Exactly what the title said. Facebook has introduced a brand new feature, that will allow you to follow topics rather than pages. The feature is available as a “Topics to Follow” box in the news feed and you can chose to swipe through topics of your choice and follow any of them.
Options include heater, Horror Movies or Photograph. As soon as you tap Follow over any of these particular themes, you will be brought to a dedicated feed that consists of a slew of pages publishing about a topic. So think about it this way: If you are into horror, you will b taken to a page that consists of horror-ry stuff from all over Facebook. Sweet, right?
Speaking with The TechCrunch, Facebook said:
We’re testing ways for people to subscribe directly to topics in News Feed so they can see more stories about topics they like. In addition to following specific Pages, this is a new way to follow the general topics you’re interested in.
If it is undergoing tests, then there really isn’t any guarantee of whether or not it will get a wider roll out. If the feature is found to be useful, it may be introduced globally and if it isn’t, it ay be scrapped altogether. Now, Facebook also appeared to have carefully toed the line on what topics were allowed. I mean stuff like Taxes, and Terrorism, or Trump did not found a mention.
Which brings us to Facebook bubbles and how the new feature could puncture them, if allowed to run unchecked. We ae often surrounded by people who share the same wider world views as ours. This new feature could ensure that we are able to receive views from the other side of the fence as well. Zuckerberg had talked about the importance of doing just that earlier:
Our goal must be to help people see a more complete picture, not just alternate perspectives . . . We must be careful how we do this. Research shows that some of the most obvious ideas, like showing people an article from the opposite perspective, actually deepen polarization by framing other perspectives as foreign.
I mean true, not everyone takes positively to views opposing their own. But regardless, they need to be aware of everything that is taking place — and not just one side of the coin. The new feature could well help them out there.
