Except this one only really matters to me.

I was using Facebook, as you do, to waste time while I decide whether I want to get up and be productive or just sit there and watch YouTube. And the FIRST thing I noticed was that the notification icon was no longer a little box-thing with lines on it, but was now the YouTube Notification Bell… or just a regular bell.

I then proceeded to notify my friends of the drastic changes being made to Facebook:

Followed by what many might describe as my inner monologue going insane:

It was after these posts that I decided to open up Facebook in a different browser. I wanted to see if there were any changes that might be specific to my current browser (Chrome) which may not have been given the “OK” to make live to everyone else. So I opened Facebook in Edge and good golly Ms. Molly did I see a difference.

Do you see it?

(Click on the picture to see it bigger. That’s not a demand, it’s just an option. Sorry I yelled at you…)

The colors of the Facebook page are different in Chrome than they are in Edge. And quite frankly I like the colors in the Edge browser a lot better.

I began to wonder why this is. Does it have something do to with the rendering engines? Does Facebook actually change the style sheet depending on the web browser?

Personally I think the colors in Edge are much more vibrant. The color of the blue menu bar at the top of the page in Chrome was always a little drab to me. However, that same bar has a much brighter shade of blue in Edge. It’s more lively. Not quite a beautiful, summer-sky blue, but at least a nice color of… something… else blue… that’s pleasing.

And the background color of the page in Chrome is almost a concrete color. It’s sort of a beige gray. But in Edge it’s another shade of blue, but a very, very, very light bluish-gray. It just makes the page stand out.

It feels more… happy.

Wait…

[Conspiracy Alert!]

Remember how Facebook was apparently choosing to show people different types of post to see if the posts could elicit an emotional reaction? You don’t? Well, let me explain it very simply:

Facebook targeted sad posts at you to see how you would use Facebook. Then they targeted happy posts at you to see how you used Facebook.

Maybe they were trying to see if social media had any affect on people so they could curb online addictions and keep people in a good state of mental health. Or maybe they wanted to confirm that being mad, sad, angry, or bitter made you use social media more (to vent or just to drift away into a digital world full of kittens and fail videos). I don’t know what the study was about, nor what they found, nor what punishment they were given for essentially treating all their users like lab rats.

What I DO know is that the colors of the Facebook page are obviously different in Chrome than they are in Edge. This is two different browsers on the same computer monitor at the same time. I’m looking at the exact same page on the website.

Perhaps…

no… could it be…

Facebook is targeting colors at different Internet users?

Think about it: who uses Chrome? NO! Not everyone. C’mon, be serious. People who think they know better use Chrome. People who actually know better use Firefox. Older people who use whatever came on their computer (unless they have a kid or grandkid who think they’re God’s gift to Tech Support) use Edge, if they have a newer computer with Windows 10. And I guess everyone else uses the app.

So, maybe the colors of the Facebook page in Edge are bright and vibrant because that keeps the old people thinking this is a happy, fun place. That must mean it’s hip and cool.

And the colors in Chrome are a little more drab because the previous generation ruined everything, cause economical disasters, won’t stop eating cows, put us in debt for life, blame us for being lazy, and generally set us up for failure. This is the real world, people!

And then Firefox… OK, I really did ALMOST install Firefox on my computer just to see if there was any difference. But I didn’t. Because, honestly, I was more concerned about being silly than doing that much work. I already edited those pictures, what more do you want? Extensive research on a topic that literally only me and you care about?

-Diggs out

P.S. – That one was almost scientific. Almost.

P.P.S. – get off my lawn, whippersnapper.