How to make your Facebook News Feed a less divisive place
Facebook (FB) is releasing an update to help you to cut down on divisive content by letting you ditch the algorithmically-driven News Feed for a chronological one. The difference could make your Facebook experience more rewarding, and less contentious, as the algorithmically-powered feed tends to highlight controversial posts.
Facebook’s algorithm has been blamed for everything from spreading disinformation to highlighting posts that drive divisiveness. By giving users the ability to move away from a News Feed full of provocative content in favor of one that highlights posts in chronological order, the company could make it easier to check in on your friends and family.
To be sure, divisive content, which tends to show up at the top of News Feeds because it receives the most user engagement, will still appear on Facebook. But by listing your feed in chronological order, you should see such posts less often, as that contentious content will no longer receive preferential treatment in your feed.
Facebook already offers the ability to view the News Feed in chronological order, but getting there is a pain. This will make it a part of the main News Feed experience, rather than a buried feature in a series of menus.
To access the new feature, you’ll need to have Google's (GOOG, GOOGL) Android for now. Facebook says it will roll out an update with the improved News Feed customization for Apple's (AAPL) iOS in the coming weeks.
If you’re on Android, and are running the latest version of the Facebook app, you’ll see three options at the top of the News Feed screen: Home, Favorites, and Recent.
Home is the standard algorithmically-powered News Feed, and Favorites is a News Feed that highlights people and pages you’ve designated as favorite. Recent provides you with a News Feed that shows the latest posts from everyone you follow.
How to tweak your News Feed for iOS
If you’re using Facebook for iOS, you can still access the Recent News Feed, but you’ll need to do some hunting. From the main Facebook screen, tap the Menu button, represented by three horizontal lines, in the lower right corner of the screen.
From there you should see Most Recent in the top right corner of the screen. Tap that, and you’ll see a News Feed arranged by posts in chronological order. Unfortunately, you can’t set that display as your permanent News Feed.
As for that Favorites feature, you’ll eventually see at the top of the News Feed as a means to see more posts from the people you care about most. You can set up to 30 people and pages as your favorites to ensure they pop up before any other posts in your feed.
To do that, tap the Menu button in the bottom right corner of the screen, and scroll down to Favorites. Select Get Started and then Set Up Favorites. From there, you’ll be able to select up to 30 friends and pages that will get priority placement in your News Feed.
While this feature won’t eliminate divisive speech on Facebook, it could make it easier to tune it out and plug into the newest posts from your friends and family.
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