Facebook: Society’s Biggest Villain
How the social media platform meant to make connections took a turn in a negative direction.
While I hate to admit this, my morning routine looks like this: I open my eyes, reach to the left, grab my phone, and open Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook- in that order. Social media is my “morning newspaper” not only keeping me updated on what’s going on with my friends and family, but local and world news. While Mark Zuckerberg surely didn’t have intentions of these apps becoming a news source, there is no denying that sharing news has become it’s prime tool. I could post something on my story right now and reach people I don’t even know without needing to source my information and hope it spreads far enough before being taken down, IF it gets taken down- which is where the issue lies. A few days ago I woke up to the news that Facebook is changing its corporate name to Meta, and considering the PR nightmare they’ve been living in for the past few years I think it was a great first step towards truly rebranding… I hope.
I always feel hypocritical talking about the negatives of Facebook and Instagram considering I am a super user with my average weekly screen time ranging from 12 to 13 hours with my most used apps being Instagram and Facebook. However, while I love the opportunities the platforms have provided for creators and brands of all sizes, Facebook has converted from a way to connect and express to a way to manipulate. I think the big question that needs to be answered is how to balance the good with the bad while giving everyone equal access to the platforms. This also raises another question: Should everyone have equal access to the platforms? Let’s take a look at what Facebook has done so far to answer these questions.
The Issues At Hand
Data
Ultimately, Facebook has lost many users’ trust when it comes to their data and privacy. Looking at the Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal, the data analytics firm that worked with Donald Trump’s election team and the winning Brexit campaign harvested millions of Facebook profiles of US voters, in one of the tech giant’s biggest ever data breaches, and used them to build a powerful software program to predict and influence choices at the ballot box. Not being an expert in political or technological jargon, it’s difficult to understand what exactly is going on with these issues making it difficult for me to trust them.
As transparent as Facebook tries to be, I can’t help but feel lied to not knowing what’s going on behind closed doors. After reading whistleblower Frances Haugen’s report on Facebook’s lack of effort and blatant disregard for fighting the spread of misinformation, it opened my eyes even wider to the fact that there are things that they can do that they simply aren’t. It seems to me that they’ve become greedy to the point of no return considering Frances explained that after working for other data driven companies including Pinterest and Google, she determined Facebook’s practices were unprecedented. While I do appreciate Facebook’s latest efforts to hide false content behind warnings, much more can be done.
Cyber Bullying and Hate Speech
Another issue that Facebook is the culprit for is cyber bullying and hate speech. This has been an issue for quite some time, considering I wrote an article in high school about fights on Facebook heating up among classmates and making its way into the classroom. While researcher Laura Edelson noted that misinformation spreads 6x faster than factual information, what I think needs to be looked into is the rate at which posts with hateful comments and engagement spread versus positive posts. The saying goes “any publicity is good publicity”, and in Facebook’s eyes this holds true if you look at it as “any engagement is good engagement” because ultimately if they see users are engaging with your post, they are more likely to push it out to reach a larger audience.
Let’s take a look at Instagram’s latest feature, Reels. I personally post reels about 3 times a week because it’s the best way for my content to spread. However, something I noted is that my videos with 500k-1 million views have a common theme- they are flooded with global hate comments. It’s gotten to the point where when I begin to see people comment negative things on my videos, I know it’s likely going to get the most views. While I want my posts to reach a large audience, it comes at the expense of negative things being said about me which in my opinion is not a fair trade off. I don’t take these comments personally, but everyone is different and I could definitely see how someone’s mental health could be negatively affected by it. TikTok is quick to ban accounts and remove videos that are reported as harassment, maybe Facebook will have to follow their lead to get this under control.
Next Steps
While this is a blog post that could go far beyond 1,000 words, these are just a few of my opinions on the current issues surrounding the negatives of Facebook. It’s difficult for me to offer a solution to these problems because I’m not sure what could be implemented on a global or even national scale without taking away from the positive aspects of the platforms when used correctly. I think the shift to focusing on virtual reality and the metaverse could help reinforce their original brand mission of making connections near and far. I for one am a huge fan of the Oculus VR headset owned by Facebook, however knowing this is just the beginning of this new era of technology, I hope we can trust them to put this on a positive path to creating a happily connected world.
