For its tenth anniversary, Facebook made slideshows for each user, highlighting their time on Facebook. These “Look Back” videos were a big hit, but some users had to see some embarrassing old photos, or status updates that were funny at the time, but now…
To help users avoid being haunted by their sordid, boring, or otherwise unsatisfactory Facebook pasts, the social network now allows edits for the videos.
To edit yours, head over to the main Look Back page. Now, next to the “Share Your Movie” button, there’s an option to edit. Users can’t just pick whatever they want from their Facebook history; there are still pre-selected photos and status updates. But now there’s a choice of photos to choose from for the “Your First Moments” section, as well as the photo grid in the background, the “Most Liked” posts, and the uploaded photos.
I tested it out, and the results are disappointing. It’s always nice to have a choice, but my choices were bizarre. Some of the “First Moment” selections offered to me were from 2012, and I’ve been a Facebook user since 2005, so clearly the algorithm is faulty. It also selected a fairly horrifying photoshopped image of Barack Obama in drag as one of my “most liked” posts (the only reason that photo was ever posted was that my college friends signed onto my account, and it was deleted immediately when I discovered it).
So, if there’s one photo that’s driving you crazy in your video, it’s worth checking out the editing feature. Just don’t get excited about swapping it out for something particular; chances are, the photo you think should be included as an option will not be.
And this is what happens when you get a thank-you gift selected by an algorithm.
