Today, while researching something online, I followed a link that turned out to be a post in a Facebook group. To read it, I had to log in with my Facebook account that I have barely used for several years. I mostly use it for exactly this purpose: "to read that one thing" and quit. But today I was curious to see a few items from people I've fallen out of touch with. Maybe I'll be reminded why I used to spend time on Facebook.

I clicked to see my feed and was surprised at how many times I had to hit "Page Down" to read anything interesting. It was pretty ridiculous. I hit "Home" to go back to the top of the page, which refreshed everything because Facebook wants to show me different ads. This time, I wrote down the posts that scrolled by. The tally: 39 items before I got 5 actual posts by people on my friends list. 5/39 = 12.8% of my Facebook "Welcome Back" were actual content I cared about, and the rest were garbage. (The actual ordering is at the end of this post.)

This is astonishingly bad. My mental impression of Facebook, back when I was active, was 80%-90% posts by real people sprinkled with 10-20% of ads and other uselessness. Now it has flipped completely around. I've read that both Facebook usage hours and advertising revenue are going down, but now I see firsthand what's going on: to increase revenue and engagement, they increased number of things I didn't ask for, trying to get me to stay online longer so they can make more money. But that is actually having the opposite effect: I'm now less inclined to stick around, so they're going to make even less money.

Questionable business plan, pathetic execution.

My sample of Facebook feed welcoming me back after a long period of absence:

  1. "Suggested For You"

  2. "Suggested For You"

  3. "Suggested For You"

  4. "Sponsored"

  5. First actual item from someone on my friends list!

  6. "Suggested For You"

  7. "Suggested For You"

  8. "Sponsored"

  9. "Suggested For You"

  10. Second actual item from someone on my friends list!

  11. "Suggested For You"

  12. "Sponsored"

  13. "Suggested For You"

  14. Third actual item from someone on my friends list!

  15. "Suggested For You"

  16. "Sponsored"

  17. Fourth actual item from someone on my friends list! At this point I'm thinking "Well this is significantly worse than before" but I ain't seen nothing yet...

  18. "Suggested For You"

  19. "Sponsored"

  20. "Suggested For You"

  21. "People You May Know" (I didn't)

  22. "Sponsored"

  23. "Suggested For You"

  24. "Suggested For You"

  25. "Sponsored"

  26. "Suggested For You"

  27. "Suggested For You"

  28. "Suggested For You"

  29. "Sponsored"

  30. "Suggested For You"

  31. "Suggested For You"

  32. "Suggested For You"

  33. "Sponsored"

  34. "Suggested For You"

  35. "Suggested For You"

  36. "Suggested For You"

  37. "Suggested For You"

  38. "Sponsored"

  39. Fifth actual item from someone on my friends list, with 21 useless items between it and the fourth actual post.

Holy crap, Facebook. My expectations were low, but you've managed to sink far below even that. You've just made sure it'll be even longer before my next visit.