# Why does Facebook do this? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 14, 2019, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-facebook-do-this/832546 "2019-04-14T19:09:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**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:** [April 14, 2019, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-facebook-do-this/832546/1 "2019-04-14T19:09:50Z")
Every few weeks, it suddenly decides that I don’t need to see any of my news feed that is older than 5 minutes ago. The news feed gradually builds from that point, but earlier posts are apparently lost forever. I suspect it is because I don’t add new friends very often. I suspect this because at the bottom of the maybe 1 post it is allowing me to see, it says “want to see more? Add more friends.” Well, fuck them. I’m not going to add “friends” who aren’t real friends just to suit their business model. I can live without Facebook as easily as they can live without me. I just wish there was some way to give them feedback that someone would actually read. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-facebook-do-this/832546/2 "2019-04-14T19:51:11Z")
I’m having the exact same problem right now, but I think it may have to do with Facebook’s crash a few hours ago. ---
**Author:** ![Cleophus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Cleophus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cleophus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-facebook-do-this/832546/3 "2019-04-14T20:37:58Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Every few weeks, it suddenly decides that I don’t need to see any of my news feed that is older than 5 minutes ago. The news feed gradually builds from that point, but earlier posts are apparently lost forever. > > I suspect it is because I don’t add new friends very often. I suspect this because at the bottom of the maybe 1 post it is allowing me to see, it says “want to see more? Add more friends.” > > Well, fuck them. I’m not going to add “friends” who aren’t real friends just to suit their business model. I can live without Facebook as easily as they can live without me. I just wish there was some way to give them feedback that someone would actually read. The feed page is loaded dynamically as you scroll. Not being able to load more than a few stories is nothing more than glitch. It happens to everyone from time to time, and in fact I just checked my FB feed and am having the same issue at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-facebook-do-this/832546/4 "2019-04-14T21:03:27Z")
Good to know I’m not the only one. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2019, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-facebook-do-this/832546/5 "2019-04-14T21:16:55Z")
Same here. ---
**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:** [April 14, 2019, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-facebook-do-this/832546/6 "2019-04-14T23:48:52Z")
> [@Cleophus](#): > > The feed page is loaded dynamically as you scroll. Not being able to load more than a few stories is nothing more than glitch. It happens to everyone from time to time, and in fact I just checked my FB feed and am having the same issue at the moment. How often does FB have glitches? I attempt to reload the page several times and nothing. And this happens to me every few weeks. ---
**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:** [April 15, 2019, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-facebook-do-this/832546/7 "2019-04-15T00:09:45Z")
It’s still doing it, worse than I thought, the post I could see when I originally made this thread is gone, other posts since then I am able to see once and then next time they’re gone (and by “next time” I mean if I refresh the page or hit Home again). Is their glitch still going on? ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-facebook-do-this/832546/8 "2019-04-15T00:44:10Z")
Half the time when I hit ‘Home’ I get a single post saying, “Welcome to Facebook. Get started by adding friends…” The other half I might get three or four posts and then cannot scroll any further. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-facebook-do-this/832546/9 "2019-04-15T01:20:30Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Half the time when I hit ‘Home’ I get a single post saying, “Welcome to Facebook. Get started by adding friends…” > > The other half I might get three or four posts and then cannot scroll any further. Oh my God, me too! I have been assuming it is just me. I’m actually kind of relieved to know it isn’t me. What’s been going on over there? ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-facebook-do-this/832546/10 "2019-04-15T14:58:08Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > What’s been going on over there? Like any other software I suppose: initial product is basic and is well-designed to do what it does. Then people start fiddling with it to make it [del]more exploitable[/del] better and soon the program only incidentally does what it was designed to do and all the other add-ons compete & conflict with each other. ---
**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:** [April 15, 2019, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-facebook-do-this/832546/11 "2019-04-15T15:10:03Z")
Like others said, there’s an issue right now. For me, over the past 3 or 4 days, the top few posts would be new and everything beyond that was a few days old (with no new comments or reactions that would explain it’s jump back to the top). As of today, FB worked fine on my phone, with the app, but on a regular computer it was totally empty. In fact, it looked like it wanted to give me a tutorial as if I was a new user. Honestly, I also just assumed it had something to do with having only 150 or so friends. But plenty of them post far more often than need be, so there still should have been new posts. With the issues today, they clearly have something else going on. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-facebook-do-this/832546/12 "2019-04-15T15:49:18Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Every few weeks, it suddenly decides that I don’t need to see any of my news feed that is older than 5 minutes ago. The news feed gradually builds from that point, but earlier posts are apparently lost forever. My Facebook newsfeed has been erratic for many months now; it usually behaves much as OP describes. Just now my wife mentioned a niece’s recent post, but I’ve seen nothing from her for several weeks. I clicked to her page to see if I’d clicked Unfollow. I hadn’t, but that brief excursion to her page was enough for FB to add two of ther recent posts to my Newsfeed. The key point to understand is that _ **FB is not there to serve you. You are there to serve it.** _ If you just scroll through your Newsfeed you are wasting FB’s time. It wants you to Add Friends, Click Ads, Add Comments, etc. so it can build up its model of you. Facebook has huge amounts of data on billions of people around the world. How is it monetizing all this information? I suppose it’s selling directly to the NSA and perhaps indirectly to other powers, e.g. the Kremlin. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2019, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-facebook-do-this/832546/13 "2019-04-15T21:55:24Z")
Clear your cache, or the saved app memory cookies. (Yeah, I’ve worked I.T. help tickets. Shaddup, notice I refrained from suggesting you power down & turn it back on.)