How many things do you normally “Like,” “Plus,” or favourite a day across various social networks?
For some people the answer maybe next to nothing, but for the majority of us it’s probably a few each visit at least. Did you know that those metrics are often used to determine what you see within that social network? It’s true, and with few exceptions (Twitter being a notable one), your activity will influence what you are shown in the future. After all, if you liked Jeff’s last post then you are more likely to want to read Jeff’s next one (and you might also like the other things that Jeff liked too).
But have you ever stopped to wonder what would happen if you just liked EVERYTHING that Facebook showed you? Well that is exactly what Matt Honan did in his recent experiment on Facebook and the result really surprised him.
Click here to read Matt’s article
The Surprising Result Of Liking Everything on Facebook
The unsurprising part of Matt’s experiment is that it really confused Facebook, after all what we choose not to like often reflects our personality as much as what we do like. By liking everything Matt had some very strange things appearing in his stream, sometimes from very different sides. But there were more surprises for Matt:
- He had increasingly extreme views appearing on his feed.
- He noticed a strong patter in posts.
- His news feed became taken over by brands.
- His newsfeed became a haven for clickbait.
- He hated going on Facebook.
He Couldn’t Like Everything
There were some things that he couldn’t like though, he decided that he had to draw the line at liking a post about someone’s father dying and he couldn’t keep liking all the related posts that Facebook generated for him. However he went as far as to like things he despised and even sad updates from friends.
It Didn’t Just Affect Him
Matt’s liking didn’t just affect his Facebook feed though, it made his friends feeds start to show all of his activity and he even took over his friends feeds with his erratic liking. Some found it funny while others thought that his account had been hacked, the key conclusion was that his activity could dramatically affect his friends feeds and perceptions.
Do You Like Too Liberally?
There are many applications we can take from Matt’s story,
- Facebook really wants you to like stuff.
- There is a predictable formulae for Facebook marketing posts which you can use.
- Your social media activity will affect others.
But perhaps the most interesting thing to take away is to consider the difference between liberally liking everything and diluting the impact of a single like vs liking very select things but each like is worth more. Personally, I’d prefer the later option, but that doesn’t mean that it is a true reflection of my activities.
Thoughts?
[Like cards image via FACEBOOK(LET) via Compfight cc & the Like hand stamp image via catspyjamasnz via Compfight cc]
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