Where did those posts go?

A reader has noticed something annoying about Facebook:

“I find it interesting is that if I go into my FB account and see your post (and others) — even if I don’t read it or click on the link — and log off FB and go back in a few hours later, those posts that I previously saw are gone. Can you explain?”

You aren’t the only one that finds that interesting. Most of us find it irritating! I know I do. And your feed doesn’t just change a few hours later. What’s displayed can change in minutes.

For example, I’ll log onto my account and look at the first 10 stories displayed.  The first post is from my friend Karl, followed by an ad for a furniture store, a post from a podcast page I follow, a recent post from my friend Chris, a recent post from my friend, Susan, an ad for Target, a post from a decluttering group I’m a member of, a recent post from my friend Eileen, a post from Facebook showing me a popular viral video, and a recent post from my friend Sarah. I did not click on or interact with these posts in any way.

I’m going to navigate away from Facebook and immediately return. My top 10 posts now are a completely different post from my decluttering group, an ad from Walmart, a recipe from Martha Stewart, a second recipe from Martha Stewart, a recent post from my friend Karla, a post from a writing group I belong to, a third recipe from Martha Stewart, a second post from the writing group, a recipe from Bon Appetit, and a post from my friend, Pam. It just a minute, Facebook must have gotten the idea that I’m pretty darn hungry.

So why do the posts change? Facebook doesn’t show you everything posted by your friends or pages you follow. They don’t even show it to you in chronological order. Sometimes news stories won’t pop up until three days after they were first posted. Why? Because Facebook uses a complex formula to determine what it thinks is relevant to you. This may or may not have anything in common with what is actually relevant to you. And once you’ve scrolled past a post, as far as Facebook is concerned, you had your chance to read it, so you’ve seen the post. The more you like or comment on posts from friends or pages, the more likely they are to turn up in your feed. Those posts haven’t disappeared, you could still go to your friends’ pages or pages for news outlets or businesses to see posts you’ve missed.

But honestly, that can be a giant pain, since Facebook could be showing you a month old post because someone you know commented on it. One option you have if you pass an interesting post but don’t have time to read right now is to save the post.

There’s a three-dot icon in the top right corner of each post. Click on it.

Choose Save from the drop-down menu.

To find saved posts, look on the left side of your Facebook feed on your browser. It’s located under Explore. You’ll probably have to hit See More to find it.

You’ll find all of your saved posts here.