The controversy over the deployment of Safety Check may have been the big story this week, but Facebook also recently received backlash for blind-spots in its recent “On This Day” and “Year In Review” tools.
Appearing on your News Feed without a user having to opt in first, these nostalgia triggers had the tendency to bring up memories some would rather forget, from breakups to deaths in the family. The social media network fixed the problem last month by giving users the option to filter out people and dates you don't want to be reminded of.
Facebook’s next move is to offer you therapeutic services for its own damage. Now the social media network is testing tools to help users cope with breakups rather than just live in denial.
In a Facebook Newsroom post titled “Improving the Experience When Relationships End,” Product Manager Kelly Winters wrote that the new tools give users the option to see less of an ex in their News Feed without having to unfriend or block. Clearly, Facebook understands that we love to pretend to be friends with our exes while merrily repressing their existence.
Now we can also control what photos and other posts of yours your ex can see, and control who can see (or, importantly for your future dating life, who cannot see) any posts involving your ex.
Essentially, this means that Facebook’s programming is getting closer to sentience every day. Facebook knows everything about you. Facebook even knows what will trigger you emotionally. Facebook feels your pain, and it wants to help you. For free! And there is nothing creepy about that at all.
As for those exes so traumatizing that industrial-strength avoidance is necessary, there’s an Extension for Google Chrome called “Eternal Sunshine.” Check it out.
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