I never had an issue with this until recently. Generally the “suggested pages” I was shown on Facebook often had some kind of relevance to my interests. But recently it’s been showing me pages I not only have no interest in but actively dislike seeing, and showing them to me over and over. (I can’t think of anything I have “liked” or shown an interest in in the past that would make Facebook think I had any interest. There appears to be only an option to “like” these pages, and no way to say “don’t show me this again.”
The advice I’ve found online is as follows:
The problem is when I get to the “Apps” page I don’t see any option for “Instant Personalization.”
My opinion would be to stop using Facebook if it bothers you so much. Seeing them is the cost of using the platform. People paid good money to suggest those pages for you - money that keeps the service running.
They’ve wasted that money then, because I have zero interest in seeing those particular pages. I’ll never click on them. And whatever algorithm Facebook is using has some very serious defects, since there’s nothing in the posts I do take interest in that would cause those pages to come up. Also, your assumption that these are all paid advertisements is wrong. Checking “all suggested pages” shows a number of my friend’s pages that they are certainly not paying to have displayed. (Oddly, the ads I object to do not show up on my “top suggestions.”
I don’t mind seeing suggested pages that actually interest me. What I would like to eliminate is the ones that are obnoxious.
The two in particular are one for “Donald Trump 2016” with Trump dressed as Rambo, and for Maxim, which features a nude model. While I have no particular objection to seeing nude models myself, that’s really not something I want to pop up when I am showing my mother photos of her great-grandkids on Facebook. Yet there seems to be no way to block it.
I went with “facebook annoyances blocker” (a specialised blocklist for AdBlocker), as I was permanently bugged by a “Suggested Page” featuring scantily clad female cosplayers (House of Nerdettes or somesuch).
I’ve run into the exact same issue in the same time frame with the same pages (well, actually Maxim only popped up once, not enough to be annoying and I’d probably keep it on in order to crowd out the wacko political pages.)
They don’t appear on my “all suggested pages”. At first I tried clicking off of them and that didn’t work. I tried removing personalization and that didn’t work. I tried blocking the pages and that didn’t work either! Why would advertisers think that I would like a page I blocked? It would be better financially for Facebook to put more stuff that I might like on my suggestions! If it connects me to stuff I like then those other pages might pay Facebook to boost their posts.
If I can’t find a way around this, I will use Facebook less until the election. I’m certainly not going to install anything that I have to pay for on my computer.
I’ve never seen these two come up in my Suggested Pages. I wonder if it’s just a huge marketing push towards white males in the US??
Also, FWIW, my suggested pages are usually small pages that my friends already like. Right now there’s a suggested page that is the page for my friends’ friend’s house. Other suggestions are for local Norwex and LuLaRoe consultants, Cartoon Network shows and sports teams.
Do you guys use AdBlocker? Maybe AdBlocker is blocking the big for-pay Suggested Pages for me.
Facebook help forum comments seem to agree that only extensions to the full AdBlocker product will help, which I don’t have and will not pay for. Unless free AdBlocker can do this as well, which might just push me to try it for the first time.
In the steps you listed above instead of clicking on Apps try clicking on Ads. In the last section you can edit the some of the subject matter of the ads you are seeing. Some of them made sense to me and some had me wondering.
I have used FB Purity for as long as I can remember. Facebook without it is so bad I can’t imagine going back. On the whole FB Purity is pretty solid. It breaks in minor ways from time to time as Facebook change their code, but it is usually fixed remarkably quickly. It allows very fine tuning of preferences, and allows a very slimmed down Facebook to be created, with all the extraneous fluff removed. It also allows you to choose to see postings in time order, rather than as ranked by Facebook’s opaque and weird ranking system.
Use it for a while and you won’t go back.
There seems to be a sort of truce between Facebook and FB Purity - at least for the moment. Facebook have stopped actively trying to stop FB Purity working, and even allow it to have its own Facebook page. (There was a time when it was a banned site, and Facebook would automatically remove the URL from any posting.) I suspect Facebook have realised they can learn from how people configure FB Purity, and that they also realise that actively breaking FB Purity will simply make its users stop using Facebook, which is a net loss for them.
Right. I tried most of that. I removed the offending pages by clicking the “x”, and they came back not once but several times. I tried blocking the pages, and they still showed up.
While my profile says male, Facebook doesn’t know my race unless they analyze my profile picture. And I’m not even in the US. For all Facebook knows, I’m Panamanian and can’t even vote in the election.
Most of my suggested pages are OK. They actually do reflect my interests or those of my friends. But the Trump one is particularly difficult to understand, since I’ve only got a small number of acquaintances who seem to favor Trump while several friends and family members who post a lot are rabid Sanders supporters. (I’ve actually blocked updates from both of those contingents.)
I tried that too. I eliminated some things, but it didn’t list “politics” as an option to remove.
The only general choice I could make is to either see ads based on my preferences, or to see ads that weren’t based on my preferences. Of course, if I must see ads I would prefer to see ones based on my preferences. The problem is, I’m seeing suggested pages directly opposed to my actual preferences.
Actually, it seems there are various categories that show up: “Sponsored” (which I assume are actual ads)," “Suggested pages,” “Suggested links,” “People you may know,” and so forth. Oddly, “Suggested pages” is the one giving me problems, not “Sponsored.”
Thanks, this is very helpful. I’ll try it out. I’d very much like to be able to decide what I want to see, instead of what Facebook decides I want to see.
I know I have friends whose posts I almost never see, even though I know they are posting and would like to see them, while I see lots of posts from slight acquaintances whose posts I’d just as not see as often (although I don’t want to cut them off entirely).
I’ve always been quite pleased with Facebook Purity. I love that I never have to see those trending stories. Every great once in a while there will be a glitch but it’s always resolved quickly.
I’m solely on a PC though. Not sure how it works with phones.