So THIS is why Facebook is so into greeting you all the time

Has anyone noticed that lately Facebook seems to be getting a bit more personal than usual? In fact, it’s almost like the social media network is pulling a HAL (raise your hand if you’ve seen 2001: A Space Odyssey!), communicating with us as though it, too, were a sentient being rather than a web of lengthy, complex code. Rather than the immediate rush to see our newsfeeds, Facebook has begun to “greet” its users, with a Good Morning or Good Afternoon, suggesting that we enjoy our Facebook for the day. But why the change?

Well, it seems less and less users are posting to FB these days (and with all the potential drama that lies within, like when the Who Deleted Me? app was released and then subsequently halted by the Facebook police, can you blame us?), therefore causing folks to spend less time there in general. This of course means less money for Zuckerberg and crew. Now, team Facebook is working on new ways to get folks to engage. It’s the reason why they started that whole “On This Day” feature that so many of us like (nostalgia is a big draw for our generation). The current greeting campaign is being met with mixed results:

So what’s next for Facebook’s scheme to get us to scroll through the newsfeed even longer? Maybe they’ll finally add that “dislike” button folks have been jabbering about for the past decade. Maybe they’ll improve their “lists” to make it easier to filter out content we don’t care much for. Maybe they’ll make it illegal for parents to friend their kids (doubtful, but that’s why we’ve got Twitter and Instagram). For now, enjoy FB’s impression of Jim Carrey in The Truman Show.

Images via Shutterstock; sherlynn58/Tumblr