4 ms·

What an absurd article. Facebook is worldwide but somehow the US only elections popped it's bubble? Not to mention this was a 50/50 opinion split.. not exactly

What an absurd article. Facebook is worldwide but somehow the US only elections popped it's bubble? Not to mention this was a 50/50 opinion split.. not exactly earth shattering.

herbst 10y ago
Well for one thing i never heard anyone using Facebook as news source, if U.S. people really do that there is at least that. Otherwise really absurd article, agreed.
- acobster 10y ago
  As an American and former FB user I must admit that before I gave it up entirely, it was my primary channel for finding news. This is still true of many of my friends and, I suspect, no small number of Americans. But yeah.
  - herbst 10y ago
    this is really strange to me honestly. From what i can tell (i avoid facebook as much as possbile) "News" on my feed are mostly just uplifting news style. Everything relevant and political has no place on facebook within my environment. And i dont consider myself sheltered.
    - istorical 10y ago
      Many people use it as a link-sharing medium like others use Twitter.
      - herbst 10y ago
        "we" do that too, just not for these kind of news. Everytime i see some of the hardliners posting something political it will be completely ignored, or at max liked by some other hardliners. If someone posts a article about vegan or animal rights or shit, thats the kind of stuff that goes viral in my circles.
        vsgxvhdxh 10y ago
        > vegan or animal rights I read that as vegan rights or animal rights...
        herbst 10y ago
        according to my facebook feed vegans have rights too ;)
    - acobster 10y ago
      Typically how it went for me was I would see an emotionally charged headline in my feed from a website or blog with a palpable agenda, and then I would seek out a couple other, more fact-based articles covering the same story. But what I found was that initial "encounter" still set the tone for me, and also served as the prime metric of my engagement with Facebook. So its algorithms learned pretty quickly that I "liked" stories like that, and that drew more people of like mind, but whom I didn't really talk to face-to-face, into my circle. Not sure how characteristic that is for folks, but that's how I found myself consuming news eventually, and a big part of why I quit it. Oh, it was strange all right.
- eitally 10y ago
  Tons of people consider FB their primary news source, mostly because it serves as a "reasonable" aggregator. The problem is, of course, that it isn't actually reasonable.
- renaudg 10y ago
  i never heard anyone using Facebook as news source Well, that's one hell of a bubble you're living in.
  - herbst 10y ago
    I am sorry if this does not fit with your world view. In my environment facebook is some social media platform, with a few uplifting news but mostly irrelevant personal stuff. As anyone i am "friends" with way to many people without a specific genre, so i dont think my feed is special in that regard. There is barely political or relevant stuff on my feed, and as said i never heard anyone say "did you read _that_ on facebook?" when talking about something in the news. If that helps you: my circle is mostly from Austria and Switzerland
    - renaudg 10y ago
      It's definitely not just my world view. According to some studies, 62% of Americans are said to use FB as their primary news source (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/62-people-now-use-facebook-primary-news-source-why-we-conner-galway https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/62-people-now-use-facebook-pr...) So it's not unreasonable to say you're inside a really special bubble, if you've never heard anyone using Facebook as a news source.
      - herbst 10y ago
        As mention, but i am glad to do it again. I AM NOT AMERICAN Edit:// To further clearify: Nether are any of my facebook friends, nether have i ever been there or plan to. I have no relation with the U.S. i was just making the point that Facebook might simply is not the right place to find information.
        renaudg 10y ago
        I'm not American either. I'm French, living in the UK, and the figures are probably not very different here.
TrevorJ 10y ago
I think the radically unexpected outcome of the elections had a lot to do with it, which in this case happened to occur in the US.
renaudg 10y ago
That also happened for Brexit before. And there are more western elections to come in the coming months (Italy, France) where this is likely to be a factor.
- sickbeard 10y ago
  The reality is that not everyone wants open boarders and free trade and rights for all. Some.. actually about half of the people seem to reject this for some reason. That's the perception tilt that doesn't seem to be reflected in the media
  - nkassis 10y ago
    "actually about half of the people seem to reject this for some reason." that was probably a small portion of those peoples views. This election is a lot of things, but they didn't seem to really care about the candidate himself. It's very bewildering that nothing negative seems to have affected their view of the man. He had as many votes as McCain in 2008 and a bit less than Romney in 2012. So he practically 0 republican votes (give or take some shifts) but didn't add any either.

What an absurd article. Facebook is worldwide but somehow the US only elections popped it's bubble? Not to mention this was a 50/50 opinion split.. not exactly earth shattering.

herbst 10y ago

Well for one thing i never heard anyone using Facebook as news source, if U.S. people really do that there is at least that. Otherwise really absurd article, agreed.

acobster 10y ago
As an American and former FB user I must admit that before I gave it up entirely, it was my primary channel for finding news. This is still true of many of my friends and, I suspect, no small number of Americans. But yeah.
- herbst 10y ago
  this is really strange to me honestly. From what i can tell (i avoid facebook as much as possbile) "News" on my feed are mostly just uplifting news style. Everything relevant and political has no place on facebook within my environment. And i dont consider myself sheltered.
  - istorical 10y ago
    Many people use it as a link-sharing medium like others use Twitter.
    - herbst 10y ago
      "we" do that too, just not for these kind of news. Everytime i see some of the hardliners posting something political it will be completely ignored, or at max liked by some other hardliners. If someone posts a article about vegan or animal rights or shit, thats the kind of stuff that goes viral in my circles.
      - vsgxvhdxh 10y ago
        > vegan or animal rights I read that as vegan rights or animal rights...
        herbst 10y ago
        according to my facebook feed vegans have rights too ;)
  - acobster 10y ago
    Typically how it went for me was I would see an emotionally charged headline in my feed from a website or blog with a palpable agenda, and then I would seek out a couple other, more fact-based articles covering the same story. But what I found was that initial "encounter" still set the tone for me, and also served as the prime metric of my engagement with Facebook. So its algorithms learned pretty quickly that I "liked" stories like that, and that drew more people of like mind, but whom I didn't really talk to face-to-face, into my circle. Not sure how characteristic that is for folks, but that's how I found myself consuming news eventually, and a big part of why I quit it. Oh, it was strange all right.
eitally 10y ago
Tons of people consider FB their primary news source, mostly because it serves as a "reasonable" aggregator. The problem is, of course, that it isn't actually reasonable.
renaudg 10y ago
i never heard anyone using Facebook as news source Well, that's one hell of a bubble you're living in.
- herbst 10y ago
  I am sorry if this does not fit with your world view. In my environment facebook is some social media platform, with a few uplifting news but mostly irrelevant personal stuff. As anyone i am "friends" with way to many people without a specific genre, so i dont think my feed is special in that regard. There is barely political or relevant stuff on my feed, and as said i never heard anyone say "did you read _that_ on facebook?" when talking about something in the news. If that helps you: my circle is mostly from Austria and Switzerland
  - renaudg 10y ago
    It's definitely not just my world view. According to some studies, 62% of Americans are said to use FB as their primary news source (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/62-people-now-use-facebook-primary-news-source-why-we-conner-galway https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/62-people-now-use-facebook-pr...) So it's not unreasonable to say you're inside a really special bubble, if you've never heard anyone using Facebook as a news source.
    - herbst 10y ago
      As mention, but i am glad to do it again. I AM NOT AMERICAN Edit:// To further clearify: Nether are any of my facebook friends, nether have i ever been there or plan to. I have no relation with the U.S. i was just making the point that Facebook might simply is not the right place to find information.
      - renaudg 10y ago
        I'm not American either. I'm French, living in the UK, and the figures are probably not very different here.

TrevorJ 10y ago

I think the radically unexpected outcome of the elections had a lot to do with it, which in this case happened to occur in the US.

renaudg 10y ago

That also happened for Brexit before. And there are more western elections to come in the coming months (Italy, France) where this is likely to be a factor.

sickbeard 10y ago
The reality is that not everyone wants open boarders and free trade and rights for all. Some.. actually about half of the people seem to reject this for some reason. That's the perception tilt that doesn't seem to be reflected in the media
- nkassis 10y ago
  "actually about half of the people seem to reject this for some reason." that was probably a small portion of those peoples views. This election is a lot of things, but they didn't seem to really care about the candidate himself. It's very bewildering that nothing negative seems to have affected their view of the man. He had as many votes as McCain in 2008 and a bit less than Romney in 2012. So he practically 0 republican votes (give or take some shifts) but didn't add any either.