Automation Overload
All the cool kids might be ditching Facebook, but the rest of us stumbled into a new version of Facebook last night. Normally, when Facebook makes changes, they’re rearranging stuff to make it more usable, or adding a new feature, or something else that generates millions of complaints (usually from people complaining about the complainers) for a day, then everyone forgets about it and maybe even embraces the changes later. The latest change, though, is actually a significant step backwards.
This update brought with it something we should have seen coming: the removal of “Most Recent” as an option for viewing posts, and a retooling of the Top News stream. Now, if you want to look at what your friends have said, you have to go through Facebook-filtered Top Stories before finding Recent Stories below it, and From Earlier Today below that. It also appears that none of these appear in chronological order.
This is precisely the kind of situation that makes you worry that you’re missing someone’s post, and that’s because that’s precisely the idea behind it: Facebook wants you to see less of the posts you’re not interested in. Of course, being the geniuses they are, they think they can tell what you’re interested in.
This is the idea behind services meant to deal with “information overload” - attempting to reduce information from these feeds to what really matters. There are three fundamental problems with this idea:
Web apps are notoriously stupid when it comes to guessing what the user wants. It’s about as accurate as recommendations from Amazon and Netflix. In those cases, though, the alternative is nothing. In Facebook’s case, the alternative isn’t a half-assed status stream.
Even if it was 99% accurate, you would still worry about it being inaccurate the first time you discover that it filtered out something you wanted to know.
Information overload is a personal issue, and we’re talking about a leisure activity, not a productivity tool. You’re not taking 30 minutes to go through your friends’ statuses, you’re choosing to spend 30 minutes of your time going through your friends statuses. Trying to condense it isn’t going to give people a better experience - indeed, it can only make it worse.
In addition, the chronological disorder means that when you look at the stream, the top stories are most likely statuses that you’ve already read earlier. What could the point possibly be of forcing you to read those?
My point is that Facebook harmed the site’s usability and enjoyability to fix a problem that did not exist.
It’s not the first time that Facebook has goofed - they implemented lists a couple years ago, only to hide them away several months later. Then, when Google+ came around, Facebook scrambled to bring them back. I, for one, am glad they did - there are a bunch of people that I’m friends with that I don’t really want to know what they’re up to1. That’s one update gone wrong that they later reversed.
Also, I’ve gotten comments today saying “Facebook’s been doing this for a while now!” Yes, the Top News feed has been there for a while, but I’ve always clicked Most Recent to bypass it. That is no longer an option. The only way I’ve found to see all the posts in a sensible, chronological order is to click a List. Now, being an avid List user, that helps a lot, but I feel like that option could just be an oversight and that Lists won’t be untouched for long. Also, lists are a pain to setup and maintain if you’re more popular than I am.
The most worrying part is that Facebook really is - pardon the cliché - woven into the social fabric of our society. These restrictions mainly show you more of the people you talk to a lot, and less of the people you don’t. Is it really a good idea for Facebook to be actively discouraging interaction with people you don’t talk to very often?
There’s one good solution to all of this, guys: signing up for Twitter is quick and easy. 2
