Facebook groups it thinks I'm interested in. Really?

[wickermum]

On the Facebook app if I click on groups there's my standard ones school/fitness club etc but then the most random stuff.

BUT I GET TOTALLY DRAWN IN!

I have never booked an Air B&B and never likely to host either but FB shows me this public group full of hosts complaining about guests. Gripping stuff.

I also have one about a roundabout planned in a town I have never visited. Loads of residents ranting.

Lastly trades/gardeners/van type stuff.

I guess Fb gets its algorithms from somewhere but it's bonkers!

Please tell me the random groups/products you are targeted with.

Facebook seems to think I’m an older American tourist very hesitant about my first trip to Europe. People on the groups ask questions such as “can I use American money in Paris or will I have to exchange” and “I’ve heard they don’t put ice in drinks in Italy. No rudeness, I understand it’s a cultural difference, but how can I get a cold drink?” 😂 It also thinks I have watched and loved Ted Lasso. Never seen a single episode.

Oh and loads of Disneyland groups. I have never been to Disney and have no interest in it. Full of obsessive adults spending a fortune on overpriced merch and food.

Mine has recently gone bonkers. In the past I would get the odd ‘horse shoe appreciation society’ sort of thing but now it’s a rolling page of utterly random crap.

The stuff I’ve blocked in the last 2 days inckudes shark photography, various archeological sites with a focus on mummification, golf memorabilia , David hasselholfs musings on the world and in a new adventure- ‘knot play’ with some really dodgy photos . I only used it for buying and selling second hand stuff locally but then I joined a couple of groups for teaching ideas and it has lost the plot- like it’s going ‘oh my god you FINALLY joined a new group- here look at all this other nonsense you could have’ . It’s becoming almost unusable. I’m going in and blocking the nonsense individually but it’s really tedious.

Honestly the local community groups im im are more entertaining then Eastenders

It makes me feel a lot better about my life because it makes me realise that some people really have nothing better to do.

I remember during lockdown my car had been posted on there as a 'suspicious vehicle' from outside the area. I had brought a car 3 weeks before lockdown? 95% of the people in our village know me, some since I was a babe (im 32) and how defensive the poster was being still has me in stitches to this

Oh and she also posted about how 2 boys had the nerve to sit on a bench outside our local pub who was doing takeaway and were waiting outside for it to be brought to them.

I think one of the main factors in the groups FB suggests is that if you are friends with X and X had subscribed to group Y then maybe, perhaps, possibly - you will also be interested in group Y. I have friends who play on brass bands so I constantly get suggestions related to that - it seems brass banders drink a lot of real ale too. And go to festivals in Yorkshire.

By far and away the worst "influencer" is a friend who really hasn't changed much since we were of high school age - he's obsessed with everything from the 70's - music in particular, vinyl obviously, vintage cars and a 1001 other retro topics and 70's memorabilia - Stingray, Thunderbirds, space hoppers, pogo sticks, clacker balls, football cards, chopper bikes, this list is endless. He didn't go to university but he's made more money in life than most of us who did working for a small company working in a niche area that makes a lot of money so he has money to spend on all these hobbies and interests but his life seems welded to the time he was at high school - he's an interesting guy but I can only take him in small doses but he's the main reason for all these weird and wonderful groups that FB suggests for me.

I seem to get a lot of sport, particularly Australian sports, despite having no interest and living in the UK. Also, not sure if it's just that the people I'm Facebook friends with have stopped using it but the ratio of actual posts to adverts seems to be about 1:20. Only check it occasionally, but might give up altogether now it's basically just all ads.

It uses the algorithms of all the contacts in your phone too, as well as all your FB friends of course, as well as your friends friends and the friends of those random people who you are in FB groups with.

Crocs. CROCS!!!!!

Cats, craft, home furnishings, gardening and cleaning. I don't know why the cleaning ones pop up, I bloody hate cleaning.

I do seem to be getting a lit id stuff about the Australian women's football team currently.

I like it when I get random local area Facebook pages. Today on one of them was a picture of a work ID card, name clearly visible, asking if anyone knew who it belonged to. Queue 40+ posts guessing it belonged to the named person...

Clergy robe and equipment buy and sell groups.

Admittedly I do have friends who are clergy but it does make me smile. There seem to be a surprising number of such groups.

Really funny thread.

Liverpool football club
3 x dwarfism families
Cleaning disgusting flats
Picking wierd fruits in Brazil

I get a lot of suggestions for cleaning pages too. Life's too short!

Favourites for passing the time are:

Angry people in local newspapers.
Rate my plate.
Classical art memes.
People incorrectly correcting other people.

I think I may have the best one here........Bathtubs in fields 😎

I get lots for Scottish touristy pages i live in scotland I don't want to be a tourist here. Although one was quite funny it was pictures of beautiful worldy places and people had titled them as places in scotland - say Dubai Mall and titled Easterhouse shopping centre and all these Americans are like oooh I'll add that to my tour plan. Love to see their faces when they rock up to Easterhouse B&m and greggs!!

I get the air b&b one too and I’m finding it fascinating! So many mean, inhospitable, penny-pinching hosts. It’s put me off going to an air b&b for life.

A corrugated iron appreciation group. I promise I am not making this up.

An ad which has just popped up advertises Genius Ways to Deal with Old Books. They are slicing up Prince Harry's book Spare to make it into a rubbish bin. Truly genius. 😂

Absolutely. The hosts sound bonkers.

There's been a right old drama about cameras.

A guest disabled the camera on arrival.

Another hacked into the camera and deleted everything.

I'm on the guests side in both instances!