The Facebook Dilemma
The Facebook Dilemma
After watching this documentary in class, I was really taken back by how uncomfortable Mark Zuckerberg makes me. Something about him makes me feel like he is hiding all of these big secrets (well, that’s kind of the truth). Watching him go through investigations and questioning and seeing the sweat trickle down his face and body give me the impression he isn’t telling us the full story.
***
I have a Facebook account. My parents and close family members have accounts. My friends have accounts. We are willingly putting ourselves and our information out there for Facebook. We are bait.
***
Facebook doesn’t care about us. Isn’t that so strange to say? It’s true. Facebook doesn’t care about our privacy, our security, our safety. Zuckerberg is worth $100 million (https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-net-worth-priscilla-chan-2017-10), and his close accomplices obviously are not struggling in terms of income. They’re not really worried about small-class lawsuits. They know politicians will have a hard time opposing them because Big Tech provides them with funds to stay active on the campaign trail.
***
“Move Fast and Break Things” was Facebook’s original motto. They’ve certainly accomplished that. Facebook has taken over our world since its inception in 2004, whether we like it or not. 2.8 million people use Facebook (https://www.statista.com.). It’s hard to ignore its prevalence in our society. It’s more than a household name. It’s a lifestyle. It’s ingrained into our society.
***
Facebook is placing a choke-hold on users, especially in the United States. As stated in the documentary, there are no overarching regulations in the United States regarding privacy. That’s terrifying. Why do we trust these companies with our photos, videos, and lives (practically!) while they sit back and manipulate our data for their own benefits? Again, political leaders have a hard time bringing these issues up because Facebook supplies them with funds.
***
It was also extremely interesting to learn about the Arab Spring movement that was started on Facebook. I was young at the time and remember nothing about the movement. In that sense, Facebook was a perfect medium for people to connect. The platform allowed for a fast spread of information over a short period of time, which is what they needed. Of course, this led to polarization and increased violence. Wael Ghonim, who organized the revolution, became a target on the platform. Ghonim spoke at a TED conference and brought up the idea of changing social media and the way we share controversial or political information. He realized that if he posts something that gets a lot of controversial views, angry comments, and is one-sided, it’s more likely to be prevalent through user's algorithms.
***
Instead, Ghonim suggests a different approach, saying “what if we put more focus on quality? What is more important: the total number of readers of a post you write, or who are the people who have impact that read what you write? Couldn't we just give people more incentives to engage in conversations, rather than just broadcasting opinions all the time? Or reward people for reading and responding to views that they disagree with?” (https://www.ted.com/talks/wael_ghonim). I think this idea is fantastic. We should not be so sheltered in what we take in from social media. We need to have a variety of information and promote civic engagement. I’d recommend this TED Talk to everyone.
***
Another aspect that I found interesting was that no one was a “culture police” within Facebook’s headquarters. Facebook chose to be very ethnocentric when dealing with issues that arose in other countries. Instead of utilizing people from other countries (who know and understand their own culture!) to deal with issues on the platform involving those said countries, Facebook simply used its own employees, who were riddled with ignorance.
***
This documentary opened my eyes to the dark side of Facebook. While the app is an incredible way to stay connected with others, I need to make sure that I am maintaining awareness when it comes to the app.
Sources
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/facebook-dilemma/
Comments
Post a Comment