Social Media News South Africa

FB's year in review not for you? You're not alone

NEWSWATCH: Fox8 reports that Facebook has apologised to at least one person over the design of its Year in Review feature. Yes, for realsies...

Facebook just wouldn't be a good marketing company if it didn't hop on the bandwagon and take advantage of certain time-based events to get its users clicking away.

Screenshot of what my Year in Review closing shot would have looked like. Note the celebratory dancing folk above my head - they're not optional.
Screenshot of what my Year in Review closing shot would have looked like. Note the celebratory dancing folk above my head - they're not optional.

Unfortunately, its latest innovation has more than a few Facebookers complaining. The 'year in review' feature, aptly timed for the end-of-year work lull, lets you customise a quick overview of your year in photos and status updates to sum up your 'great' year. But it hasn't been a good year for many. There's always going to be death, illness, heartbreak and more to bring the overall cheer of a year to a crashing halt. Of course you can elect to delete the specific images and status updates you don't want to include - or better yet, don't post the 'year in review' feature at all. But it's the design that's got people hot under the collar.

Seemingly innocuous clip-art type pics of 'Fall leaves' may not gel well when the associated photos are of all manner of Spring things in the Southern hemisphere, but the unfortunate placement of celebratory items like balloons and streamers around bad news items is even worse.

And Facebookers don't just take this with a pinch of salt and ignore the feature. Oh no. Instead, Fox8 reports that some users are so upset by the feature that they've asked Facebook for an apology - luckily Facebook has complied. Perhaps they'll put more thought into the design next time round...

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About Leigh Andrews

Leigh Andrews AKA the #MilkshakeQueen, is former Editor-in-Chief: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com, with a passion for issues of diversity, inclusion and equality, and of course, gourmet food and drinks! She can be reached on Twitter at @Leigh_Andrews.
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