It’s frustrating when you log into Facebook and see your News Feed filled with suggested posts rather than updates from your friends and pages you follow. There are a few key reasons why this happens and some steps you can take to see more of the content you care about.
Facebook’s Feed Algorithm
The main reason your Facebook feed contains so many suggested posts is because of the complex News Feed algorithm Facebook uses. This algorithm controls what shows up in each person’s feed. Its goal is to show you the posts and information Facebook thinks you will find most interesting and engaging.
Some of the key factors the algorithm considers include:
- How often you interact with certain friends, pages, or post types
- How much time you spend reading or watching certain content
- Trending topics and viral posts gaining engagement
- Paid advertisements and promoted posts
Based on these factors, Facebook will start putting more suggested posts and advertisements in your feed if it thinks those are the types of things you prefer to see and engage with.
Less Content from Friends and Pages
Another reason you may be seeing fewer posts from friends, family, and pages is that people are simply using Facebook less frequently. With alternative social networks like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok gaining popularity, many people – especially younger audiences – are posting less frequently on Facebook.
Additionally, some public figures, publishers, brands, and media companies have stopped or scaled back their posting on Facebook due to various controversies surrounding issues like data privacy and the spread of misinformation. This also leads to fewer updates from those sources showing up in the News Feed.
How the Facebook Algorithm Works
Facebook is quite secretive about exactly how their complicated News Feed algorithm works. However, they have revealed some key details about how it chooses what content to show users:
- It assigns a “relevance score” to each post based on how likely you are to interact with it.
- It aims to maximize the time you spend actively engaged on Facebook while also prioritizing “meaningful social interactions.”
- It considers thousands of factors about you, your relationships, the post content, and more when scoring posts.
- It is constantly updated to improve and avoid showing users repetitive or irrelevant posts.
So in essence, the Facebook algorithm is looking at millions of posts, analyzing them in relation to each user, assigning an engagement score, and then ranking them to create your personalized News Feed.
Ways to See More Posts from Friends
If you want your News Feed to contain fewer suggested posts and more personal updates from friends, there are a few tactics you can try:
- Actively comment on, react to, and share your friends’ posts – this signals to Facebook those posts are valuable to you.
- Follow or friend more accounts that post content you want to see.
- Limit your interactions with suggested posts so Facebook shows you fewer of them.
- Adjust your News Feed preferences in Settings to see more friends and pages.
- Use Lists to pinpoint specific friends and pages you want to see first.
News Feed Preferences
One of the easiest ways to shift your News Feed balance is to update your preferences in Facebook’s Settings menu. Here are some of the key options to consider changing:
- Prioritize who to see first – choose specific friends and pages to rank at the top
- Unfollow people, pages, or groups – remove their updates from your News Feed
- Snooze certain people, pages, or groups for 30 days – temporarily hide their posts
- Reconnect with people you unfollowed – start seeing their posts again
- News Feed sorting – switch from algorithmic sorting to chronological
Testing out different combinations of these settings can help reshape your News Feed so it better matches your preferences.
Use Facebook Lists
Facebook Lists allow you to group your friends, family, pages, and groups into categorized lists like Close Friends, Acquaintances, Pages I Follow, etc. You can then easily view feeds filtered to show only those lists.
For example, create a Close Friends list with your favorite connections. When you view that custom list feed, you’ll only see updates from those handpicked people.
Lists are a powerful way to pinpoint the people and pages you want to see most in your News Feed without having to unfollow everyone else.
Conclusion
A Facebook feed overrun with suggested posts can be incredibly frustrating. But by understanding how Facebook’s algorithm works and using tools like feed preferences and lists, you can take back control of your News Feed.
Focus on connecting with your favorite people and pages, limit interactions with unwanted suggested content, and optimize your settings. Doing this will guide the algorithm over time to show you more of the updates you want to see.
While Facebook will continue displaying some suggested posts, you should start to see a lot more personal updates from friends by fine-tuning your News Feed. Just remember it takes patience as you actively shape what Facebook shows you over the long term.