World’s biggest social networking company Facebook has rolled out the new Reactions buttons that will allow a user to express its emotions in a better way. But, what is the hidden purpose of Facebook’s new addition? Yes, you guessed it right — it’s all about money and data collection.
Facebook has just rolled out its new ‘Reactions’ buttons globally. These six new emojis — ‘love’, ‘haha,’ ‘yay,’ ‘wow,’‘sad,’ and ‘angry’ — were launched to give people more freedom to express their emotions.
Facebook has just rolled out its new ‘Reactions’ buttons globally. These six new emojis — ‘love’, ‘haha,’ ‘yay,’ ‘wow,’‘sad,’ and ‘angry’ — were launched to give people more freedom to express their emotions.
In its Facebook post, the social media company explained that it has been listening to people to receive feedback and bring the right set of reactions. To see the new buttons, all you have to do is just hover over the like button or hold it down. However, just like any other feature on Facebook, the new Reactions buttons serve a dual purpose for Facebook. The company aims to collect data about how you react to smileys and improve your News Feed.
Every time you open your Facebook account, you witness a series of posts and pictures that are a result of one of the world’s most influential and controversial algorithms. Facebook believes that feeding its algorithm more and more data is the key to longevity.
In the past, Facebook’s Like button has been as a key source of data for the company that are used to customize your digital life. If you like more pictures, you’ll be shown more pictures — the same goes for other types of content.
Giving users six reactions allows the company to gather more focused data. It will now tell the company if the people are enjoying the posts, finding them happy, or becoming sad.
In a blog post, Facebook hinted at a similar possibility: “Over time we hope to learn how the different Reactions should be weighted differently by News Feed to do a better job of showing everyone the stories they most want to see.”
Facebook primarily earns its money from advertising and shares the data with advertisers to improve their targeting. Although Facebook’s privacy policy states that it doesn’t share the personally identifiable information about its users, it does share the bulk information of users.
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