I think they say that there are over 2 billion active users, people who looked at it int he last month. That's over a quarter of the world's population. it would be an understatement to call it influential.
I saw and enjoyed the movie The Social Network, had a friend at Harvard a few years before and when I asked him if it was accurate, he said yes, we were in fact that dorky as a group.
One thing I learnt from watching it is that while founder Mark Zuckerberg was admirably depicted as a cunning and able problem solver and creative mind, the movie made it plain he wasn't above being amoral and manipulative. If he wasn't so successful, we would be focused on his lawsuits and stolen ideas like we now are with Rockefeller or Carnegie's misdeeds with family, pollution, and the Pinkertons to name a few. Why would his company be any different.
I got into facebook so late it is laughable. I only have an account because I publicize a few businesses through it, and I caught up in about the last two years doing what people have been doing with it for decades.. seeing which cute women they went to school with are single again, and which ones have gotten fat, gone downhill, or became people you don't want to know anymore. Zuckerberg knew it was about sex from the beginning, and it still kind of is, as much as it's still the best place to advertise a town meeting or church mixer as well. it's a fascinating little world if you think about it, the things that exist in it side by side.
But back to the manipulation, the one thing that has become clear to me is that he plays games with subtle things to make me want to be addicted, to want to spend money with them, and to want to press more buttons on his page. Facebook manipulates my behavior! while it's seen by many as this kind of benign public service, I keep seeing craven behavior, but I feel a bit like William shatner in the old twilight zone, with the gremlin eating the engine on the wing. I see it only occasionally, and I feel like no one believes me! And there is no way off the plane if I want to keep pushing my business!
This is what I see it doing, and i'm told these are adjustments to algorithms:
When I make a move towards buying advertising, it stops giving me any positive approval, for days... facebook shuts down good things happening to me, or informing me of them, until I start spending money. It's like a casino manipulation.
Facebook gives me disapproval with the little red numbers telling me I have things I need to do ( like answer messages that aren't really to me, or don't require answers, so I can keep my li'l quick response badge!)
Facebook also uses that same red number disapproval to make me click buttons as if there are new things there, when there aren't.. keeps actions on the page high for Mr. Zuckerburg to claim he's still running a successful business.
Facebook pushes me to be more successful at producing attractive things by limiting who of my likers get to see things.. I've rarely produces something so exquisite all of my likes got to see something I posted, so I don't have access to all the people I even paid to get to like my page. I have to earn the right to speak to them every time, and usually, due to their algorithms, I am just talking to the same 30 or so people who are already loyal to my business. So even though Facebook was the hot place to spend money on marketing a few years ago, it's just making an echochamber of approval for me, keeping me in a bubble unless I boost a post. So it's making all my efforts ineffective on purpose unless I pay money.. nothing is guaranteed with facebook.
It's an endless round of approval from those you care about, but you aren't reaching anyone new!
Facebook bought Instagram when it was hot and appear to be doing the same thing with it, creating an echochamber but not really letting you spread your message the same way.
If your friends acted like this, suppressing your message, would you still be friends with them? Maybe just in that Facebook friends kind of way...?
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| Mark Zuckerberg is messing with you! |
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