore Feed: This is an experimental second News Feed that Facebook has been trialling in some countries. At the moment it’s being trialled as a version of Instagram’s own ‘Explore’ section allowing users finding new people and groups to engage with but there have been rumours that it could even become the new home for businesses and media.
So in short? You’re going to see less news posts and brand posts and if you do see them it’s probably going to be because either a lot of people have shared it or friends you know are engaging with it.
Instead you’re going to see a lot more posts from your friends and over the coming months it’s likely Facebook will roll out new ways for you to interact with them as well.