Facebook's News Feed befuddles me.

"SonorousSpeedJoe" (SonorousSpeedJoe) 02/02/2016 at 17:45 • Filed to: None

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A couple of months back, I noticed that I’d get some weird-looking articles in my News Feed on Facebook’s Android App. Somehow, after visiting my FB feed on a desktop browser for the first time in forever, that junk has disappeared. [Update: Spoke too soon.]

It weirded me out because these articles were always “liked” by two particular FB friends - neither of whom, from what I can tell, would care for the content/tone of some of the stuff that I saw (though the post in my screenshot is just fine).

These posts would reappear with slightly tweaked titles and/or descriptions on pages with titles like “The Most Beautiful Thing Is _____”, “Life Is ____”, “We Are ____” and so on, so it all blended together; I’m not sure that my attempts to block these pages ever really worked, and the menus when I’d try to block them (i.e. like in the second pic) looked pretty weird.

I’m familiar with content from sites like Buzzfeed that I’ve seen on my FB feed, and that’s all well and good. It’s just that I’ve just never seen some of the sketchy-looking, sponsored-links-by-Taboola sort of stuff on FB, but I’m probably the last person on Earth to notice this stuff LOL.

[UPDATE]: Turns out I can still see that stuff in a desktop browser, too.

Leadbull > SonorousSpeedJoe 02/02/2016 at 18:10

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I saw these, too. Thought it was strange how these things had thousands of likes but only a few comments. Anyway, I unfollowed the certain handful of friends and that seemed to solve it.

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > SonorousSpeedJoe 02/02/2016 at 18:15

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Sidebar: I just deleted the FB app on my HTC phone, because of how it affects heavily the battery life.

I substituted for the app called “Metal” (and will use FB within the browser also). So far, it works damn well.

I’ll see the benefits soon enough to battery life

SonorousSpeedJoe > Leadbull 02/02/2016 at 18:20

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Unfollowing the friends is the surest way to nip the problem in the bud, but I didn’t want to do that LOL. So I’d select one of the three “Hide all” options for the page that made the post. IDK why there’s also a “Hide all” for an established media outlet - this one has the Daily Mail when there’s no apparent affiliation between the two pages, and I’ve also seen the option for CNN as well.

Leadbull > SonorousSpeedJoe 02/02/2016 at 18:22

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The problem with that is that it wasn't the same domain name every time.

SonorousSpeedJoe > SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman 02/02/2016 at 18:23

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Yeah, it is heavy on battery life, though I usually clear FB out of my phone’s RAM once I’m done using the app. There’s also Facebook Lite, but I haven’t bothered to try that.

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > SonorousSpeedJoe 02/02/2016 at 19:38

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FB lite is also mad good