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Yep, always a nice surprise when you're using your phone, decide to check Facebook and get a "your year in Facebook" featuring your now-dead best friend, and an

by dave2000 11y ago

Yep, always a nice surprise when you're using your phone, decide to check Facebook and get a "your year in Facebook" featuring your now-dead best friend, and an ex-girlfriend. Thanks for that, Facebook.

zdkl 11y ago
"Inadvertent Algorithmic Cruelty", welcome to the future.
peter_bakelaw 11y ago
I don't understand your complaint. Do you think an individual person at Facebook did that to you for a laugh? If they're just a selection of your photos for the year, then what's wrong with them showing them to you? People seem to be so fragile. I don't think being shown your own photos, or photos that people have tagged you in (in accordance with your privacy settings) is really a big deal. Get over it.
- hobs 11y ago
  >People seem to be so fragile. I don't think being shown your own photos, or photos that people have tagged you in (in accordance with your privacy settings) is really a big deal. Get over it. Have some humanity. Whether or not it was an algo emotional trauma is real, and telling people to just get over their dead friend or their ex-girlfriend is the height of rudeness. If Facebook wants to host all the world's personal content then it will have to address problems like these or breed a significant amount of additional human pain.
  - peter_bakelaw 11y ago
    I didn't tell anyone to get over their dead friend. I said to get over being so over-fragile that they're upset at being shown a photo of the friend when you visit a website that is literally designed for photos of you and your friends. If being shown a photo of a friend who died is emotional 'trauma', then I'm not sure how you cope with day-to-day life and I recommend you stay in bed where it is safe.
    - al2o3cr 11y ago
      Y'know, if reading about people being emotionally traumatized is so upsetting to you that you have to reply repeatedly then I recommend that you go fuck yourself.
      - peter_bakelaw 11y ago
        I'm not upset by it at all. I'm just calling people out as being unreasonably precious about it. The algorithm they use can't take into account whatever problems you've had over the year. That should be obvious. If you can't handle that, don't go there.
        hairofadog 11y ago
        Ordinarily, you decide when and how to interact with your photos. I sometimes choose to spend a few minutes looking over collections of photos of dead loved ones; it's often painful and makes me feel vulnerable and it's not something I would want sprung on me while I'm in the office, for example. If Facebook's only purpose was to show you random photos from your past, then the "just don't use it" argument would fly. However, Facebook is trying to be the primary way that people interact with their friends and families. For many people, the option becomes, "interact with your friends and family online and sometimes have painful memories thrust in front of you at inopportune moments" vs "don't interact with your friends and family online". I've chosen the latter - I don't use Facebook. They're probably working on it. Do they really still not have a way to opt out of that? Seems like the obvious solution would be to set it up as opt-in.
        brudgers 11y ago
        Calling people out is not appropriate behavior on HN. Please stop.
      - dang 11y ago
        Please don't respond in kind or worse.
    - braythwayt 11y ago
- zdkl 11y ago
  To show the same consideration you do to others thoughts and opinions: screw you. We who have lost someone close are trying to get over it. The point was that Facebook's algorithm to choose what users should see isn't helping.
  - peter_bakelaw 11y ago
    > The point was that Facebook's algorithm to choose what users should see isn't helping. The algorithm is showing you your photos. What did you expect when you went to Facebook? I mean what are you really after? Do you think Facebook should employ a person to read your fragile mind and protect you from your own photos?
    - gcr 11y ago
      Nobody would ever think that. This comment, and especially the last sentence, doesn't belong on HN.
- tremendo 11y ago
  I thought you had a reasonable point until your closing. While I'm always cynical when I read FB's "We care about you" phrasing when bringing up photos/posts from the past—"We" being a soulless algorithm, I always welcome the opportunity to reminisce when my parents come up.
  - komali2 11y ago
    Soulless algorithm designed by living humans, hosted on a website which features user-generated content, designed by a human. It's not like it's AI.
    - tremendo 11y ago
      Oh yes, designed by a human who does not care about me, because they do not know me, nor I them. What they "care" about me is that I keep posting and using their platform to the exclusion of the open Internet, they want me to live through their product, they want me to be another set of eyeballs that increases their market valuation, that's how they care about me. Now'll I'll stop before I turn really cynical.
- yason 11y ago
  Why are people downvoting this in masses? Not seeing photos of your dead friends does NOT help you get through the sorrow any faster. Mourning will take the time it will take, but "tidying up" dead friends off your Facebook suggested memories would be patronizing if not outright creepy. Of course you'll see photos of your friend a couple of years back because the fact that s/he is dead now doesn't erase the fact that s/he was alive then and very much your friend. That's part of your history and cannot be erased by avoiding photographs manually or by some "considerate" heuristic. Same for ex-partners: it, in fact, was you who were together with him/her one year ago and while you're now separated for a reason or no reason, you still share your slice of history together. It's not inconsiderate to suggest that fact as a memory.
  - jsprogrammer 11y ago
    I would like to downvote the post for this sentence: >Do you think an individual person at Facebook did that to you for a laugh? Nowhere in the post that sentence was responding to did the author state or imply that Facebook intentionally showed the author pictures of their dead friend or ex-girlfriend; yet, the responder assumed the author believes that and then went on a diatribe against the author based on their poor assumption.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- dang 11y ago
  Please stop making throwaway accounts to be rude with on Hacker News. That's not what this site is for.

zdkl 11y ago

"Inadvertent Algorithmic Cruelty", welcome to the future.

peter_bakelaw 11y ago

I don't understand your complaint. Do you think an individual person at Facebook did that to you for a laugh? If they're just a selection of your photos for the year, then what's wrong with them showing them to you? People seem to be so fragile. I don't think being shown your own photos, or photos that people have tagged you in (in accordance with your privacy settings) is really a big deal. Get over it.

hobs 11y ago
>People seem to be so fragile. I don't think being shown your own photos, or photos that people have tagged you in (in accordance with your privacy settings) is really a big deal. Get over it. Have some humanity. Whether or not it was an algo emotional trauma is real, and telling people to just get over their dead friend or their ex-girlfriend is the height of rudeness. If Facebook wants to host all the world's personal content then it will have to address problems like these or breed a significant amount of additional human pain.
- peter_bakelaw 11y ago
  I didn't tell anyone to get over their dead friend. I said to get over being so over-fragile that they're upset at being shown a photo of the friend when you visit a website that is literally designed for photos of you and your friends. If being shown a photo of a friend who died is emotional 'trauma', then I'm not sure how you cope with day-to-day life and I recommend you stay in bed where it is safe.
  - al2o3cr 11y ago
    Y'know, if reading about people being emotionally traumatized is so upsetting to you that you have to reply repeatedly then I recommend that you go fuck yourself.
    - peter_bakelaw 11y ago
      I'm not upset by it at all. I'm just calling people out as being unreasonably precious about it. The algorithm they use can't take into account whatever problems you've had over the year. That should be obvious. If you can't handle that, don't go there.
      - hairofadog 11y ago
        Ordinarily, you decide when and how to interact with your photos. I sometimes choose to spend a few minutes looking over collections of photos of dead loved ones; it's often painful and makes me feel vulnerable and it's not something I would want sprung on me while I'm in the office, for example. If Facebook's only purpose was to show you random photos from your past, then the "just don't use it" argument would fly. However, Facebook is trying to be the primary way that people interact with their friends and families. For many people, the option becomes, "interact with your friends and family online and sometimes have painful memories thrust in front of you at inopportune moments" vs "don't interact with your friends and family online". I've chosen the latter - I don't use Facebook. They're probably working on it. Do they really still not have a way to opt out of that? Seems like the obvious solution would be to set it up as opt-in.
      - brudgers 11y ago
        Calling people out is not appropriate behavior on HN. Please stop.
    - dang 11y ago
      Please don't respond in kind or worse.
  - braythwayt 11y ago
zdkl 11y ago
To show the same consideration you do to others thoughts and opinions: screw you. We who have lost someone close are trying to get over it. The point was that Facebook's algorithm to choose what users should see isn't helping.
- peter_bakelaw 11y ago
  > The point was that Facebook's algorithm to choose what users should see isn't helping. The algorithm is showing you your photos. What did you expect when you went to Facebook? I mean what are you really after? Do you think Facebook should employ a person to read your fragile mind and protect you from your own photos?
  - gcr 11y ago
    Nobody would ever think that. This comment, and especially the last sentence, doesn't belong on HN.
tremendo 11y ago
I thought you had a reasonable point until your closing. While I'm always cynical when I read FB's "We care about you" phrasing when bringing up photos/posts from the past—"We" being a soulless algorithm, I always welcome the opportunity to reminisce when my parents come up.
- komali2 11y ago
  Soulless algorithm designed by living humans, hosted on a website which features user-generated content, designed by a human. It's not like it's AI.
  - tremendo 11y ago
    Oh yes, designed by a human who does not care about me, because they do not know me, nor I them. What they "care" about me is that I keep posting and using their platform to the exclusion of the open Internet, they want me to live through their product, they want me to be another set of eyeballs that increases their market valuation, that's how they care about me. Now'll I'll stop before I turn really cynical.
yason 11y ago
Why are people downvoting this in masses? Not seeing photos of your dead friends does NOT help you get through the sorrow any faster. Mourning will take the time it will take, but "tidying up" dead friends off your Facebook suggested memories would be patronizing if not outright creepy. Of course you'll see photos of your friend a couple of years back because the fact that s/he is dead now doesn't erase the fact that s/he was alive then and very much your friend. That's part of your history and cannot be erased by avoiding photographs manually or by some "considerate" heuristic. Same for ex-partners: it, in fact, was you who were together with him/her one year ago and while you're now separated for a reason or no reason, you still share your slice of history together. It's not inconsiderate to suggest that fact as a memory.
- jsprogrammer 11y ago
  I would like to downvote the post for this sentence: >Do you think an individual person at Facebook did that to you for a laugh? Nowhere in the post that sentence was responding to did the author state or imply that Facebook intentionally showed the author pictures of their dead friend or ex-girlfriend; yet, the responder assumed the author believes that and then went on a diatribe against the author based on their poor assumption.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
dang 11y ago
Please stop making throwaway accounts to be rude with on Hacker News. That's not what this site is for.