Emily Steinke | @emilygsteinke Facebook updates, they’re hard to keep up with!  The most recent change Facebook is making involves the News Feed.  In the past older posts tend to stay at the top for a while.  To address that issue Facebook is updating the News Feed algorithm.  The goal of this?  Facebook hopes to show the right content at the right time.

How will this benefit me?  I mean, this does seem like something they should have already have!  Well, essentially this will connect what’s happening in the here and now.  Whatever’s popular amongst your friends, whatever you’re talking about right now will all be connected.  It’s all based on likes and comments, but in the short it’ll keep you involved on what’s happening now (aka “Trending Topics”).  Hopefully it’ll prevent leaving you from being behind the curve our out of the loop.

Why is Facebook making this change then?  We live in a very connected society, where news spreads like wildfire.  Facebook hasn't said explicitly why they chose to do so, but speculation surrounds the Ferguson, Missouri protests.  During the protests twitter became the go to medium for this this event, since it kept in time with what was happening.  During that time Facebook was swamped with Ice Bucket Challenge videos.  FB executives though, don't find that necessarily to be a negative thing.  Twitter is more of a hard news based medium, whereas FB focuses more on the "fluff" content.  This way though, the same idea of what twitter does can be applied to these situations.

How do you think this new additive will fair? We’re curious about your insight, so let us know below!  Happy Facebooking.