How to circumvent the boring Facebook Algorithm using Facebook See First feature

Last week a number of people over at Facebook complained how Facebook has become boring. This is due to a newsfeed algorithm that Facebook started rolling a few years ago that prioritises interactions between friends who care for each other. In the Facebook algorithm, Facebook has ensured that updates from friends one hardly interacts with and from Facebook Pages are completely hidden from news feed, and since typically humans interact with very few people, you’d find that Facebook now shows posts from a handful friends (less than 10 for me), which posts are normally recycled. But there is a way to somehow circumvent this boring Facebook Algorithm and that’s by using the Facebook See First feature.

For instance, your friend Bob that you usually interact with could have updated how he will look like as a woman and when he grows old. When you log into Facebook, you’d probably see this on top of your newsfeed. Scrolling down you’ll see some other updates mostly the ones you had seen in your previous login, then if none of those people you usually interact with have posted anything new, you’ll see Bob’s update one or two more times.

If the above is what you have been experiencing, then you must agree with those complaining that Facebook has become very very boring. This is because Facebook has assumed over the years that we have zero interest in getting updates from friends we rarely interact with, or even from Facebook groups we have joined and Pages that we have liked. As for Pages, Facebook has intentionally suppressed displaying their updates on our news feeds so that page admins can spend a dollar or two per day to have those posts sponsored, such that a page you really would like to receive updates from doesn’t give some dollars to Facebook, you as Facebook user will never remember that they still exist. This happened to me early last year when I had to go back to some pages I had followed to see if the pages banned me or if I had unfollowed them by mistake.

But thank goodness there is a walk around the boring Facebook algorithm – the Facebook See First feature under Follow Button”in both Friends’ and Pages’ profiles. Facebook See First is a Facebook feature that allows a Facebook user to choose up to 30 friends or Pages (or combination of the two) so that you can always see their updates first. This Facebook see first feature allows one to always see updates from friends and pages first in the news feed, then updates from other friends and pages are given second priority depending on availability of updates from those in the Facebook See First list, and how often you interact with them.

The Facebook See First feature is useful for two reasons: First being the ability to bypass the Facebook Algorithm that has made the social media site very boring. Using Facebook See First feature for this purpose allows you to select up to 30 friends, or 30 pages, or a combination of the two, to always see updates from them; whether you interact with those friends/pages or not. In this way, if there is that person you normally want to just see their updates but never want to like or comment on those updates, you can always see their updates anyway.

Secondly there are those of us who have the maximum limit of 5000 friends. Typically, the people who really know from this list of 5000 friends tend to be around 30 to 100 – meaning the rest of 4900 humans on our Facebook friends list are just there to fulfil our socialite dreams. These 4900 friends are however fond of overcrowding our Facebook newsfeed with stupid updates such as “Ask me anything”, “What would you like from me”, and copy pasted yesterday year dry jokes they claim to be their original creation. In order to not let these slayqueen slayking high school types of updates overshadow real important updates from people close to you, you need to head to the profiles of those friends you really want to read their updates and choose See First under their “Follow” button.

How to access Facebook See First Feature

Assuming our Facebook Page is your favorite Page and you’d want to never miss any of our updates, then head over to the Page either by searching for Kenya Tech News Kachwanya.com or clicking this link.

• Just below and at the left of the Page’s cover photo, you will see “Like” and “Follow” buttons.
• Hover the mouse at the “Follow” button. A drop down list as shown below will pop up.

• Click on See First and ensure it’s ticked.

The process outlined above is similar to Friends, with a little difference being that the Follow button will be located towards the right side underneath the cover photo of your friend.

Once you have chosen See First either for friends or Pages, then Facebook will ensure that updates from these friends and pages are always shown first on your newsfeed, no matter how unpopular those updates are.

The second way to ensure you always have variety of updates on your newsfeed is to ensure you always like, comment, and reply to comments on updates of as many friends and pages possible. If you become very active on your the updates of your diverse friends and pages, you for sure will never find Facebook boring.