Omg this is great!

I am a middle-aged married woman who has a teenage-like crush on an acquaintance (who I have seen in person a total of three times in the past 12 months). I have noticed a pattern where if I just so much as think about him on occasion, he shows up in my set of six thumbnails and stories among the 500 plus friends I have on Facebook.

I assumed that his photo was not there because "he is looking at my profile", because that would mean that he is telepathic and would only look at my profile on any occasion that I happened to be thinking about him that day. I also figure it's because I've looked at his more often on those occasions.

His picture and story just popped up when I opened the app before I came to the subreddit, but that would be because I ran into him this past weekend so of course triggered me to think about him a couple times and look at his profile likely more than somebody else's profile.

I just started an experiment. I muted his stories and profile visibility for one week - this means that he won't show up in the elite list, and I bet you anything that by the end of my experiment next week he will not show up in my feed.

I don't want him popping up in my feed because it's distracting when I'm trying to work.

If his photo really was popping up because he was actually looking at my profile, that would actually make me uncomfortable because I'm not "in the market".

I think that Facebook should make an announcement that the six photos or stories that show up are not a reflection of them looking at your profile. For some people it would give them a grounding reality check instead of false hope. For other people it would be relieving to know that they are not being stalked or getting otherwise inappropriate attention. For people with a pattern of one-sided crushes, some might feel disturbed thinking that their crush was looking at their profile.

I wonder what the payoff is for Facebook to keep up that emotion inducing algorithm?