Facebook facepalm.

[randomness]

I was describing to digitalemur last week that I'd finally managed to dislodge Facebook's assumption that I was from Cincinnati. Now it thinks I'm from Montreal--certainly more plausible--but it took quite a number of "likes" to do it, where it only took two offhand "likes" (Skyline Chili and Graeter's) to get them pointed in that direction in the first place.

As we were talking I suddenly realized why Facebook decided I was a lesbian. Early on I "liked" My Drunk Kitchen. The LGBT link suggestions started not long after that.

No one would "like" Hannah Hart's comedy cooking show if they weren't themselves lesbian, right?

*facepalm*

Comments

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

It makes sense. The screen space shown to you has an incremental cost of zero. What is the best value that they can put into it? If you post little that identifies your demographics in ways that advertisers care about, Facebook's fix on you will be poor, and the ads that they think are best value when shown to you will be poorly targeted.

Start posting the trivia of your life in a way that reveals all of your demographics, where you live, what you buy, what restaurants you go to, what music you listen to, what people you know, that is, to consider your life to be identical to your spending habits and to flaunt your life like a demented flasher, then Facebook will start giving you relevant ads.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Start posting the trivia of your life in a way that reveals all of your demographics, where you live, what you buy, what restaurants you go to, what music you listen to, what people you know, that is, to consider your life to be identical to your spending habits and to flaunt your life like a demented flasher, then Facebook will start giving you relevant ads.

So you miss the point of the experiment. I am seeing what response I elicit from stimulating Facebook in a certain way. I really have no interest in getting Facebook to show me relevant ads, but I am having fun in seeing just how far off its algorithms can be thrown despite my being fairly accurate about some of my preferences.

Posting about those situations where Facebook's assumptions are truly absurd is my way of sharing the fun.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Then why do you end the post with "facepalm", as if you can't believe their stupidity?

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Because it is absurdly reductive to assume that someone friending a cooking comedy show, whose host happens to be gay, would be interested in a lesbian meetup app.

Do you really not understand the humor in *facepalm* to point that out?

(Even if not, I'm still going to write that sort of thing for the other readers who do get it.)

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

It may be the best-paying alternative for Facebook, given the array of ads that they have to shove at you and what little data they have about you. They don't have to believe that the odds are good that you're interested in that, just that it's got the highest expected payoff (given their choices and the historical statistics).

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Ah. I see what's going on here. We're talking past each other.

You're talking about what is profit maximizing for Facebook. I'm talking about how their algorithms produce results which are absurd on their face. (I'm pointing and laughing at these, because they're funny, but that's just an elaboration.)

Both can be--and clearly are--true at the same time. The world is full of social absurdities. Having Facebook algorithms mirror them makes them easier to see and funnier to point out.

Or their "highest expected payoff" guess could be funny. That's worth pointing and laughing at, too.

I don't think I ever claimed that they weren't trying to maximize profit, only that they looked silly to me while doing so. I'm quite sure they don't much care they look silly to me, and I don't much care that they're trying to maximize profit except that I can point at their silliness while they do so.

(There is a more minor point that I am not talking about the advertisements, and you are. Suggested pages are not advertisements. On Facebook, the two are quite distinct. But that is a relatively minor point and an error which someone else also made in an earlier post.

As I mentioned in that thread, the advertisements have not been as absurd as the suggested pages. Mostly they've obviously been driven by demographics and are much more widely cast.)

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Mostly... I see "facepalm" as "someone has done something stuipd", that is, it's clear that many people could have done a better job. In this case the job is to write an algorithm that selects ads/recommends pages/something based on whatever information Facebook can glean from you. Given that you're deliberately trying to avoid giving Facebook information that lets them get a close fix on you and your tastes, it's hard to imagine that anyone could construct an algorithm that would provide good selections/recommendations. Or in short, yes the job is done badly; no, I can't imagine doing a better job myself. It's absurd on the face of it only if you have no awareness of the underlying dynamic of what is going on.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

The "facepalm" in this case is my being struck by the absurdity of American culture as reflected in a very facile Facebook algorithm.

Given that you're deliberately trying to avoid giving Facebook information that lets them get a close fix on you and your tastes

Actually, I'm being quite true to my interests. The facepalm comes from how changing gender identification and nothing else results in some very strange results.

You keep talking about how this makes sense for Facebook and I keep talking about how Facebook's representation of a weird society is itself weird.

Weŕe talking past each other. If you like, I can keep this up all year.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

It's absurd on the face of it only if you have no awareness of the underlying dynamic of what is going on.

It seems clear to me that my understanding of the underlying dynamic is at least as good as yours.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Clarification: I have not merely been "accurate about some of my preferences". I really have been accurate about them all. I have not "liked" anything I don't actually like.

Which is why it has been intriguing seeing what emerges.

(I have the distinct feeling of explaining a joke, here.)