Open Letter to Late Night Facebook
As you can imagine I have to spend time on Facebook as part of my job at the radio station. It is a great way to keep in touch with everything that goes on in our Hudson Valley community but it has its moments when I just want to close my account. Tonight, I encountered just such a moment. I won't go into detail regarding the post but it is safe to say it probably wouldn't have seen the "light of day". This is my letter to "Late Night Facebook"
Dear Late Night Facebook - I often find myself on Facebook late at night. It isn't because I can't sleep. It is usually because I am working on a project for my job or catching up with my sister. Let me explain. You see work has me looking for interesting local story to share and my sister lives in a drastically different time zone.
My Facebook late night usage for work centers around local events of the day. When it comes to my sister we are usually talking through messenger to catch up on each others day or week depending on how long it's been since we chatted. After I am done with either or both I usually browse my feed before I sign out and what I have started to notice is some of what I see after midnight is not what I see during the day.
Are you familiar with the term "Safe Harbor"? It is a term that some industries use to describe how they sort content. For instance you might put a certain time of ad on late night TV that you would deem not suitable for say the middle of the day. Back in the late 80's and 90's the "Call a date" ads would have fit in this category.
So my question is has facebook adopted this policy? Here's why I ask. Tonight when I went to look at my feed before I logged off it was later than usual and I noticed a trend. The were some picture I thought were odd and the comments were very skewed. I felt that my feed was very divisive. I also didn't see the organizations and people that I usually see during the day.
So could it be that my Facebook feed has an alter ego from day to night. I try to make sure that my feed contains positive posts. I follow organizations and people that are positive in nature. I out right block content that I find offensive or distasteful and disgusting. I certainly don't need Facebook to show me pictures that I can't unsee.
I think that I am going to safe Harbor my Facebook interaction for a while to prevent what I think might be the latest algorithm gone astray. A new process being used to prevent the really over the top posts and comments to see the light of day. Could it be that you have actually found a way to create "Facebook After Hours"?
Signed Faithful Facebook User Looking for Happy Posts after Midnight.