I Used Facebook Without the Algorithm, and You Can Too

Facebook is broken, says whistleblower Frances Haugen, who worked on the company’s civic integrity team. Haugen essentially recommends a Facebook News Feed where items appear as people post them, rather than in an order divined by the company’s algorithmic wizardry. “You can sort your News Feed to see recent posts,” a company help page says, “but News Feed will eventually return to its default setting.” To get a possibly obvious caveat out of the way: I am by no means a Facebook power user. I’ve posted three or four times a year since 2019, all of which were either WIRED stories or attempts to drum up business for my daughter’s Girl Scout cookie side hustle.