What the Tech? See the Facebook trick that works
By JAMIE TUCKER Consumer Technology Reporter
We’ve all seen the viral Facebook post that guides you to copy and paste a paragraph to trick Facebook’s algorithm to see more of your Facebook friends and remove Facebook ads.
It usually begins with the words “yesssss this really works!” This is a hoax used by scammers to find and dupe gullible Facebook users.
There is a similar Facebook post going viral now that is not a hoax and it does work. It says by copying, pasting, and posting this update, you’ll bypass Facebook’s algorithm that
shows updates from only 25 friends. If you leave a comment, a hello, or a sticker to see more posts from the friend.
It’s true, Facebook tends to show updates from the same Friends at the top of your newsfeed. You may have 3,000 friends but you seldom see posts from the majority of them. How many
times do you see a post at the top of your News Feed that was posted 3 or more days ago?
While more recent posts from other friends are hidden or buried below hundreds of posts from other friends.
Facebook decides whose posts you see by how often you engage with your friends. If you comment or ‘like’ a friend’s post, you’ll see more from them at the top of your feed over time.
The more you engage with a friend, the higher their posts appear on your timeline.
Facebook also weighs interactions. Leaving a sticker, or a reaction tells Facebook you’re interested in their posts. Love, laugh, wow, and anger reactions are weighed heavier than just
likes. So the more you react to some friends’ posts with those reactions the more frequent their posts appear near the top of your feed.
Facebook also pushes posts near the top of your feed if several of your friends engage with it.
You can adjust your settings to see posts from your closest friends though Facebook allows you to only make 30 friends your “Top Friends” and add them to a special feed.
If you’re on a smartphone you can tap settings, then feed, then select “friends”. This will place the most recent posts at the top of your feed. You may also see fewer ads. I did.
Note that this isn’t going to change your feed overnight. It can take a few weeks before you notice any changes in whose posts are shown more frequently and higher in your news feed.
