You may soon be able to prevent Facebook from showing you photos of your ex, helping you to get over a breakup, but most other bad memories remain potential candidates for your intrusive On this day updates.
The problem is that algorithms have no empathy.Īlgorithms don’t care that you may not want to see photos of your late cat, or of co-workers from a job you recently lost. As such, we help Facebook learn by engaging with things we like - and the more we like and share something, the more of it we see. One of the many computer algorithms Facebook uses to optimize what we see online is the ‘memories’ algorithm, which presumably tries to present us with pictures from our past that we are most likely to share with others.
Make no mistake, Facebook works tirelessly to steer what we see on its website. The feature helps us remember critical life events such as how many people liked our narcissistic social media indulgences and on what date we made the life-changing decision to friend someone.īut is Facebook appropriating more than just our pictures and comments, and instead actively reshaping what we remember in real life? It seems to be not-so-subtly implying that if something wasn’t posted on Facebook it may as well have not happened at all. įacebook has even taken it upon itself to appropriate the very term ‘ memory’, classifying things as ‘memories’ only if they were posted on its site. Facebook liked the idea so much that in 2015 it decided to roll the feature out universally on Facebook, calling it On this day. The photos were from years past, of events that presumably carried some significance, and the app made them easy for us to share with our friends. It was one of the first popular social media features to give us a deliberate glimpse into our personal past by digging up photos from our online libraries. You can also access Memories through notifications, through messages that you may see in your News Feed, and by visiting /memories.In the not-so-distant past, Timehop made social media nostalgia mainstream. ‘You can still access your memories through the Memories bookmark either to the left of your News Feed on your computer or in the “more” tab on the bottom right of your mobile app. We work hard to ensure that we treat the content as part of each individual’s personal experience, and are thankful for the input people have shared with us over the past three years. ‘We try to listen to feedback and design these features so that they’re thoughtful and offer people the right controls that are easy to access. ‘We know that memories are deeply personal - and they’re not all positive,’ it wrote. Photoshop might soon be available for freeįacebook admitted that not every Memory it helped you recall would be a happy one. ‘My Facebook memories is always comical seeing the numerous “friends” I’ve had through the years lolol,’ another revealed. ‘Thanks Facebook Memories for reminding me of not only when I had a boyfriend, but also loyal friends,’ a woman tweeted. The break-up of relationships and friendships also featured heavily in the posts of people who’d suffered an encounter with Zuck’s enforced recollection machine. ‘All it does is remind me of all the people I don’t talk to anymore and how thin I was.’ ‘Facebook Memories keep reminding me of the time in High School when I thought it’d be cute to dye my hair blonde,’ a woman recollected in a post featuring a prominent vomit emoji. Memories You May Have Missed: This makes sure you don’t miss any chance to hate yourself by reminding you of memories you didn’t see in the past week.Ī man in his late teens also cringed at a post he’d written as a kid which said: ‘I can’t wait until my birthday bitch: I’m turning 12.’.Recaps of Memories: This section feature seasonal or monthly recaps of memories collected together as a video or message.Friends Made On This Day: This section include a list of friends you made on the date you visit Memories ‘including special videos or collages that celebrate your friendversaries’.
On This Day: Reminders of the anniversaries of posts, friendships and life events.