Lately, I’ve noticed that many Facebook posts contain videos of a single image. What is the reasoning behind this? I suspect that it may have to do with cookies or malware but I really don’t know. What’s the Straight Dope?
From May 11, 2017: https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=20201064
That didn’t really answer the question though, did it?
I’m noticing the same thing lately. There must be SOME reason for it.
Well crap. I should have searched. But as Leaffan points out, the question still remains unanswered. Maybe someone that knows will chime in this time.
I suspect they do it because it slows people down, and they have to interact, so pay more attention.
I’m always a bit ticked by it, though.
I absolutely agree. Furthermore, I get quite irritated with SD posters who post links to videos on YT or other sites instead of simply stating the answer, response, or whatever.
It would be far more courteous (IMHO) to post “It’s a Model 47, as shown in this [link]” instead of “This” [embedded link to video I don’t want to bother opening and viewing].
I’m not a luddite, but I really don’t care to take the time to open a video from a linked site and watch it just to get a straightforward answer that could have been expressed in a few words or a simple image.
^This.
Especially when I’m reading on my phone and using data.
Could it be just a fad? Just doing the latest thing?
I don’t know, but it’s bloody annoying. Especially on the PC I use in the office. I can’t scroll or anything, so it’s difficult to take ‘just a second’ to have a peek at FB between tasks.
On a PC, you can change that by going to Settings > Videos (The last one on the list on my PC) and changing “Auto-Play Videos” from Default to Off.
This so much.
How-to videos are the fucking worst. Don’t give me a ten-minute video. Give me words that I can read in a few moments and then follow along step-by-step without having to pause, do, come back, restart. Give me words that I can print out and take with me, instead of having to take my laptop into my kitchen where it (a) takes up precious countertop space and (b) risks getting contaminated bits of whatever is in the recipe video I’m watching
And yes, I’m complaining about things that people went out of their way to freely offer me. I’m fully aware.
OK, I went to Control Panel > Auto Play. There’s nothing that says ‘Auto-Play Videos’. (Windows 7 Professional, I think. I can never remember where they buried that simple bit of information.) I did try going to Video files and selecting ‘Take no action’, since that seemed the closest to ‘Off’, then went to FB to see if it did anything. As I scrolled down, Smithsonian had a video post, and it was playing.
It’s not a Windows setting; it’s a Facebook setting.
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Thanks. Once I found Settings on FB, I changed the setting to Off. Now that helicopter video has a Play icon in it instead of playing automatically.
I’ll say it again: Facebook does not show you every single post. It specifically shows you posts that developers and analysts have worked out will keep you on Facebook for longer periods of time.
At the moment, that includes videos. You, the user, are more likely to watch a video and interact with it.
FB therefore is less likely to show people posts that are photos, or text, or links.
So people who create content and want it to be seen on FB are making more videos, even if they are lame, then uploading those videos and giving all copyrights to FB.
Facebook doesn’t show me every post by people who are my “friends?” Is that what you’re saying?
I had assumed that it’s a very short video of a still clip because some iPhones take pictures that are a few seconds long - some pictures I’ve seen include a few seconds before the “click”…
I think those get uploaded as a video.
More like: your friends who follow pages that are just meme sharing pages (eew) don’t see all content from those pages by default. They only see the most popular or the content that Facebook considers most important.
So according to Barbarian’s sound theory, videos are most likely to get pushed from pages to people, and then people share/like those most, and they get pushed even more. So that is what content-generating pages are posting now.
As for whether or not you see your friends’ posts…if you’re on Desktop, you can see everything in a timeline manner if you are sure to choose “Most Recent” all the time from the top-left “news feed” menu.
On Mobile, it’s more complicated. I just noticed I can set preferences by going to Settings - News Feed Preferences but it seems a little tedious. Lately I’ve been noticing that the difference between my Most Recent desktop news feed and the “Top Stories” default of Mobile is ridiculous. Stories from 3 days ago are on the top of mobile, for no reason.
If you want to advertise on Facebook, they recommend video ads for the best result, so that tells you that their algorithms are weighted towards video. People are using videos of single images to take advantage of the fact that for right now, Facebook is giving more exposure to videos than pictures.
How has Facebook ever made a profit from you,?
Because in 10 years they have never made a profit from me.
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