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Is Facebook Manipulating Your Newsfeed?

Not seeing info from the people you selected to SEE FIRST? No engagement on your page? Facebook is manipulating your newsfeed! This info will make your blood boil.

from contributing writer Gina McAndrew

Facebook is a caring multinational company that believes the customer is always right.

BEEP. Wrong. Try again.

Facebook protects its users from unwanted or unsolicited posts with hidden agendas.

BEEP. Wrong again. One more time.

Facebook has a hidden agenda, and the groups and people Facebook doesn’t want voicing their opinion, need to be stopped, blocked and banned.

Yep. That’s about right.

You see, in this moment of history, the status quo has changed. It is no longer “acceptable” to have an opinion, especially one based on fact. Instead, social media is here to save us from our opinions, as they can be highly offensive. And one of the biggest contenders of this new social police culture? That’s right. Facebook.

Increasingly over the years, since Facebook’s inception, our newsfeeds have been manipulated based on what “the powers that be” believe we should see. Not only does Facebook limit whose posts you see, it also pulls the plug on both businesses and ministries that do not compromise their values and beliefs, unwilling to swim the same direction as the rest of the world.

Facebook manipulates newsfeeds!

Don’t believe it? Do a quick Google search “Facebook manipulates newsfeeds.” The results are astounding. Forbes, The New York Times, and MIT Technology Review are just the first couple of results with extensive articles on how Facebook manipulates emotions. According to Forbes, for example, “Facebook has the ability to make you feel good or bad, just by tweaking what shows up on your newsfeed.”

My personal Facebook feed had a “make-over” last month. Suddenly, none of the conservative groups I follow showed up on my newsfeed. Hmmmm…something about algorithms, eh? With a little research, I found out that the majority of them defaulted to “do not follow” with that update. Check out Facebook’s new algorithm policy. The most noticeable one to me was Tina Griffin’s Counter Culture Mom page. Why in the world would that not default to most prominent? I write articles for her. I like her posts. I make comments on her posts. I do these actions just SO that the posts will show up on my feed.

As parents, we need to be proactive about how our children interact in today’s culture. Counter Culture Mom helps us to know what negative (and sometimes positive) things are vying for our children’s attentions. One way to be proactive is to make sure these posts make it to our news feed.

Here are some steps you can take today to get the content you want from the people you want, back on your newsfeed:

1. After logging into Facebook, click on the triple line icon at the bottom right of your Facebook page.
2. Scroll down and click on “Groups.” Remember this page as we will come back here in step 7.
3. You will see favorite groups, and recently visited groups. Find Counter Culture Mom or your other favorite group and click on it.
4. At the top of the page to the right of the search button is an “i” that you will need to click on.
5. This will bring you to this information page. Scroll down to notifications with the little bell icon and click the arrow to the right.
6. This will bring up the option to edit what posts you see. Be sure you check to receive all posts. You can also scroll down to select highlights under push notifications.
7. Now, go back to your main directory from step 2. Scroll all the way down to “settings” and click.
8. On your settings page, scroll down to News Feed Settings. (You will scroll pretty far down.) Click on the news feed preferences.
9. Under newsfeed preferences, click on the green star icon for prioritizing who to see first.
10. Find Counter Culture Mom and click on Tina Griffin’s icon to see her posts first. This is the part that got altered with the last update. You can prioritize anyone’s posts from here.
11. Finally, click on the purple icon that shows apps hidden from your news feed. You may be surprised at how many people and groups you no longer follow.
12. Don’t forget to check your other account settings for any changes to privacy, etc. while you’re in there!

Parents, we must be vigilant in keeping up with the social media trends permeating our children’s culture. Technology is not inherently evil, but when used the wrong way, can cause permanent scarring and damage. Learn how to navigate social media platforms, resisting the urge to “just have an account because my kids have one.”

Other Facebook Scandalous Activity

Besides all the corruption happening above, Facebook also has admitted to removing any “toxic content” from our pages. Basically, anything that is of a conservative angle with truth not emotions, Facebook is deeming as “toxic” and completely erases the post, image or video. This has happened many times to Tina’s Counter Culture Mom page and group and she’s been in jain several times throughout the last year.

I wanted to add one more thing that Facebook just admitted to doing which is a major scam. Here’s their latest scandal regarding harvesting information from it’s users and then using this information to blast targeted adds in our face. There is a lot of illegal activity going on with Facebook.

After reading this post, you might not want to use Facebook any longer. Check out this post Tina wrote entitled “Facebook, Love it or Leave it” or another blog which covers Facebook’s major censorship issues. The longer I teach high school and college students, the more I notice the importance of knowing more than they do about technology. It is our duty to stay ahead of the game, both spiritually and technologically. This is a heritage you will be glad you started!

 

Gina McAndrew is the Founder and Director of Potter’s Clay Applied Arts, a program that for over 15 years equips students to glorify God through the arts. As a former upper-level manager and homeschool mom of four children, Gina continuously seeks to implement new and innovative ideas at Potter’s Clay and teaches as an Adjunct Professor at a local university as well.

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