Facebook's TikTok-like redesign marks the end of a social networking era centered around friends and a move toward algorithmically sorted content from strangers
Mark last week as the end of the social networking era, which began with the rise of Friendster in 2003, shaped two decades of internet growth …
The related coverage frames the trade-off sharply: copying TikTok means giving up some of the protection conferred by Facebook's large social graph. Meta's later friends-only Facebook tab underscores that friend-based viewing remained a distinct user need even as the main feed moved toward recommendations.
First-order effects
Facebook users receive a feed organized more by algorithmic recommendations from strangers than by posts from friends, changing what content gets distribution inside the app.
Facebook creators and publishers can compete for reach beyond their existing follower and friend networks, while the social graph becomes less central to feed visibility.
Second-order effects
TikTok's discovery model becomes a more direct competitive benchmark for Facebook, while Facebook relinquishes part of the product distinction created by its hard-to-replicate social graph.
Creators have a stronger incentive to make content that travels through recommendation systems across both platforms rather than relying primarily on accumulated social connections.
Third-order effects
If major networks continue prioritizing recommendation feeds, social platforms become less differentiated by who users know and more differentiated by the quality and control of their ranking systems.
The later return of a friends-only option suggests a durable split between algorithmic discovery and intentional social viewing, rather than a clean replacement of one by the other.
The trend: Social platforms are shifting from graph-based communication toward algorithmic content discovery, while preserving friend-focused spaces where users still demand them.
“The pandemic finally forced people to stop acting like the 90s were only 10 years ago and now we live in a world where the internet is, arguably, the prime layer of reality and the physical world is a byproduct of what we post online.” https://www.garbageday.email/ ...
Sort of feel the exact opposite: the pandemic was a reimposition of materialism that underscored the weaknesses of internet living and raised the importance of things like homes, energy production, in-person socialization, physical goods, etc. https://twitter.com/...
Oh they definitely hate them! 'At best Meta seems embarrassed of the people who make the content that keeps users on their apps. Or, at worst, they seem to hate them. There's really no other explanation.' https://www.garbageday.email/ ...
I remember when everyone in the NYC comedy scene realized the reason no one was showing up to shows is because you had to start putting “Congratulations!” in front of your FB promo statuses or the algorithm wouldn't make it show up on anyone's feeds https://twitter.com/...
I guess this a Doom column for Social Media. There is no support for the vast claims of the impact on changes to Facebook, but the unidentified column will gain clicks, but according to the article that no longer matters, so... https://twitter.com/...
“Facebook wants to shape your online life around the algorithmically-sorted preferences of millions of strangers.” I hope this will finally kill the zombie belief among some social scientists about user self-sorting being the real problem, not algorithms. https://www.axios.com/..…