# What the f--k happened with Facebook? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 20, 2021, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-f-k-happened-with-facebook/949198 "2021-08-20T08:20:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2021, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-f-k-happened-with-facebook/949198/1 "2021-08-20T08:20:11Z")
As the OP states. I don’t use Facebook much, but having an account, I do pop in from time to time, and I did today. My account is still there, but now is … well, garbage. It’s nothing useful–the people I used to message with are no longer there, blanket messages from friends are from March, 2020; and it’s just impossible to use. What happened? And how can I get it back to what I’m used to? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2021, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-f-k-happened-with-facebook/949198/2 "2021-08-20T09:09:36Z")
I can’t relate to what you describe. What does it mean the people are no longer there? Have they closed their Facebook accounts? Are they not showing up on your newsfeed? Something else? What are “blanket messages?” Are you saying there used to be more of these, perhaps frequently, but then none for 16 months now? How is it impossible to use? And what is “from time to time?” Days? Weeks? Months? My only (uninformed) guess is that maybe your account is on some sort of inactive status. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2021, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-f-k-happened-with-facebook/949198/3 "2021-08-20T09:30:07Z")
My guess is that your friends don’t use it anymore so you’re not seeing much content. Facebook is active for me. Unfortunately their algorithm for showing you what you “want to see” is too strong. If I like a few posts by a friend then their stuff is pretty much all I see for a while until I like or comment on someone else’s posts, then I see them all the time. It perpetuates itself because the more you interact with a person or group, the more you see of them and so you interact with them more etc. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2021, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-f-k-happened-with-facebook/949198/4 "2021-08-20T10:43:19Z")
FB Purity has saved FB for me. It allows you to filter a lot of the crap that FB has, and pinpoints a bit better the stuff you do want to see. [fbpurity.com](https://fbpurity.com) ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2021, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-f-k-happened-with-facebook/949198/5 "2021-08-20T11:45:33Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > It’s nothing useful–the people I used to message with are no longer there, blanket messages from friends are from March, 2020; and it’s just impossible to use. > > What happened? And how can I get it back to what I’m used to? I’ve noticed that their systems seem to regularly screw up timelines entirely. They’ll just randomly start showing me posts from days, weeks or even months earlier for a few days, and then go back to normal. And their notifications systems appear to freak out a lot more now, too, giving me multiple reminders about the same comment, sometimes days apart. And half the time I click on a notification to see what comment was added, it screws it up and takes me to a totally different comment. The longer the comment thread is, the worse it gets. I can’t figure out how anyone ever actually engages with a large public comment thread, for me they’re entirely unworkable. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2021, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-f-k-happened-with-facebook/949198/6 "2021-08-20T12:17:44Z")
I logged into FB for the first time in 2 years and had no idea how to navigate the clutter. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2021, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-f-k-happened-with-facebook/949198/7 "2021-08-20T12:22:26Z")
Yeah, I’ve thought that as well. Within the past year I would guess things have changed in the news feed. Now the news feed seems to be clogged with ads and suggested pages like this: Ad Suggested Ad Friend Status Ad Suggested Suggested Friend Status … It’s hard to pick out the status posts from all the clutter. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2021, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-f-k-happened-with-facebook/949198/8 "2021-08-20T15:44:00Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > I can’t figure out how anyone ever actually engages with a large public comment thread, for me they’re entirely unworkable. It’s not designed for conversations at all. It’s just designed to accumulate likes, and short comments on the order of “OMG so cute!” > [@saje](#): > > It allows you to filter a lot of the crap that FB has, and pinpoints a bit better the stuff you do want to see. [fbpurity.com](https://fbpurity.com) Ditto from me. ---
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2021, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-f-k-happened-with-facebook/949198/9 "2021-08-21T03:23:09Z")
And getting a 28 day suspension for saying “no ass” in response to a Far Side cartoon showing a snake sitting on a stool. A cartoon. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2021, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-f-k-happened-with-facebook/949198/10 "2021-08-21T03:29:34Z")
I ditched FB in 2018. Thinking I might check it out and give it one more chance, I actually tried to open a new account again and was flagged for - I guess - trying to create a fake account. Haven’t visited the page since. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2021, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-f-k-happened-with-facebook/949198/11 "2021-08-21T03:38:33Z")
I haven’t been to FB since 2017. The only time I was using it then was because my mother was in the hospital and that was how people wanted to communicate. ::Shudder:: ---
**Author:** ![TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thegunismightierthanthepen/32/2981_2.png) [@TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheGunIsMightierThanThePen)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2021, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-f-k-happened-with-facebook/949198/12 "2021-08-21T03:48:29Z")
The blatant commercialization of the news feed made it pretty much unreadable for me. Now I only use Facebook to communicate with a group I volunteer with, and as a way for friends/family to find out if I’m still alive or not. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2021, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-f-k-happened-with-facebook/949198/13 "2021-08-21T18:55:18Z")
If all your friends are gone, I’d wonder if you logged in to the same account. I do see people make new accounts accidentally every so often. Facebook is full of ads, so I definitely recommend both uBlock Origin and FB Purity. Other than that, your newsfeed seems to work the same to me as it did before. It was never designed for conversations. That’s what messaging is for. That said, the rest of the UI has changed. I find the easiest way to find people is just the old fashioned way of opening my own profile page, or just searching for them. Messaging and chat are combined now, but at least they filter it. I’ll agree it’s not all that useful, but I still enjoy occasionally scrolling through to see what people have shared. And I find myself debunking things a lot, or sharing and liking things that debunk things. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2021, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-f-k-happened-with-facebook/949198/14 "2021-08-21T19:41:49Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > Unfortunately their algorithm for showing you what you “want to see” is too strong. If I like a few posts by a friend then their stuff is pretty much all I see for a while until I like or comment on someone else’s posts, then I see them all the time. > [@saje](#): > > FB Purity has saved FB for me. Yup. Install FB Purity. Make whatever other changes you want, but tell it you want your feed to be in chronological order. FB changes their algorithm all the time, so sometimes FB Purity lags behind a bit, but it’s really helpful. > [@filmore](#): > > Now the news feed seems to be clogged with ads and suggested pages like this: I get almost no ads whatsoever on my computer at home (or work). In both cases I’m using firefox, which I presume is helping because even with everything else turned off, there’s some things (like embedded tweets on some websites) that still won’t load unless I pull them up in Chrome. I’m also running uBlock Origin and a pi-hole. Between all that, every little gets through. However, when I use my phone, even on my home network with the pi-hole, I get tons of ads. I report every one of them. I just pick one of the random reasons and tell it to never show me the ad again. I understand ads are part of their revenue stream, but there’s so many of them. Personally, I think facebook should limit the amount of ads it shows you. Either a certain amount per session or a certain amount per some amount of time. IOW. If I only had to see 10 ads each time I go to facebook or 1 ad every 30 seconds, it would be fine. But seeing them between nearly every post makes me close the app and load up something else (usually imgur).