If you don’t already block “social news apps” from illustrious organizations like the Washington Post, Yahoo, and The Guardian on Facebook, maybe this incident will change your mind. Facebook seems very keen for Jake to know that his female friend is reading about vibrators, but Jake would really rather not know. Really. He wouldn’t.
The applications let users share stories easily and within a special Facebook ecosystem of news. The flaw is that when you’re reading material from each site through Facebook, every article you read is broadcast on the live feed of all of your Facebook friends. That’s how Jake saw this message:
I logged onto Facebook and first thing in my newsfeed is that my friend happened to be reading about vibrators. I already think this feature is annoying, now it seems to be getting very TMI.
Don’t want your reading habits broadcast to everyone you know, or don’t want to know every article your friends read or Spotify song they listen to? This article is a handy guide to eliminating social news apps from your life.
More From Consumerist
-
"Cocktail Party Animal" Sues Bar For Serving Him Booze & Severing His Finger While Bouncing Him
-
Kate Spade Store Demands Proof I Didn’t Steal My Wallet Before Repairing It
-
Oh, What We Do For Love: Apple Repairs Have Cost American Consumers $6 Billion Since 2007
-
How Retailers Can Turn Your Complaints Into Clothing You’ll Actually Buy
-
Facebook’s Huge Announcement Is… A Search Engine
Perhaps she was just interested in the Sex and the City connection?
Why wouldn’t you want to know your female friend is reading about vibrators?
This was my first thought. I’ve never met a man who wouldn’t want to know this intel.
Captain Tightpants?
Kayley: “Been mor’n a year since I had anything twixt my nethers wern’t run on batteries.”
Mal: “I can’t know that!”
“I could stand to hear a little more.”
Heh heh. Best comment of the day so far.
+1,000 ‘shiny’ pieces
I’ll be in my bunk.
Kayley is awesome.
…and somehow, even hotter in Stargate: Atlantis.
What if it’s his sister?
Maybe he lives in West Virginia
Maybe it was on Grandma’s facebook page.
Maybe he’s gay, or hey, maybe he just happens to be a mature, post-pubescent adult who isn’t sexually interested in every female friend he has.
I’ve noticed this “like” and Facebook feature on porn sites as well. Who wants to announce they are looking at porn?
Amazon.com also has a facebook announcement; do you really want everyone of your friends to know you bough a flesh light?
I suppose with the porn, they are just doing it because they can, and it doesn’t cost them anything. There are some skeevy people out there who would do that.
It also provides for an amazing prank opportunity for any friends that don’t log out of facebook. Not that I would know…..
Side Note: At one time (and maybe still), if you went to like the World of Warcraft box set page on Amazon, “Users who bought this also bought:” and then a row of various fleshlights, horse masks, etc.
It was a gift!
is her b-day coming up? maybe it’s a hint.
I don’t mind the trending article feature, but I’d really prefer it if it were somehow tailored to my interests. If only there were some way to track those, and tailor content to my preferences…
I mind that if one friend reads an article it’s called “trending”. That’s ridiculous.
I start the conversation off with “The real thing is better, do you want me to cum over and help you??”
A couple nights ago I was watching a movie, I belive it was on AMC, and one of the commercials shown was for a vibrator being sold by Trojan.
It was truely a “wait, what?” moment if there ever was one. lol!
I don’t sleep much, so I’ve gotten used to the euphemism filled “personal massager” commercials on late night tv.
Well I normally don’t watch any tv programs without recording them on my dvr so I can skip commercials but I was messing around on the computer this night so I only was sort of half watching tv but having never seen a “personal massager” commercial on tv this really got my attention.
the one where the hair is all blown back? or the one with the couples talking about how fun it was?
There may even be one that is both.
The Oatmeal sums that terrible horrible no good very bad idea up perfectly.
http://theoatmeal.com/pl/state_web_spring/yahoo
I want to eliminate every social app and game.
I hate “reader” apps. I just wind up googling the titles if there is something I am interested in, because my friends/family/internet pals don’t need to know every single thing I am reading. if I find it interesting enough to share I will link it on my own.
I think The Oatmeal said it perfectly. http://theoatmeal.com/pl/state_web_spring/yahoo
Me too. The only app I ever used was a WordPress one that posted my blog posts on facebook, but it is acting nutty so now I just link to them manually.
Hurrah for blocking those annoying apps! I also block the apps that other people are using from appearing on my wall by moving my mouse over the right hand corner of the post, clicking on the little down arrowhead that appears, and selecting “Block all from “.
If you’re interested, there’s a bunch more tips on generally securing your facebook profile & infromation here: http://www.techalberta.ca/tips-lock-down-facebook-profile/
What annoys me even more is that when you see one of these news stories that you want to read, you can’t get to the site directly by clicking on it. The only way to read the story via clicking the link is if you activate the social reader app for yourself, which I have ZERO interest in doing. So if it looks worth my while, I have to google the article title. Silly complaint, but poor design as well.
Some of the Reader Apps will let you click through to read the article without installing the app. The Washington Post app will allow it I know (not sure about Yahoo)
You have to find the “No Thanks” link (which is small as it can get) when the install page comes up
Copy the headline and google it.
http://failblog.org/2012/04/26/funny-facebook-fails-failbook-its-almost-as-if-facebook-apps-should-be-less-obnoxious/
Facebook has been doing this lately and it’s sick. I keep telling people to leave. Zuckerberg has lost his mind. Use Google plus people.
As I learned a couple days ago, Ghostery is a Firefox user’s… well, maybe not BEST friend, but the friend who’d offer to help you move and wouldn’t complain when your dresser scratches his car. That add-on stops sites from asking you about their social reader and swats down almost everything else that’s trying to track and monetize you.
I was bothered enough seeing my portrait under news stories in facebook-linked commenting systems that I completely relegated facebook to incognito browsing windows. It’s an annoyance to login every time I want to use the social network but something I’m more than to put up with. I think I’m going to have to start doing the same with google, too, after I started seeing frighteningly targeted ads (a google search once popped up an ad for viscometers a couple weeks after I looked up brookfield’s spindle chart. I found it creepy.
How about not using Facebook altogether? Learn that there’s rally more to life than talking to others in the nether world.
“Hi everyone. I took a fabulous dump this morning and wanted you all to know.”
Talk about becoming a world of juveniles. I ceased using FB quite some time ago, and any sites that require I DO use it become sites that I DON’T use.
Whenever you read an article via Facebook for any particular news site, a popup comes up that gives you the option to choose who can see that you’ve read any particular item from said news site. You can simply change this option to “yourself”. Very easy.
This is how I discovered some of my male friends enjoy reading about girlie things like astrology and supermodels.
That said, you have to agree to allow the application to display that you’ve read / commented on it in your feed. If you’re stupid enough to not read something and agree to it.. yadda-yadda-yadda.
Presto – you are now a spokesperson / free ad about a secret and embarrassing product. Hope you Mom, boss, brother, sister and co-worker are all proud!
More and more, I’m finding reason to “Like” the fact that I don’t do Facebook.
Get a life people.