Did you poke someone this weekend?

Fully Charged

Hi all, it's Eric. Did you spend the long weekend Facebooking like you used to? Did you return to the Facebook of yore when you'd write on friends' walls, tag dozens of photos downloaded from an actual camera, and toggle your relationship status? Did you poke somebody? That's basically what the company wants -- a return to the good old days, back before the social network was a political punching bag, back before anyone branded Facebook a media company. Late last week, Facebook Inc. said it wanted to bring people closer together. "Today we use signals like how many people react to, comment on or share posts to determine how high they appear in News Feed," Adam Mosseri, head of the News Feed, wrote in a blog post. "With this update, we will also prioritize posts that spark conversations and meaningful interactions between people." Columnist Farhad Manjoo compared it to putting "carrots and kale and broccoli in the cookies." (In his metaphor, Facebook has been giving away free cookies and now you need to eat your vegetables.)  More pictures of your friends' dogs and wedding announcements, less fake news -- or real news for that matter. That'sworrying for the BuzzFeeds of the world. Facebook shareholders think it is bad news for them too. The company's stock fell 4.5 percent on Friday after Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg posted the plan on his personal page. It's easy to see why. Reading between the lines, it seems like Facebook is going to stop chasing engagement for engagement's sake. The company is starting to realize that if people spend hours on Facebook and then regret it, that's bad long-term -- even though it means more dollars this quarter. It's a smart move, but we'll have to see if it works. I do believe that Zuckerberg doesn't just want to eke out every dollar he can from Facebook. If he's finally convinced Facebook is having a more negative impact on society, I can see him wanting to change course. At the same time, I think Zuckerberg has long understood the appeal of a steadily rising share price. It's not just a matter of money in his pocket: it also means happy employees with valuable stock awards. The challenge will be weaning itself -- and investors -- off the metrics that have illustrated Facebook's success thus far. Facebook still talks in the same inhuman language of "signals" and "reach." It spent years getting Wall Street comfortable watching a steadily rising alphabet soup of engagement stats. Yet, Facebook has known for months -- maybe even years -- that fundamentally what matters is that people feel good about the time they spend on the social network. Will the company be able to convince investors that's how it should be measured now -- on feel-good factors? How will that work? Will veteran leaders, like Mosseri and Chris Cox, who dragged the company away from its friends-and-family roots, be able to get it back? Will Zuckerberg be willing to depress the stock for the betterment of billions of users? Stay tuned -- but not on your News Feed because the story probably won't show up there anymore.

Here’s what you need to know in global technology: All companies are tech companies now. That means more conflicts of interest. Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter Inc.’s Jack Dorsey are stepping down from Walt Disney Co.’s board amid increasing competition between media and technology businesses. Jeff Bezos gets philanthropic. The Amazon.com Inc. CEO donated $33 million to support undocumented students who are in the U.S. under the country's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy.  Fingered as fake. Alibaba was cited again as a marketplace for fakes on a U.S. blacklist, another sign of increasing tension between the U.S. and China. A big, new augmented reality player? Amazon is actively exploring headset technologies, though a launch may be years away.  Anyone there? One of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges was down for hours on Friday and its clients were freaking out. It was back online by Saturday.   @TicToc by Bloomberg: 24/7 news. Streaming LIVE on Twitter.