As such, we help Facebook learn by engaging with things we like - and the more we like and share something, the more of it we see. One of the many computer algorithms Facebook uses to optimize what we see online is the ‘memories’ algorithm, which presumably tries to present us with pictures from our past that we are most likely to share with others. Make no mistake, Facebook works tirelessly to steer what we see on its website. The feature helps us remember critical life events such as how many people liked our narcissistic social media indulgences and on what date we made the life-changing decision to friend someone.īut is Facebook appropriating more than just our pictures and comments, and instead actively reshaping what we remember in real life? It seems to be not-so-subtly implying that if something wasn’t posted on Facebook it may as well have not happened at all. įacebook has even taken it upon itself to appropriate the very term ‘ memory’, classifying things as ‘memories’ only if they were posted on its site.

Facebook liked the idea so much that in 2015 it decided to roll the feature out universally on Facebook, calling it On this day. The photos were from years past, of events that presumably carried some significance, and the app made them easy for us to share with our friends. It was one of the first popular social media features to give us a deliberate glimpse into our personal past by digging up photos from our online libraries. In the not-so-distant past, Timehop made social media nostalgia mainstream.

Find my memories on facebook