Zuckerberg announces new plan for Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, has recently announced a new update to the iconic social media platform. The idea is to show fewer posts from publishers and brands, and more from friends and family. The update will create a more personalized feed for users and will dismantle the previous corporate and ad-based direction that Facebook had in place to tailor user’s timelines.
In recent years, Facebook has struggled to cater to young people. It has become a platform for your estranged aunt to comment on your pictures, rather than a popular meeting space for teens and young adults. Despite having an estimated 2.07 billion active monthly users, the site has grown hackneyed due to more user-friendly platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, where the average individual is both the creator and the audience of shared content.
Zuckerberg’s decision could be detrimental to the ad revenue and corporate stock of Facebook. Appropriately, Zuckerberg will take the largest financial hit since he owns the largest single-person stock holding in the company. The value of Zuckerberg’s stock in the company decreased significantly due to the drop in the company’s stock as of Jan. 12.
The 33 year old owner and poster child of digital entrepreneurship intended to turn Facebook into a mediatized journal, essentially a “digital newspaper.” He chooses now to redirect the site’s theme back to original objectives of connectivity and online relations.
“The research shows that when we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for our well-being,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.
This change could be among the most revolutionary and timely of Facebook’s history, as the general population has grown tired of their facilitation of sponsored posts, and the surplus of notorious “fake news.” A news-based platform has proven irrelevant, monotonous, and flat out annoying for users who fear the information they are receiving is being filtered through algorithms created and maintained by government departments.
Zuckerberg hopes an organic and authentic direction, fueled and dominated by user content, will increase trust and create a more appropriate and meaningful platform for discussion.
“I‘m changing the goal I give our product teams,” Zuckerberg wrote. “From focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.”
Filter bubbles and search history preferences have altered the site to ultimately show the user what they want to see, with political agendas at the forefront. Now more than ever, people have grown tired of political debate and slander being shoved in their faces. Seemingly, this is the best time to make this humanized shift.
Regarding the changes, there are no certainties, and nothing is written in stone. Most people will remain hesitant to restore trust in Facebook. It seems as though Zuckerberg truly has humane and genuine intentions, but with situations such as this, one imagines that money and corporate funding as well are somehow pushing the pen.
