You may not have noticed it but in one week of January 2012,Facebook skewed your News Feeds to either make you happier or sadder than normal.
The number of positive and negative comments that users saw on their feeds of articles and photos was altered. People shown fewer positive words were found to write more negative
posts, while the reverse happened with those exposed to fewer negative
terms, according to the trial of random Facebook users.
Researchers analyzed the words used in posts to automatically decide
whether they were likely to be positive or negative, and shifted them up
or down according to which group users fell into.
Since there are an average of 1,500 possible stories that could show up on a user's News Feed at one time, Facebook uses an algorithm that it says
analyses users’ behavior on the site to determine which of those
stories to show
It found that
emotions spread across the network, and that friends tended to respond
more to negative posts. Users who were exposed to more emotional posts
of either type tended to withdraw from posting themselves.
The experiment was carried out on almost than 700,000 Facebook users. Anyone who used the English version of Facebook automatically qualified for the experiment.
The data showed that online messages influence readers’ “experience of
emotions,” which may affect offline behavior, the researchers said. Some
Facebook users turned to Twitter to express outrage over the research
as a breach of their privacy.
The research has drawn criticism in that Facebook could use the research to encourage the users to post more and by government agencies to manipulate the feelings of users in some countries.
There have been also criticism also on the legality of this experiment. However Facebook Data Use Policy(part of Terms of Service that you agree to when signing up),reserves the right for Facebook to use information
“for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis,
testing, research and service improvement.”
According to the researchers this constituted the informed consent to conduct the research hence legal'
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