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Dearest readers, I know I know- another social media related post. It can't be helped though- it's winter time here in Canada and that usually means more indoor time and more screen time for many people, myself included. It's still a good idea to talk about Facebook in 2019 because it's a platform with an inverse issue of the one YouTube has. Facebook content creators (and advertisers on the platform) are the ones who are much happier about the platform, and it is the consumers who are sounding alarms about Facebook's privacy "scandals" and questionable data brokerage practices. Now, don't get me wrong- I think the issues are real and Facebook has to do something about them. However, the slew of clickbait articles on people massively signing off Facebook does not contribute to a useful, productive debate. This is a huge problem. Facebook is a publicly traded company whose shares are parts of investment products and might be tied into many people's retirement savings, especially in North America. Also, it is a huge employer, especially of high tech workers. Not only that, but it also allows many legitimate small businesses to bootstrap their marketing initiatives, get noticed and get sales so they can become profitable and successful, as other more mainstream advertising methods may be prohibitively expensive for many of them. Finally, as a huge corporation, no matter how many tax loopholes it finds, it still pays out a lot in taxes which are used for all sorts of social programs. That is why I would like to go over a typical article that carries the clickbait narrative of top ten reasons not to use Facebook, and deal with it from the perspective of an informed, resilient consumer who wants a Facebook debate, not a shutdown.
The original article was posted on Psychology Today in January, and you can read it here. Now, let's go over the ten points and comment or do a rebuttal, where appropriate.
1. Fake news. The article mentions fake news are a big problem on Facebook and they're just...so...distracting. Yet, fake news have other names- rumors, trolling, etc. These and other names have been invented before Facebook was even a thing, which means that many of us are used to it by now and don't find them so distracting. Also, when you look at legit news, there are issues there as well such as clickbait, bias, poor sources and other problems that pop up. Bottom line, Facebook is not a news outlet so get a news app, select good sources, and if something sounds too outrageous and you actually care about the article, do your research before you share it with people. Problem solved.
2. Overload. The author complains there are just too many notifications. Here, we run into the problem of relying on the vanilla Facebook experience. This happens with social media platforms, smartphones, computers and so on. Whenever you get on a platform or you get a new phone, even with a busy lifestyle you have to do your best to go through all the settings, learn what most of them do, and customize the experience to fit you better. Now more than ever, platforms like Facebook enocourage you to do so. You have to take the vanilla experience and make it your own; that includes limiting notifications.
3. Feeling blue. The author mentions a study, hinting it's not the only one, which concluded people who already feel down feel even more depressed looking at others' happy or fun picture and video posts on Facebook. This, in itself, is an individual problem, not a platform problem. When you feel down on your luck or depressed over something, you don't have to get on Facebook to see someone feeling happier than you or doing something better than you. You get that basically anywhere around you. Besides, don't we already know that people typically try to post happy and cool stuff happening to them while keeping private every negative thing they're going through? This is what we do in real life as well, starting with someone asking you "How are you?" and you answer with "Doing all right." even when that's not the case. If you see a Facebook post of someone having fun and don't realize they also have sad and dark moments, they get sick and die just like you and me and everyone else, then you may need to do deal with this cognitive issue.
4. "Thin content. Lots of the content on Facebook is quite thin. How important is it for you to see your second-cousin’s kid standing in front of a limo before prom? Or another duck-face selfie?" This I had to quote directly. If this is your Facebook experience, it has been customized that way by you as the user, and then fuelled further by the algorithms. Facebook tried to take some noise away and prioritize your personal connections over business and organization organic reach, did a good job at it, but it's still about two things. One thing is all about the diversity of your Facebook friends. Tired of seeing one and the same thing from just about everyone? There's a possibility you created an echo chamber for yourself on Facebook, and you can get out of it by friending people from different walks of life, countries or life experiences than your core group. Another option is to also control how many updates you are getting from people, and warn or (if all else fails) unfollow people who bombard you with pedantic stuff that you're getting tired of. Simple as that.
5. Creepy advertising. The author complains about targeted advertising and worries about a potential lack of anonimity over data Facebook collects about its users. While this still has to be investigated and debated, businesses have been using data about consumers to tailor their products and services for a long time now. For example, my local grocery store is part of a chain, yet it has a trimmed down, tailored selection of grocery items that is the result of analysis as to what sells better or worse and what consumers in its local area most likely want. That's targeted, tailored offers! They took information on what all of us shoppers in the area near the store buy most of all, and made a decision. Facebook takes that to the next level, thereby stretching business' advertising dollars and giving the little guy a fighting chance too. Also, here's a truism. Businesses have to advertise and they want to know what you want. Tell them, because every pay day you're the king, and they compete for your dollar. That shouldn't make you feel powerless- quite the contrary!
6. "Extra time. The less time for Facebook, the more time for real life activities, including studying, exercising, hobbies, and hanging out with friends in the flesh." This point is ridiculous and a truism. You could say the same about YouTube, Twitter, cable TV, video games and so on. This falls under the issue of balancing your daily activities. It is not a productive line of discussion to make this a Facebook problem.
7. Privacy. Yep, privacy scandals. This is a valid point so I'll give the author credit where credit is due. However, this falls under the bigger conversation about all the social media platforms out there that make money off of ads. By not using Facebook but still using YouTube, you are simply picking one company over another, yet both sell your data to advertisers. A much more important thing to ask yourself is whether you would want all the free, ad-supported services you use to set up a subscription model and you pay for it. If the answer is no, stay on Facebook because if you're not ready to change how you pay for a service, don't expect the service to change how it charges you either! Another major point to debate is whether consumers are getting enough back for offering their data. With Facebook, you get your own personal website of sorts, you get chat, games etc, but Facebook is making so much money off of your data that they can afford not only to offer you the products and services you use, but to also buy companies for astronomical sums of money (Instagram), get into VR (Oculus) etc. At this point, it feels they should give us users some sort of an additional kickback because our personal data is far more valuable than we realize!
8. Relationship killer. A couple does not need to browse Facebook to think they may be able to do better than who they're currently with and then feel bad about the relationship. Meeting a better couple or going through a rough patch routinely does that too. If you are consistently using Facebook to seek out better partners than the one you have right now, accept it's time for counselling, spicing up the relationship or parting ways.
9. Losing appeal to millennials. Here, the author claims that Facebook is losing appeal with millennials because their older relatives are getting on it more and more. I'm not sure the author realizes that millennials also include people who are as old as 38! People who are 38 won't stop using Facebook just because their mom starts using it too!
10. Living vicariously. We do this anyways through movies, reality TV, porn (haha)... In fact, I think we live vicariously more through YouTube and Instagram these days than we do through Facebook.
In the end, dearest readers, what you do or don't do with Facebook is up to you. I hope this article makes you think about how to structure an opinion on it and social media in general because it is becoming an integral part of our society. Is Facebook really a menace, or is it what you make of it just like anything else in life. Should we vote to have it go away forever, or should we have a healthy debate on the ways in which it has to change? You decide.
Dearest readers, I know I know- another social media related post. It can't be helped though- it's winter time here in Canada and that usually means more indoor time and more screen time for many people, myself included. It's still a good idea to talk about Facebook in 2019 because it's a platform with an inverse issue of the one YouTube has. Facebook content creators (and advertisers on the platform) are the ones who are much happier about the platform, and it is the consumers who are sounding alarms about Facebook's privacy "scandals" and questionable data brokerage practices. Now, don't get me wrong- I think the issues are real and Facebook has to do something about them. However, the slew of clickbait articles on people massively signing off Facebook does not contribute to a useful, productive debate. This is a huge problem. Facebook is a publicly traded company whose shares are parts of investment products and might be tied into many people's retirement savings, especially in North America. Also, it is a huge employer, especially of high tech workers. Not only that, but it also allows many legitimate small businesses to bootstrap their marketing initiatives, get noticed and get sales so they can become profitable and successful, as other more mainstream advertising methods may be prohibitively expensive for many of them. Finally, as a huge corporation, no matter how many tax loopholes it finds, it still pays out a lot in taxes which are used for all sorts of social programs. That is why I would like to go over a typical article that carries the clickbait narrative of top ten reasons not to use Facebook, and deal with it from the perspective of an informed, resilient consumer who wants a Facebook debate, not a shutdown.
The original article was posted on Psychology Today in January, and you can read it here. Now, let's go over the ten points and comment or do a rebuttal, where appropriate.
1. Fake news. The article mentions fake news are a big problem on Facebook and they're just...so...distracting. Yet, fake news have other names- rumors, trolling, etc. These and other names have been invented before Facebook was even a thing, which means that many of us are used to it by now and don't find them so distracting. Also, when you look at legit news, there are issues there as well such as clickbait, bias, poor sources and other problems that pop up. Bottom line, Facebook is not a news outlet so get a news app, select good sources, and if something sounds too outrageous and you actually care about the article, do your research before you share it with people. Problem solved.
2. Overload. The author complains there are just too many notifications. Here, we run into the problem of relying on the vanilla Facebook experience. This happens with social media platforms, smartphones, computers and so on. Whenever you get on a platform or you get a new phone, even with a busy lifestyle you have to do your best to go through all the settings, learn what most of them do, and customize the experience to fit you better. Now more than ever, platforms like Facebook enocourage you to do so. You have to take the vanilla experience and make it your own; that includes limiting notifications.
3. Feeling blue. The author mentions a study, hinting it's not the only one, which concluded people who already feel down feel even more depressed looking at others' happy or fun picture and video posts on Facebook. This, in itself, is an individual problem, not a platform problem. When you feel down on your luck or depressed over something, you don't have to get on Facebook to see someone feeling happier than you or doing something better than you. You get that basically anywhere around you. Besides, don't we already know that people typically try to post happy and cool stuff happening to them while keeping private every negative thing they're going through? This is what we do in real life as well, starting with someone asking you "How are you?" and you answer with "Doing all right." even when that's not the case. If you see a Facebook post of someone having fun and don't realize they also have sad and dark moments, they get sick and die just like you and me and everyone else, then you may need to do deal with this cognitive issue.
4. "Thin content. Lots of the content on Facebook is quite thin. How important is it for you to see your second-cousin’s kid standing in front of a limo before prom? Or another duck-face selfie?" This I had to quote directly. If this is your Facebook experience, it has been customized that way by you as the user, and then fuelled further by the algorithms. Facebook tried to take some noise away and prioritize your personal connections over business and organization organic reach, did a good job at it, but it's still about two things. One thing is all about the diversity of your Facebook friends. Tired of seeing one and the same thing from just about everyone? There's a possibility you created an echo chamber for yourself on Facebook, and you can get out of it by friending people from different walks of life, countries or life experiences than your core group. Another option is to also control how many updates you are getting from people, and warn or (if all else fails) unfollow people who bombard you with pedantic stuff that you're getting tired of. Simple as that.
5. Creepy advertising. The author complains about targeted advertising and worries about a potential lack of anonimity over data Facebook collects about its users. While this still has to be investigated and debated, businesses have been using data about consumers to tailor their products and services for a long time now. For example, my local grocery store is part of a chain, yet it has a trimmed down, tailored selection of grocery items that is the result of analysis as to what sells better or worse and what consumers in its local area most likely want. That's targeted, tailored offers! They took information on what all of us shoppers in the area near the store buy most of all, and made a decision. Facebook takes that to the next level, thereby stretching business' advertising dollars and giving the little guy a fighting chance too. Also, here's a truism. Businesses have to advertise and they want to know what you want. Tell them, because every pay day you're the king, and they compete for your dollar. That shouldn't make you feel powerless- quite the contrary!
6. "Extra time. The less time for Facebook, the more time for real life activities, including studying, exercising, hobbies, and hanging out with friends in the flesh." This point is ridiculous and a truism. You could say the same about YouTube, Twitter, cable TV, video games and so on. This falls under the issue of balancing your daily activities. It is not a productive line of discussion to make this a Facebook problem.
7. Privacy. Yep, privacy scandals. This is a valid point so I'll give the author credit where credit is due. However, this falls under the bigger conversation about all the social media platforms out there that make money off of ads. By not using Facebook but still using YouTube, you are simply picking one company over another, yet both sell your data to advertisers. A much more important thing to ask yourself is whether you would want all the free, ad-supported services you use to set up a subscription model and you pay for it. If the answer is no, stay on Facebook because if you're not ready to change how you pay for a service, don't expect the service to change how it charges you either! Another major point to debate is whether consumers are getting enough back for offering their data. With Facebook, you get your own personal website of sorts, you get chat, games etc, but Facebook is making so much money off of your data that they can afford not only to offer you the products and services you use, but to also buy companies for astronomical sums of money (Instagram), get into VR (Oculus) etc. At this point, it feels they should give us users some sort of an additional kickback because our personal data is far more valuable than we realize!
8. Relationship killer. A couple does not need to browse Facebook to think they may be able to do better than who they're currently with and then feel bad about the relationship. Meeting a better couple or going through a rough patch routinely does that too. If you are consistently using Facebook to seek out better partners than the one you have right now, accept it's time for counselling, spicing up the relationship or parting ways.
9. Losing appeal to millennials. Here, the author claims that Facebook is losing appeal with millennials because their older relatives are getting on it more and more. I'm not sure the author realizes that millennials also include people who are as old as 38! People who are 38 won't stop using Facebook just because their mom starts using it too!
10. Living vicariously. We do this anyways through movies, reality TV, porn (haha)... In fact, I think we live vicariously more through YouTube and Instagram these days than we do through Facebook.
In the end, dearest readers, what you do or don't do with Facebook is up to you. I hope this article makes you think about how to structure an opinion on it and social media in general because it is becoming an integral part of our society. Is Facebook really a menace, or is it what you make of it just like anything else in life. Should we vote to have it go away forever, or should we have a healthy debate on the ways in which it has to change? You decide.