Is the Limitation of Facebook can solve the Existing Social Media Problems?
Internet and social media
The internet and social media have brought several positive impacts on the global economy and human relations. It has enhanced communication through reliable avenues such as emails, instant messaging, and others. The internet has enabled fast and reliable interactions, especially for business, saving on time. Conversely, the social media avenues have been used as intermediaries for perpetuating societal vices and negative behaviors that jeopardize how people relate in everyday operations. Suggestions are put forward to attempt to counter the adverse effects of social media use. Breaking up Facebook’s dominance cannot be a lasting solution to curbing the wrongful uses of social media. Instead, censoring the entire internet would be more impactful.
Is Facebook doing well?
Facebook is just one among many social media platforms such as Instagram that provide even better communication services. Facebook is considered a socially unifying factor that converges people across the world and from different sectors. Currently, Facebook’s users account to up to two billion people globally, with divergent age groups and social-set ups. Indeed, the platform act as a unifying factor that brings people together and helps them share opinions. Disbanding Facebook will lead to a shift to other platforms such as Twitter or Whatsapp, which widely used currently. However, the problems associated with the internet will remain intact and unsolved. Terminating Facebook is, therefore, not an effective solution to the social media evils.
However, Facebook has a weakness since the control panel team has less control over individual posts. The issue again raises controversies about whether censoring the entire internet would be more efficient than just breaking Facebook’s dominance. Censoring the internet means that every information or content posted is first verified and accredited after confirmation. If the step is adopted, social evils such as ethnicity, enmity, political rivalry, and others will be curbed because an individual’s account will be confirmed and any biased or morally decayed content eliminated.
Additionally, according to Swisher, Facebook has abused its superior competitive advantage and monopoly benefit to wiping out smaller competing firms. Also, Facebook has eliminated potential competitors by using their immense amount of data and money. For instance, Facebook managed to acquire Instagram and the Whatsapp Messenger social platforms in 2012 and 2014. Also, Facebook employed underhanded tactics to eliminate Snapchat by copying their products regularly. In line with Swisher’s argument, it is indeed clear that Facebook has acted ill in trying to outdo the other social media platforms to maintain dominance. Instead of conducting research and remaining innovative, Facebook aims to acquire other players in the market. Facebook users should be ceased to eradicate the wrongful use of social media.
The internet environment needs to be changed
From the discussion, Facebook plays a critical in relaying information from one end to another. However, its use has been abused over time, leading to unwelcome social media effects. The debatable topic of whether breaking Facebook’s dominance would be a solution remains unsupported and void of rational implications. Terminating Facebook would only lead to individuals shifting either Twitter, or Whatsapp, and other platforms but will not curb the effects. It is sensible to censor the entire Internet rather than concentrating only on Facebook.
