Overheard on Facebook

[midweststache]

-lost dogs/cats. The cats are usually strays. The dogs are often repeat offenders, so owners clearly need to do something different.

In our neighborhood group, there's one dog that escapes several times per year and goes exploring the neighborhood. Rather than get annoyed, we've adopted such incidents as a running gag, and its considered an honor if Rockne visits your house along his way.

Our old neighborhood, to which we are still adjacent, has a similar running gag with a neighborhood outdoor cat that catches rats, as well as two yard flamingos that are the unofficial neighborhood mascots. I do, at this point, prefer the community-building elements of FB (Buy Nothing groups, neighborhood groups, parent groups, etc.) to the "look at my kids on vacation and our instagram worthy pictures!" element of following people.

TBF, I just don't care that much about 90% of the people I'm "friends" with on FB.

[Fomerly known as something]

-lost dogs/cats. The cats are usually strays. The dogs are often repeat offenders, so owners clearly need to do something different.

In our neighborhood group, there's one dog that escapes several times per year and goes exploring the neighborhood. Rather than get annoyed, we've adopted such incidents as a running gag, and its considered an honor if Rockne visits your house along his way.

Our old neighborhood, to which we are still adjacent, has a similar running gag with a neighborhood outdoor cat that catches rats, as well as two yard flamingos that are the unofficial neighborhood mascots. I do, at this point, prefer the community-building elements of FB (Buy Nothing groups, neighborhood groups, parent groups, etc.) to the "look at my kids on vacation and our instagram worthy pictures!" element of following people.

TBF, I just don't care that much about 90% of the people I'm "friends" with on FB.

Oh my old neighborhood FB group.  Someone who just moved in about the pretty Black and white cat.  The rest of us, that’s Fenway.  He’s not lost, the whole neighborhood is his kingdom.

[ysette9]

For my FB I have:

1) consistently hidden every single ad, marking them randomly as not applicable or offensive or already purchased, or another option they offer. Do this for several days in a row and you get a break from ads. Do this every time the ads come back and so far I’ve been weeks with no ads.

2) curate your feed by unfollowing people you don’t care about, interacting with local groups you do care about, reading articles that interest you, etc. Every now and again I have to do that process again and clear out the clutter that has crept in.

[zolotiyeruki]

For my FB I have:

1) consistently hidden every single ad, marking them randomly as not applicable or offensive or already purchased, or another option they offer. Do this for several days in a row and you get a break from ads. Do this every time the ads come back and so far I’ve been weeks with no ads.

2) curate your feed by unfollowing people you don’t care about, interacting with local groups you do care about, reading articles that interest you, etc. Every now and again I have to do that process again and clear out the clutter that has crept in.

FB Purity is your friend. Never see an ad on FB again! And hide all the clutter that the Algorithm inserts in your feed.

[Sandi_k]

For my FB I have:

1) consistently hidden every single ad, marking them randomly as not applicable or offensive or already purchased, or another option they offer. Do this for several days in a row and you get a break from ads. Do this every time the ads come back and so far I’ve been weeks with no ads.

2) curate your feed by unfollowing people you don’t care about, interacting with local groups you do care about, reading articles that interest you, etc. Every now and again I have to do that process again and clear out the clutter that has crept in.

FB Purity is your friend. Never see an ad on FB again! And hide all the clutter that the Algorithm inserts in your feed.

+1000

[GuitarStv]

For my FB I have:

1) consistently hidden every single ad, marking them randomly as not applicable or offensive or already purchased, or another option they offer. Do this for several days in a row and you get a break from ads. Do this every time the ads come back and so far I’ve been weeks with no ads.

2) curate your feed by unfollowing people you don’t care about, interacting with local groups you do care about, reading articles that interest you, etc. Every now and again I have to do that process again and clear out the clutter that has crept in.

FB Purity is your friend. Never see an ad on FB again! And hide all the clutter that the Algorithm inserts in your feed.

+1000

Still think you're better off eschewing facebook entirely.

[ysette9]

If it were all junk, sure. But I am part of some great groups that provide valuable information that is helpful, so I stick around.

[JAYSLOL]

Another new Starbucks cup has been acquired

Make that two this week now

It’s been a while, but I happened upon a post of a new Starbucks cup as well as a weird pumpkin shape looking bright pink Starbucks mug, which is a first.

[Taran Wanderer]

I started liking every kids-back-to-school photo from my friends. What happened! Facebook fed me more back-to-school photos. It really does feed you what you spend time on. It was fun to see all the kid photos.

In the same way. Most political stuff has left my feed because I hide it or pause the people for 30 days. Not that things don’t come up, but it’s not a flood. If you consume the crap, they flood you with more crap.

[snic]

I started liking every kids-back-to-school photo from my friends. What happened! Facebook fed me more back-to-school photos. It really does feed you what you spend time on. It was fun to see all the kid photos.

In the same way. Most political stuff has left my feed because I hide it or pause the people for 30 days. Not that things don’t come up, but it’s not a flood. If you consume the crap, they flood you with more crap.

Isn't this generally the case? Eat a Twinkie, go to the store for more Twinkies, and what do you find - a whole aisle full of similar monstrosities. Buy a schnazzy new car, go to the dealer for an oil change, and what do you find - a whole showroom full of even schnazzier cars and people eager to sell you one. Watch crappy TV and what do you find - ads for more crap, including crappy TV shows and crappy TVs. And on and on. Facebook and Google have just perfected and refined the algorithm for feeding you crap based on your history of crap.

I don't touch Facebook with a 10 foot pole. If someone from the past really wants to contact me, they can figure out where I am. I guess Google has made itself useful enough, and stayed relatively unobtrusive enough, that I don't feel quite so irritated with them.

[ixtap]

I am pretty sure one of my friends is in an MLM that pushes affiliated marketing. She never posts anything that looks at all like affiliated marketing, but she posts about affiliated marketing everyday, including offering to hook us all up with how to get started. Time to snooze her again.