Facebook has made some changes that will let you improve your News Feed experience. Surprisingly, it is going to let people select what they want to see first. Pick the friends who create posts that you actually want to see.
Product Manager Jacob Frantz wrote a post on Facebook Newsroom about this change. Part of it says:
We’re always working to improve and personalize your News Feed experience. We know that ultimately you’re the only one who truly knows what is most meaningful to you and that is why we want to give you more ways to control what you see.
There is now an option to “Prioritize who to see first”. This gives you the opportunity to put the people, or pages, that are most important to you at the top of your News Feed. Who are you hoping to read posts from when you go on Facebook? Those are the people you should prioritize. No more scrolling through a bunch of stuff you don’t care about before finding what you came there to see.
The same post by Jacob Frantz mentions the Unfollow option. It is as though he is reminding users of that option (since it isn’t new). Use the Unfollow on that person who keeps posting political articles that you are tired of seeing. You can Follow them again later, after they calm down. To do that, just select them from your list of people you have Unfollowed.
The new ability to prioritize your Facebook feed is available on iOS and will be rolling out on Android and desktop over the coming weeks.
I find these changes interesting, even though I don’t use Facebook myself. I cannot help but wonder if the ability to pick what you want to see first, and to Unfollow people – without Unfriending them, or giving them any way to know that you have stopped Following them – is a form of triage.
Giving people more control over what they see could make a person’s Facebook experience more pleasant and less aggravating. It might be what prevents people from getting tired of, or frustrated with, Facebook and quitting it forever.