Facebook users reportedly can soon better hone their Feeds through the introduction of “show more” and “show less” toggle options within posts. The update comes from Meta’s Newsroom blog earlier today, which details how users can qualify certain content with these two relevancy ratings, as well as how it all works.
“Selecting Show more will temporarily increase the ranking score for that post and posts like it. If you select Show less, you’ll temporarily decrease its ranking score,” explains the post, while adding that it’s not an entirely altruistic decision. “By offering more ways to incorporate direct feedback into Feed ranking, we’re making our artificial intelligence systems smarter and more responsive.”
[Related: Facebook’s latest feed change, explained.]
For now, Facebook users will occasionally see the “show more” and “show less” options on certain posts, but can soon access the update by clicking every post’s three-dot menu in its upper right-hand corner. Meta also notes that the addition will soon be tested within Reels, as well. As The Verge notes, Facebook users can already hide posts, which in turn lets the platform know it needs to reduce the amount of related content it suggests. Users can also highlight “favorite” friends to follow, as well as muting individuals, pages, and groups.
The new announcement is the latest in a string of Meta platform updates purportedly meant to draw users back to its own algorithm-based feeds as it weathers the rapid rise of competitors like TikTok. Last month, Meta-owned Instagram also announced its testing of a new way for users to make make lists of keywords and emoji they aren’t interested in seeing. Earlier this summer, Facebook also bowed to consumer criticism and brought back a separate Newsfeed option dedicated solely to one’s family and friends, as opposed to a mix of suggested content.
[Related: How to improve your Facebook News Feed.]
But despite Meta touting its new customization preferences, similar features aren’t always as helpful as they first appear. As noted in a recent report from Mozilla, the designers of the privacy-focused Firefox internet browser, YouTube has long offered similar “Interested” and “Not Interested” toggles for its suggested videos, but further investigation indicates they are largely ineffective. In the study, nearly 23,000 participants collectively rated almost 568,000,000 recommended videos on the platform, only to find that their decisions did very little to sway algorithms’ future suggestion decisions.
“[R]esearch suggests that YouTube is not really that interested in hearing what its users really want, preferring to rely on opaque methods that drive engagement regardless of the best interests of its users,” the study’s authors wrote at the time. Of course, YouTube and Facebook are owned by two very different Big Tech giants, so the latter’s new recommendation features could still provide real improvements for users (unless Mozilla proves otherwise).
