Facebook: why all this random stuff on my FB newsfeed?

[OMGitsnotgood]

I do understand a bit about tech and know that adverts etc that come up on your social media feeds are often related to searches made on other sites from your IP address etc.

it used to be that my feed was primarily friends’ Facebook updates with a smattering of adverts, suggested groups/peiple.

Now my feed is largely groups I have no interest in, people’s updates are who I’m not FB friends with and don’t even know etc
Lots of my friends still use FB so it’s not a case of ‘everyone just uses Instagram now’.

Anyone any idea why this is or how I can fix it?

Mines the same. No idea how to fix it.

Agree.

Mines the same. Hardly see anything from friends. It’s just random rubbish now.

All social media seems to follow the cycle: fresh new platform, early adopters join, the creators sell it, it becomes widely publicised, the masses join, it becomes a byword, new owners start to monetise it, the monetisation becomes more egregious, people leave, it dies.

The problem with Facebook is that there is not another platform exactly similar to it, with its emphasis on connecting individuals and groups (Twitter fans have been able to migrate to BlueSky, which I hear is much better).

I have heard the suggestion that we need non profit, possibly even set up by the state, networks.

As it is, my techie friend claims to have experienced some success by relentlessly deleting unwanted material from her feed: apparently it gives up eventually.

Click on your profile pic, then there is an option called feeds, then the tab called friends. That still shows adverts, but just has your friends posts without all the rubbish

I found a fix to this issue. Click on menu on lower right hand corner (icon has your profile photo), then select Feed. From there you can select Friends to only see your friends’ posts, or Groups to see activity from groups you actually belong to.

all of this is in the app, no idea if the same fix works on desktop etc

I report every advert as not interested and in my settings I have got rid of as many advert subjects as possible.

I removed all the suggested people and groups as they usually are of zero interest.

It makes my feed ok for awhile and then the adverts, groups and pages for a whole new load of crap start creeping back in and I have to start reporting and removing again!

At least the stupid fact checkers have mostly disappeared

Mine is all wetherspoons, deaths of people I don't know, the travelling community - now that was one big rabbit hole I went down having clicked on some photos and seen the huge amounts of money they spend on everything. I snooze everyone for 30 days, other shite pops up so it's a never ending snoozeathon. Can't even look up anything anymore as it's all videos of weird shit.

Thank you, will see if changing ‘feeds’ to ‘friends’ helps, but not sure if I will see news from groups then?

There's a tab for each, friends, groups, pages and all. All shows a mix of stuff you've actually liked plus friends. You need to go into it each time though. You can't save them as the default unfortunately

Don't really use FB anymore but Instagram is similar now. They'll be a post from someone I follow, then an ad, then a 'suggested for you' post, then an ad, then a 'you may also like', then an ad, then maybe something else from someone I actually follow. Though the suggestions are usually quite accurate, it would be even more annoying if they were just random crap I had no interest in. But I'd still like to actually see more of the people I actually choose to follow.

Yes I get nonsense as well. You need to snooze feeds and delete everything you don't want to see or find uninteresting.

Oh for the days when you just saw an anti-chronological feed of the people you actually wanted to follow!

I get things like Dull Men New Zealand. Why on earth would a female in the UK be interested in that?

I find it goes through cycles, some weeks I see what I want to see and suggested posts that are actually relevant and then I just see nonsense.

Yes it's crap. I get pictures of deformed babies as well.its disturbing.