Facebook and the Fence Post

The Washington Post in big bold headline type says, If you use Facebook to get your news, please — for the love of democracy — read this first.

For the love of democracy? Please. We don’t have one of those. Never did. Never will. But that’s another story and another myth. As the article points out, most know that you don’t see everything that your followers post on Facebook. More to the point, most know that what you see reflects your likes, your tastes, and apparently your politics, now that Facebook is in the news business. Or rather, now that some news organizations are in the Facebook business.

The issue isn’t that legions of Facebookers will only see their opinions reinforced through their feeds, thus somehow skewing some result in an election. Whatever comfort humans have taken in segregating themselves into like-minded camps began long before Facebook, and will continue long after Facebook. (Yes, there will be a day without Facebook.) Facebook is no different than the Post, the neighborhood diner, the coffee shop, the fence post, the water cooler, or anywhere else opinions are shared. Like minds gather and like each other’s minds regardless of what ticks inside them. Like minds make like-minded mistakes and like-minded good moves. Sometimes the hive is a good thing, and sometimes not. (Thus no democracy.)

But the algorithms goof as much as humans do, no matter what the math geniuses tell you. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t have to be tweaked. Unless, of course they get tweaked to create a desired outcome. But that’s another far less innocent story.

Those who seek to think for themselves, albeit an ever-decreasing minority, will seek out multiple sources and opinions. Facebook, as big as it is, is just another billboard in those cases. For the rest, Facebook, like other sources, offers just enough solace to know there are others out there who think like they do. Makes it easier to turn out the light and charge up the smartphone at night on the way to dreamland.

Too many too often want to avoid complexity. They seek a world that thinks like them, looks like them, worships like them, purchases like them, etc… Friction via complexity is tough. If Facebook offered friction its demise would be sooner rather than later. Why not go someplace where not only everyone knows my name, but also thinks like I do? Breaking news. We do this already without Facebook.

The moral to that story and the fallacy of the Post article is this: If Facebook and its self-serving algorithims were really such a threat, watering holes and coffee shops would only offer one brand of beverage.