What was once a truly dynamic platform that allowed people to build useful social networks and promote their companies has now turned into a saccharine community messaging board manipulated by algorithms designed to sell you things Facebook believes you are interested in. From a user's perspective, the social media outlet is getting worse and worse.
Ever wondered why you see an ad on Facebook that seems to be calling your name?
Perhaps you need a new pair of running shoes and have just been talking to a friend about it. Then an hour later you see an ad for a pair of running shoes on your Facebook feed. Yes, this could be a weird coincidence, but in the world of Facebook, there’s no such thing as coincidences - just deliberate and intentional actions, all in the name of profit.
Facebook used to be all about connecting with your nearest and dearest. These days, though, it’s more about Facebook wanting to connect with you as a commodity for data mining. The level of privacy that they violate in exchange for you to access the app is, in a word, disturbing.
The algorithm that they configure to target you as a consumer and the way these ads follow you no matter where you are on the internet is a serious cause for concern.
Every time you log onto Facebook now though, you're shown a conversation from a day or two ago by a friend you may have briefly interacted with over the past week that you have absolutely nothing to do with. You're shown random posts that are not in any sort of chronological order that you're not interested in whatsoever.
All the sites and pages you follow in no longer show up on your feed (unless you've interacted with it in the past week or so), and you're stuck scrolling through your feed to dig for something, anything, that you're vaguely interested in. This isn't a knock on any of your friends, but you rarely see anything they post because they are all experiencing the same thing you are and have left the social network in favor of, well, anything other than Facebook.
Facebook continues to condone paid ads with political leanings that will pop up in your feed, regardless of whether the information you read is true or not. Fake political news is nothing new, but the fact that Facebook now encourages it for profit is a sign of the times, and a disturbing premonition that democracy may be on its way out.
We now live in a world where money = power, but it’s nothing new. Based on history, it was only a matter of time before Facebook got too big for its own good and decided to exploit its powerful position as one of the biggest social media websites in the world.
Clearly, Facebook has put money over morals and decided to throw ethics out as a result. They care much more about making a profit than keeping your information private and only seem to be interested in spearheading the data revolution, where you’re much more of a commodity than a human being with a profile page and real connections with other people.
So, if you want to keep your personal information safe from being mined by greedy companies, and you want to stop supporting the dark side of the free market, maybe you should quit Facebook for good.
It may feel like you’re powerless to such a giant and that you don’t have a choice, but the reality is that you do. Facebook is only as good as its users, and the fewer users it has, the less power and control it has as well. The fact is, people are leaving facebook in droves already.
Boycotting Facebook is the only way to send a clear message that, as a society, we still value morals over money and expect companies, no matter how powerful, to conduct themselves accordingly.
Facebook may see you as a consumer commodity, but at the end of the day, you’re a human being that shouldn’t be forced into sacrificing privacy for someone else’s profit.
Credit: thedailybanter.com and quantummarketer.com
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