Controlling for Facebook
We’ve been observing an interesting trend in digital inclusion recently: more and more people who are comfortable using Facebook but rarely ever access any other part of the web.
It’s not just Good Things Foundation who have noticed this. Lankelly Chase have observed it too and research in Indonesia and Nigeria found that while people said they didn’t use the internet, they’d talk enthusiastically about using Facebook.
From in-app browsing and shopping to ordering a taxi or pizza through Messenger, you can do a lot on Facebook these days. But just because someone has a smartphone doesn’t mean that they can write a CV or apply for a job online. Similarly, someone might be on Facebook, but they’re not necessarily getting the most out of the web.
As my colleague James Richardson puts it, when we’re measuring digital capability
“We need to control for Facebook…”
…or we get a skewed picture of exactly how much a person is getting out of their online experience.
I decided to put this to the test and see exactly how many of Tech Partnership’s Basic Digital Skills can be covered off from inside the Facebook app. Here’s how it went:
1. Managing Information: Find, manage and store digital information and content
Yes — with Facebook’s search and upload capabilities, this is pretty self evident.
Safety, covered in all of the basic digital skills is a big thing here and the jury’s out as to whether Facebook does enough to protect users and their identity. Bigger ethical questions aside, prompts like this remind people about how to keep Facebook secure (and easy to go back to).
2. Communicating: Communicate, interact, collaborate, share and connect with others
Ditto with this — it’s kind of the point of Facebook. It’s Messenger service has 1.2bn monthly users.
3. Transacting: Purchase and sell goods and services; organise your finances; register for and use digital government services
The one area where Facebook fails to deliver — but only partially. Yes, you can buy and sell…
..and you can book your travel…
…but while in-app browsing will take you to a GOV.UK website, help you pay your rent or link to your online bank, you can’t yet transact directly through Facebook.
4. Problem Solving: Increase independence and confidence by solving problems using digital tools and finding solutions
Yes — I can learn how to make a cake….
…and consult various user groups with different experiences and opinions.
5. Engage with communities and create basic digital content
Creating posts and photo albums was what Facebook was built for — go wild.
There you have it: Facebook covers almost all the bases when it comes to basic digital skills. The gaps — and they’re big ones — are managing you money, though rumours of ‘a Facebook wallet’ crop up every now and then, and interacting with government services which isn’t available yet, in the UK at least. What happens if/when that does become available is a discussion for another day.
Technically then, you can cover most basic digital skills through Facebook. But asking someone whether they’re online because they use Facebook isn’t enough.
Just because they’re a Facebook user, doesn’t mean they’re a confident user or taking advantage of everything within the app. For some it might nothing more than a messaging service. For others, Facebook is the internet — and we should treat it like that, judging a person’s digital skills by the extent of use of the platform and not just of the platform itself.
