4 ms·

They ostensibly did that to make the experience better for users. In this case they did it to make them feel worse.

true_religion 12y ago
No, they did it to study user reaction to a ratio of positive/negative posts. Its entirely possible that people would be more engaged if they received more negative news from their friends because of empathy, schadenfreude, or simply that knowing others aren't perfect provokes people to feel unashamed about posting. Whilst the experiment only looked at a single metric, facebook themselves likely looked at all metrics. Secondly, can we really say people felt 'worse'. Hypothetically, people may feel better if they see brief happy news in a sea of negative news, rather than seeing only happy news all the time with a few negatives since what is rare gets a stronger reaction. Do we know this is true or not? Not without a study...
- bjt 12y ago
  From the article, they know they felt worse because the subjects' own posts subsequently became more negative.
  - MarkPNeyer 12y ago
    that doesn't mean they felt worse. maybe they were matching the tone they were seeing around them? if you're giggly at a funeral, you're going to piss off the people around you and make everyone feel worse. you can keep the giggliness inside and pretend to be all somber and serious without affecting your mood. http://www.today.com/health/stop-cheering-me-some-people-dont-want-hear-it-1D79852039 http://www.today.com/health/stop-cheering-me-some-people-don... if anything, you could argue that facebook helped the people posting negative statuses who got more views, comments, and likes on the things they were struggling with.
  - visakanv 12y ago
    Sometimes I write negative things after reading negative things, but it's ultimately an enriching experience for me.
- gurkendoktor 12y ago
  > Its entirely possible that people would be more engaged if they received more negative news Or the other way around, there have been many articles about social network envy, having to keep up with the FB Joneses in terms of having an exciting life etc. I wouldn't have been surprised if people felt worse after looking only at positive status updates...
- DanBC 12y ago
  We do know that there are elements of contagion around suicidality and self harm. People use the word "trigguring" (a bit problematic because the word has spread from and to other situations which have different levels of appropriateness) but yes, we are pretty sure that someone with anorexia who spends a lot of time talking to other people with anorexia, especially if they're actively sharing thinspo tips, is going to find recovery harder and that this is causal. While it's great that people with lots of data do research, and there are problems with ethics panels[1], we should be very careful with anything designed to manipulate emotions. [1] Ben Goldacre talks about this http://www.badscience.net/2011/03/when-ethics-committees-kill/ http://www.badscience.net/2011/03/when-ethics-committees-kil...
  - true_religion 12y ago
    I think the difference between that hearing generally 'negative newsposts' is direction. People who are sharing tips to stay thin, (or tips on football, or living a 'moral' life, etc.) have a stated goal in mind, so it shouldn't be surprising if they succeed in it.

No, they did it to study user reaction to a ratio of positive/negative posts. Its entirely possible that people would be more engaged if they received more negative news from their friends because of empathy, schadenfreude, or simply that knowing others aren't perfect provokes people to feel unashamed about posting. Whilst the experiment only looked at a single metric, facebook themselves likely looked at all metrics. Secondly, can we really say people felt 'worse'. Hypothetically, people may feel better if they see brief happy news in a sea of negative news, rather than seeing only happy news all the time with a few negatives since what is rare gets a stronger reaction. Do we know this is true or not? Not without a study...

bjt 12y ago
From the article, they know they felt worse because the subjects' own posts subsequently became more negative.
- MarkPNeyer 12y ago
  that doesn't mean they felt worse. maybe they were matching the tone they were seeing around them? if you're giggly at a funeral, you're going to piss off the people around you and make everyone feel worse. you can keep the giggliness inside and pretend to be all somber and serious without affecting your mood. http://www.today.com/health/stop-cheering-me-some-people-dont-want-hear-it-1D79852039 http://www.today.com/health/stop-cheering-me-some-people-don... if anything, you could argue that facebook helped the people posting negative statuses who got more views, comments, and likes on the things they were struggling with.
- visakanv 12y ago
  Sometimes I write negative things after reading negative things, but it's ultimately an enriching experience for me.
gurkendoktor 12y ago
> Its entirely possible that people would be more engaged if they received more negative news Or the other way around, there have been many articles about social network envy, having to keep up with the FB Joneses in terms of having an exciting life etc. I wouldn't have been surprised if people felt worse after looking only at positive status updates...
DanBC 12y ago
We do know that there are elements of contagion around suicidality and self harm. People use the word "trigguring" (a bit problematic because the word has spread from and to other situations which have different levels of appropriateness) but yes, we are pretty sure that someone with anorexia who spends a lot of time talking to other people with anorexia, especially if they're actively sharing thinspo tips, is going to find recovery harder and that this is causal. While it's great that people with lots of data do research, and there are problems with ethics panels[1], we should be very careful with anything designed to manipulate emotions. [1] Ben Goldacre talks about this http://www.badscience.net/2011/03/when-ethics-committees-kill/ http://www.badscience.net/2011/03/when-ethics-committees-kil...
- true_religion 12y ago
  I think the difference between that hearing generally 'negative newsposts' is direction. People who are sharing tips to stay thin, (or tips on football, or living a 'moral' life, etc.) have a stated goal in mind, so it shouldn't be surprising if they succeed in it.