“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is not a saying that has ever picked up any traction in Silicon Valley, as evidenced by the fact that Facebook is doing yet another big redesign. That’s not to say that Facebook isn’t in need of fixing — it desperately is — but let’s not kid ourselves here. A redesigned news feed isn’t exactly the fix we need. The best possible thing for Facebook would be dumping the whole concept into the trash and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-ing it out of our collective memory for good.
Instead, we get this. The new Facebook will be split into two tabs: one designed to help you find new content, Stories and Instagram Reels based on your likes; the other full of posts from friends, organizations and groups you follow.
“We understand you may want more options when it comes to sorting and seeing your content,” the company said in a statement. “There are times you might know just what you’re looking for — say, the latest posts from your groups — or you may want to encounter fresh, entertaining content.”
That all sounds like a very long of way saying that Facebook is chasing TikTok, trying to point its users towards more entertainment. By integrating Stories and Reels even deeper into the Facebook experience, Meta is clearly hoping to take a chunk out of its rival’s chokehold on the younger social media users who’ve avoided Facebook like a plague. A big key to TikTok’s success has been its ability to push recommended content to its users, hooking them with an endless stream of new content. That’s something Facebook hasn’t figured out how to do for anyone born after 2000.
