Newsfeed management can enable users to express their preferences through a combination of revealed preferences and declared preferences
Authored By:: Rob Haisfield
Newsfeeds are an intervention to distribute an infinite quantity of recent information
Usually, social media newsfeeds use your revealed preferences to construct an algorithm that will keep you looking for longer. It might do this by looking at what you like and comment on, or by what you look at for extended periods of time. However, by solely interpreting revealed preferences, you can end up with noisy algorithms or showing the user information that isn’t in their interests. For example, I may look at a tweetstorm that enrages me, but I don’t want to see more of that. Or I might click on a trending topic to realize what it’s about but then realize that it’s not of interest, but the algorithm just knows I clicked on it. My behavioral signal is being misinterpreted.
Ideally, there is some way to also express declared preferences. For example, as I’m going through a newsfeed, I can click on a tweet and say “see less like this.” Or I can use the tools that the algorithm has for revealing my preferences intentionally. User behavior within a well-designed choice architecture can be a signal of preferences.
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