Here’s How Facebook Watch Is Going To Switch Up TV

Beginning Aug. 10, Facebook will roll out yet another new feature — however, this one is 100 percent going to change the way we use the site, and maybe even the way you watch TV. And, once you understand how to use Facebook Watch, you'll understand why it's the perfect next step for the company. If you think about it, you probably spend a lot of time watching videos on Facebook. You have a few spare minutes and you're just scrolling through your newsfeed, and then all of a sudden a half hour has gone by and you've watched a video of a dog that can't catch food that's being thrown at it about three times and you don't even remember why you went on Facebook in the first place. Was it to catch up with your friends? Was it to watch videos? For a while, the line's been blurred. But now, Facebook wants to help us stay organized while on their site, while giving us more content at the same time.

Facebook Watch is the company's first official step towards becoming a viewer's network. They've created a "Watch" tab that's going to be the new hub of all things motion content. There you can find a personalized mix of things to watch, only. The content will be divided by things that will make you laugh (videos that have received a lot of laughs), videos that your friends are watching, and things that a lot of people are watching and live and recorded videos. The content will also be broken down into interest categories so you can find what you want. Imagine the TV guide channel, but a lot more intuitive: that's how organized the content will appear and that's how you'll use Facebook Watch.

You'll also find content that's been produced solely for the platform. For example, one show I'm looking forward to is called Returning the Favor: It's a series hosted by Mike Rowe (the Dirty Jobs guy) in which he finds people doing something extraordinary for their community, tells the world about it, and in turn does something extraordinary for them. The people he chooses are nominated by Mike’s fans on Facebook. So, the content is totally geared for and by Facebook. It's all meant to be interactive, with comments always enabled. It's basically like watching TV and getting a chance to talk to it, if you think about it. Which is basically a lifelong dream of mine, so I know I'm going to be using the platform quite a bit.

I'm also looking forward to seeing what kinds of things the content creators in my network make. It's cool to learn more about the people you already know by the content they put up. Who knows, maybe I'll even make my own videos! For now, Watch will only be available for a limited group of people on the U.S. but it will be opening up to more people soon. Keep a look out for the "Watch" tab!