People are leaving Facebook news apps, fed up with everyone seeing what I read - Polidicks

[url]http://www.news.com.au/technology/some-things-are-sacred-fed-up-facebook-fans-flee-reading-app-in-droves/story-e6frfro0-1226352282259[/url] [quote]WE'RE happy to share status updates about our painful break-ups or intimate photos of our most private moments on Facebook. But if there's one place we draw the line it's what we read. Just look at what’s happening to the social media giant’s Social Reader app where users seem to be growing tired of having their secret reading vices made public. The service, which launched in July last year, lets users view external content - like news articles and videos - on Facebook while at the same time posting these same links to your news feed. While Mark Zuckerberg would like to think this type of sharing would be part of “enhancing” your “social experience", readers have deserted the app in droves. [img]http://www.niggaupload.com/images/DEFmi.jpg[/img] The Washington Post has experienced a massive drop off in monthly active users since launching last year. Picture: AppData It seems as we go about presenting the best sides of ourselves on Facebook, showing we really care more about Lindsay Lohan’s latest mishap than the debt ceiling is just a little too "real". The first website to test out the app - the Washington Post - has seen its numbers drop from 14 million in July last year to just 9 million this week. Worse, The Post's users are starting to filter out friends who use the Social Reader from their newsfeeds. The Guardian has experienced a 43.4 per cent drop off in monthly active users in the same period, and is down more than 2 million users over the past month. Video site Daily Motion lost almost 5 million in the same period. Digital media strategist at Sydney creative agency Text 100 Karalee Evans told news.com.au there was “definitely a degree of embarrassment around the kind of content we choose to read”. The Guardian It's official, people just don't want their friends to see what they're reading online. Picture: AppData Ms Evans said she was recently faced with a “mortifying situation” after accidentally clicking on a certain Social Reader link while scrolling through her news feed. “The link was about Kim Kardashian’s sex tape, which, hand on heart I would never choose to read,” she said. “But what I didn’t realise is that link was posted to my profile and then my friends all commented saying ‘the secret’s out, you really do consume awful content!’ I had to go into my Safari browser and delete the app from my profile before the link disappeared.” Ms Evans said she expected the dive in the Social Reader’s popularity was at least partly due to this “social snobbery“. She also said recent changes to the Facebook layout meant fewer stories were being highlighted, which may have also contributed to the drop-off. Washington Post's engagement producer Ryan Y. Kellet tweeted that moving the Social Reader links into the new "trending stories" box had limited users’ access to Social Reader content Read more: [url]http://www.news.com.au/technology/some-things-are-sacred-fed-up-facebook-fans-flee-reading-app-in-droves/story-e6frfro0-1226352282259#ixzz1uRv2muNB[/url] [/quote] I know I don't, fucking fed up with it

[quote]“But what I didn’t realise is that link was posted to my profile and then my friends all commented saying ‘the secret’s out, you really do consume awful content!’ I had to go into my Safari browser and delete the app from my profile before the link disappeared.”[/quote] Maybe Ms Evans needs to get some new friends if they care so much about what she clicks on.

I found out that I'm the only one that seems to read anything about politics and economics on these things

'Oh that looks like a neat article my friend has read let me just-' *click* *asks to install app* *blocked*

My friends all read shit from like 1998 on these things, does my head in.

It's really weird when I see people have read articles about someone being raped or something like that. How can somebody not notice they keep posting stuff like that?

Good to see I am not the only person who hates this thing. If I read something and want to share it with Facebook I'll post it to Facebook. I don't need everything I read posted, IMO its quite a breach of privacy that for some reason people knowingly agree to.

What's this? Someone read an interesting sounding article in my news feed? *copy headline and paste in google search* Seriously fuck those news apps, they are as bad as the "see who viewed your profile.exe" things

I despise these social newspaper apps. It should be completely up to the user whether or not the application has permission to post on your timeline.

[QUOTE=DarkMonkey;35898511]'Oh that looks like a neat article my friend has read let me just-' *click* *asks to install app* *blocked*[/QUOTE] this. Same reason I've never played those FB games. I dont need my friends to know what I play.

I've never allowed any of those news apps. It's just another thing to monitor who's doing what. Every time I see someone post an interesting sounding article that uses such an app (especially the ones that don't let you just not use it), I have to go out of my way to google the title of the article and go to that site that way. It's annoyingly slow when I really should just be able to click the link and start reading (like I can on any other website).

[QUOTE=Slowbro;35898520]My friends all read shit from like 1998 on these things, does my head in.[/QUOTE] This always happens, and I wonder how the found it. Who was the first person to go and read these 10 year old articles.

I've always just googled the headline and denied those apps. Not a problem anymore, I just deleted my account.

[QUOTE=Slowbro;35898520]My friends all read shit from like 1998 on these things, does my head in.[/QUOTE] The amount of times I came home after a night out, turned on the Facebook and thought Dermot Morgan had risen from the grave and died again.

I always google the articles, you can get to the exact same ones by searching

I've always avoided these like the plague. Doesn't matter what it is, if I didn't type it myself it shouldn't be posted under my name.

I don't understand what's so bad about this. It only tells people you've read the articles if you read them through facebook, and installing the app does nothing apart from let you read the articles and obviously tell people you've read them. I don't mind people knowing what I've read, it's like grabbing a newspaper then sitting in your room because you don't want no one to see it

No, this happens most for the 'TOP 5 HOTTEST WOMEN IN THE WORLD','MOST AMAZING COUNTRYSIDE', 'CUTE PICTURES OF PETS'. And then it links you to the app permission request. And they are fucking old stuff from the early ages of the internet.

[QUOTE=djjkxbox360;35900809]I don't understand what's so bad about this. It only tells people you've read the articles if you read them through facebook, and installing the app does nothing apart from let you read the articles and obviously tell people you've read them. I don't mind people knowing what I've read, it's like grabbing a newspaper then sitting in your room because you don't want no one to see it[/QUOTE] It's the equivalent of someone staring over your shoulder.

I did the best of avoiding them from the start. I know that I literally do not give a fuck about what anyone reads, so why should I share what I read? At least in the sense that everything I do read that supports the app shouldn't be fucking shared because most of the time it's just a time wasting article/gossip. If I really want to share an article, I post it or use the FB button on the site, not use the stupid FB social reader app.

I'm surprised by the amount of people that don't know that what they read gets displayed on their "friends" news feed. Some dude I know read an article about how to have better sex :v:

A friend of mines father usually reads articles about dating(he's married) and other sexual related stuff. He also viewed some kind of video about a woman giving birth(don't know why that was shared). It kinda creeps me out.

[QUOTE=markg06;35898412]Maybe Ms Evans needs to get some new friends if they care so much about what she clicks on.[/QUOTE] Coming from Facepunch, that's fairly rich.

The fact it always comes up when I want to click an interesting link. Sure, its just highlight->search on google but still. And i'd rather my friends not know what i'm reading, not because I'm reading anything bad, it's just they don't NEED to know.

I only use facebook for the chat function now, got sick of all the bullshit they keep putting on it, like anyone really wanted the stupid time line thing. The day it starts tracking what website I look at isthe day I delete my account altogether.

the most annoying part is that it shows the articles people read on your news feed but you can't read the article until you: a) give them your email address, photo and all your other basic profile information b) copy and paste the title into google morons

[QUOTE=Platinumcs;35898836] Seriously fuck those news apps, they are as bad as the "see who viewed your profile.exe" things[/QUOTE] Those things were fucking horrific, made everyone look like stalkers.

So don't use social readers. Problem solved.

I don't use any facebook apps anymore out of fear that everyone i know or don't know will see what i'm doing

For most of these I got an option to not let it post anything. I just checked that.