Facebook Apologizes for Year In Review App
So...yeah, Facebook's Year In Review app for 2014 has had a bit of a backlash. And not without reason.
The app, which gathers pictures from 2014 and sets them to the caption, "It's been a great year! Thanks for being a part of it," came under fire when one man was confronted by the reminder that his year has been far from great.
Eric Meyer, a web design consultant and writer, lost his daughter to brain cancer on her sixth birthday earlier this year. The preview for the "Year In Review" in his feed featured a photo of her in happier times. While this could be poignant, and could even be considered a good memory once the immediate trauma of her death has passed, the photo here was instead a tragic reminder of all Meyer has lost -- at a time when he's still processing his grief. Meyer's pain prompted him to voice his opinion on the app in a blog post, dated Dec. 24:
"For those of us who lived through the death of loved ones, or spent extended time in the hospital, or were hit by divorce or losing a job or any one of a hundred crises, we might not want another look at this past year."
Facebook eventually responded through Year In Review product manager Jonathan Gheller, who apologized on behalf of the company for the pain the app caused Meyer.
"[The app] was awesome for a lot of people, but clearly in this case we brought him grief rather than joy," Gheller admitted, stating that Facebook would take Meyer's words into consideration for next year's app.
Ultimately, I'm a bit divided, if only because I'm not sure how Facebook can overcome claims of insensitivity with the app without eliminating encouragement to try it from everyone's feeds altogether. And maybe that would actually be for the best. While the Year In Review app is perfectly fine for those that want to take a look back, Facebook should simply leave it to users to seek it out if they wish to use it, as opposed to having it advertised in their feed with a random picture from the year, which might drudge up bad memories. This just seems like a case of good intentions gone awry. Hopefully, next year's app is advertised with a simple notification (text only, no preview photos), in order to avoid having this sort of thing happen again.
But what do you think? Sound off in the comments!
Credit: Facebook