In Brief

• The Facts:

  The way people get news these days is changing. Facebook is no longer a viable option to learn about current events and news, as publishers have been shut out of the newsfeed.

• Reflect On:

  Have your habits been to get all of your news from Facebook? If so, switch it up and subscribe to mailing lists. Or better yet, go to websites directly to get your news.

If you have been an avid reader and supporter of Collective Evolution over the years, then you may have noticed how drastically our reach has dropped. Do you see new article posts from CE on your Newsfeed on Facebook? The chances are relatively slim, as Facebook has essentially cut down all organic reach for sites and pages like ours, all in the name of preventing “Fake News.”  But in reality it’s to push brands to pay for content boosts.

Is This Censorship?

Imagine this, a brand works for 8 years to build up a following. Facebook encourages that brands do this and give them tools to do so. Then one day facebook simply shuts off access to that following. This is the reality of what has happened.

After seeing countless alternative and conscious media pages shut down or lose all their reach, that is, the ability for their followers to actually see their posts, it doesn’t take much to see that what is actually happening is a mix of Facebook needing to make more money via advertising and censorship of certain voices.

Many pages within this realm have even been “unpublished,” with no real explanation from Facebook as to why. These are pages that have spent years building up their platforms interacting with their followers and building a community. All that effort just to be kicked to the curb for no real reason?

Sure, many blame these types of news sources as the reason why Trump was elected… Oh God, how on Earth could we have ever let that happen? It must’ve been the FAKE news. Since then it seems this social media platform has decided to take matters into its own hands and decide for us what type of content we should be consuming and block the content that doesn’t fit into its political agenda.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some sites out there posting complete and utter nonsense, but shouldn’t we be giving people a little more credit here and trusting that they are capable of discerning fact from fiction? Why should it be up to corporations such as Facebook to decide for us what is fake and what is not especially when we know that most other major corporations have their own agenda to push?

The Silver Lining?

Maybe Facebook thought okay, we will censor the type of content people are seeing and infiltrate their newsfeed with so much mindless crap that they will lose the desire to seek their own news and do their own research. Maybe they thought that we would just accept this and eat what was being spoon fed to us. But here’s the thing: the truth will always prevail. People are walking away from Facebook en masse, and it’s just a matter of time before this platform begins to crumble even more.

Many of us, however, have gotten very used to opening up Facebook, scrolling through the newsfeed and expecting to see the latest from our favorite pages and people who we follow, but this is no longer the case. So, if Facebook isn’t going to give us the news we really want to see where can we get it?

Where To Get Your News

Visit Websites Directly – Don’t rely on social media anymore. Take the time to go to websites you love directly, as this will ensure you see the content.

Bookmarks — This is one very simple and effective way to ensure that you are getting the latest news from all your favorite websites, such as Collective Evolution. This is what many of us did before Facebook took over pretty well everything on the internet. You simply visit a page you enjoy, select the bookmarks tab in your browser and add the site you like. When you feel like reading some content or seeing what’s up on your favorite sites, simply click on the bookmarks tab and take your pick. This is super simple and would easily allow you to opt out of Facebook more often.

Mailing Lists — Ah, yes, the dreaded mailing list — stick with me here. Subscribing to the mailing lists from your favorite sites could ensure that you are getting the latest content sent directly to your email, every day for your convenience. Many sites offer this feature, and because we recognize the value of our subscribers, we do not send any spam. Every email is sent with intention, be it new content, or exciting offers for our loyal followers.

RSS Feeds — These are great, you can use sites such as Feedly to select all of your topics of interest and directly add the sites you enjoy from there. Each day, the list will show you the latest and/or most popular content from your favorite news sources.

Other Ways To Stay Connected

Be sure to keep up with new content on YouTube and maybe even Twitter to continue seeing the news that you actually care about, rather than what Facebook seems to think that you should pay attention to or care about. Not all of the content presented by Facebook is crap, by the way, but a large portion that is being presented is generally about things that really serve no purpose to humanity at this time.

Scrolling through Facebook waiting for the next thing to catch your interest is basically the equivalent to flipping through channels on the television. Find your own content, according to what you are interested in. Unsure of what you’re seeing? Do your own research! It’s up to us to ensure we aren’t just rolling over and letting big corporations with their big agendas dictate our lives. Time to rise to the occasion, take matters into our own hands and rise above!