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I recently wrote a series of articles on the problems with using Facebook and published them in a book WHAT’S WRONG WITH FACEBOOK: THE GROWING PROBLEMS OF FACEBOOK WITH SELFIES, SCAMS, AD FAILURES AND FRAUDS.
I thought I had covered all the major problems, but when I talked about my book with my banker, I discovered another serious problem I left out – too many ads in their feed that is turning off users and leading many to leave the platform.
And if users are angry about seeing too many ads, that’s also a problem for advertisers, since not only can users leaving reduce their target market for viewing their ad, but many users are trying to hide or avoid seeing their ads.
I realized that seeing too many ads was a problem for Facebook and its users when my banker told me:
“I’m about to leave Facebook because I see so many ads. I’m hoping to get messages from my friends, but then I have to plow through so many ads to see them. It’s very frustrating, so I’m ready to leave – and some of my friends will too because they don’t like all the ads either.”
The reason for all these ads is that advertising enables Facebook to provide a free platform for users. It makes its money from ads rather than charging users to become members or subscribers. However, Facebook seems to be posting too many ads, which is undermining the user experience and leaving users feeling angry and even trapped, because they have been on the platform for so long and have a network of friends and group activities there.
The result is that a growing number of users have been turned off by too many ads. So many may try to ignore the ads or leave the platform, even if they are a long term user with a large friends’ network, because they can’t stand wading through so many ads.
Examples of Complaints about Ads
Here’s a sampling of the many postings I saw online from Facebook users complaining about the ads. Mostly the complaints come from Google search or Reddit, who griped about too many ads overwhelming the information they got about friends and family, or getting ad that had nothing to do with their interests. And some felt they were seeing more ads than usual in the past year, when Facebook began featuring many more ads.
As a result, some were ready to leave Facebook for some other social media platform. Here’s what they said:
“For me, big change started about 1 year ago. My feed now flooded with pages totally unrelated to my interests, almost all of them counterfeit pages of ‘celebrities’ and TV shows.”
“The whole point of Facebook is keeping with friends and relatives. It used to be that way: now they’re dumping the things I want to see and showing me all kinds of stuff I don’t want to see.”
“My feed changed in the last couple weeks. It’s honestly insufferable now. Just random pages and memes that I don’t follow. I absolutely hate it and spend way less time on that app.”
“For me, blocking unwanted shit only made me seeing more and more of said shit, just posted by different scam accounts. Roughly 50% of my feed is groups I’m not member of, advertisements, sponsored posts and for the last 2 months – posts from profiles I don’t follow, never heard of before, and they aren’t even flagged as sponsored.”
“If I’m in the home tab (mobile), I get ads every 3 or 4 items and non-stop influencer/porn adjacent crap and rage bait. I’ve been blocking and clicking ‘suggest less’ for weeks with no perceptible difference.”
“I just hit/snoozed/deleted/reported and as soon as I got rid of one ad page and refreshed, the next would pop up. It felt like it was groundhog day.”
“Now I am getting clickbait and low quality content every few posts on my feed. No matter how many times I choose to ‘Hide all from xyz,; I just get more of it. It’s unusable and the good info I am getting from the platform isn’t worth wading through the shit.”
“What has Facebook become? 99% of my feed is ads and irrelevant garbage groups.”
“What is going on with all the ads? Opened Facebook today and now my feed is like 80% ads.”
“My Facebook feed is nonstop trash posts I don’t want to see. Is there anyway to stop it.”
“Are they trying to kill Facebook? Feeds are ridiculous now. Just ads, groups, and trash content.”
“When is Facebook going to quit forcing so many ads into our feeds? I see more ads than friends’ posts and by this notification I just received, I don’t think it’ll stop anytime soon… Greediness is real.”
“I’m now getting 42 or more ads between actual content on my Facebook feed!”
“How can I block unwanted posts from polluting my feed? I’m tired of hiding them.”
“Facebook is only ads and not content I actually follow anymore! How do we fix this??”
And then I saw this – a detailed post about all the problems wrong with Facebook’s increase in advertising.
“In the last year or two it’s gotten worse. I really think Facebook is making terrible decisions, and their algorithm is going to drive people off the platform. My feed is just full of ads, sometimes multiple ads in a row, and rarely about anything I’m interested in…
“For years, my purpose in looking at my Facebook feed was primarily to find out how my friends were doing, plus to see posts from groups that I had specifically chosen to join. But now they’ve really screwed it. The experience is no longer fun and is just frustrating and enraging. I scroll through and get angry constantly at the crap they’re throwing into my face instead of seeing my friends’ baby or travel photos, etc.
“So what’s my incentive to even look at my Facebook feed anymore, or even to use Facebook? If they’re going to make the experience of my feed into something that mostly has content I don’t care about, they’re really shooting themselves in the foot. And I think this will lead to their demise. I believe most people are on Facebook to connect with their close friends and family, and secondarily for groups that they are specifically interested in. Facebook’s algorithm is trying way too hard to get engagement on posts and pages that they think the person might like.
“…I’m just not on Facebook to have random content shoved in my face that I have to constantly hide or reject. It’s really annoying, and definitely more than half of my feed now is just ads and suggested posts.
“…is this just the new normal? And what do people think about the future of Facebook, given how they’ve made the feed experience into such dogshit?.. At least they could offer the option to pay extra to customize your feed and remove ads. I would actually pay it. But they don’t give such an option.”
Why So Many Ads
The reason users are seeing so many ads is because that’s how Facebook makes money, since it doesn’t charge for using the platform. Moreover, you are supposed to see more ads related to your interests, since Facebook gathers data about it’s users, so it keeps track of when you like any posts, watch videos, or follow a person or brand. It even tracks you off the app, such as when you look up a product on Amazon or another website, since Facebook can place a pixel on other sites to show what you viewed or searched for, even when you aren’t using the Facebook ap.
By getting information from other sites, Facebook does what advertisers call “retargeting.” That allows advertisers to retarget people who have visited the company’s website or app on Facebook. Thus, if you click “like” on a product or page, Facebook can use that information along with your name and profile picture to show targeted social ads on your friends’ pages, and third-party advertisers can use Facebook to promote their product. However, targeting an audience using your personal information from your profile raises privacy issues, which can also be a concern, since you haven’t given permission to others to use your information. But that’s another concern apart from the onslaught of advertising.
As described in an article by Jennier Wilson, “Why Is My Facebook Feed All Ads,” Facebook changed its algorithm about seven months ago, so now it prefers to show you paid content, so “regular posts from friends and family get pushed down. On top of that, the sponsored ads take center stage.” The reason for all these ads is that “Facebook gets paid when you click on ads. So it wants to show you ads that you’ll likely click” And that shift in its algorithm means that “your news feed is now full of…sponsored posts…suggested reels from brands…and product ads that match your browsing history.”
But while these tailored ads may help to target more users with ads they will click, this approach is alienating many users, who feel overwhelmed by all the ads, find them irrelevant and annoying, and may want to leave Facebook for other social media platforms.
What to Do About It
While you can’t get rid of the ads entirely, you can reduce them or possibly see ads that are more aligned with your interests. There are several ways to do this:
· Switch to the Friends feed. Though you’ll still see some ads, they’ll be outnumbered by the feeds from friends.
· You can get a Facebook Purity extension for your browser on your computer, though it won’t work on a phone or tablet. The extension can work on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safara, and Opera browsers to remove all apps from your feed.
· Hide certain ads and advertisers on a computer by clicking or tapping the three dots on the ad and select “Hide.”
And if you are still frustrated by the ads you keep seeing on Facebook, you can always leave for another social media platform.
For more information and to set up interviews, contact ALB Games at the information below.
Karen Andrews
Executive Assistant
Changemakers Publishing and Writing
San Ramon, CA 94583
(925) 804–6333
changemakerspub@att.net
www.changemakersart.com
www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com
