> I logged on for the first time in ~8 years
That's the problem. Your friends and liked pages have all moved on and aren't posting anymore. The algorithm has no idea what to show you.
FWIW I don't use Facebook actively but do log in once in a while, mainly for marketplace and neighborhood groups. And a ton of my friends are still active there (might be giving away my age). The first post on my feed not from a friend is at #14, and it's a clip from a comedian, so content I don't mind. Then one at #18, which is an article posted by a local newspaper. Further down at #25 or so from the onion. Keep scrolling I see New York Times, Gothamist, Subway Takes, Cracked (that's still around?), WTA. Overall my feed is almost entirely posts from my friends from the last week or relevant news, and I see zero AI slop or other posts of the kind that are in the article.
So basically - it's all about the algorithm and your connections. A "cooked" product doesn't make a trillion dollars every quarter.
> The algorithm has no idea what to show you.
If you run into somebody you don't know, your first instinct shouldn't be to start showing them porn.
I don't use Facebook but I do use YouTube and their recommendations are horrendously bad for me. So many AI videos.
For some reason last night it thought I wanted to see bogus videos of porch pirates stealing a package that's actually a glitter bomb. I clicked through to the comments and the top comment was something like "Who are these AI videos for?" and the response was something like "Me. I know they are fake but I like seeing thieves get what's coming to them."
Mike Judge is a prophet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWfOMeLk6m0
Facebook still knows what websites you've been visiting, even if you haven't logged in for eight years. The Facebook Pixel tracks page visits, and it's easy to join your Facebook account to your browsing history if you ever log into any website using your email address. Assuming you are usually using the same computer or IP, the user profile could be pretty detailed. It's actually surprising they don't do better here.
This could be, but the complaint about Facebook has always been people are posting but the feed won't show them posts from friends