What Does Our Future Hold?
Within platform cooperativism, where is the line drawn between ethics and profit?
Today’s shift into exploring a sharing economy has saved a number of money and resources, while starting new relationships between people all around. We are fortunate enough to have the tools today to expand this economy across the globe, simply through our daily products such as our phones or the internet. To share is to take a portion of what you have and give it to others, an act of kindness. This can range from sharing your home to a joke you had recently heard, and with the help of technology today you can share with plenty of people.
Specifically, Facebook has allowed us to share so much with so many people. With one click, you can share an article, photo, video, or idea to the world. Just recently, Facebook had made a new feature widely available to its users: Facebook Live. Facebook Live is another posting option, and is just as easy to post. When on Facebook, the user will simply see a live video icon and when Facebook users click on it, they’ll be taken to a screen where they can write a description and select their audience before going live. Once they are ready to start broadcasting, the users just need to simply click ‘Go Live’. Thus, with just one click your current experience can be forever shared with 1.5 billion people.
However, this isn’t just a tool for friends and family. Businesses find this feature as a way to share behind the scenes footage, live events, product demonstrations, or company announcements- aka a way to make money. For years, companies have been looking for ways to attract people to live online videos or reach them on their mobile devices, and Facebook Live is their answer.
The New York Times provides an article written by John Herrman titled “Facebook’s Live Video Effort Entices Media Companies”, that explains the relationship between business and Facebook’s new feature. Giving an example, Herrman explains Brad Nitz’s, a meteorologist for a local television station, experience with Facebook Live. One day, he turned away from the usual camera and used Facebook Live to share live video updates on the station’s website (Herrman). After that, the station’s social media manager watched this new Facebook audience swell. The stream reached 8,800 viewers at once, and the segment was played more than 77,000 times in total- far more than the station’s average online audience (Herrman). Successes like this have lead to the many questions focusing on how this feature could make big bucks.
This feature is great for both the family and friends aspect as well as businesses, but will Facebook make this a fair share? These big businesses have the money to advertise their Facebook Live shares, so will Facebook favor them when it comes to this feature? Technology holds great power, and is moving so fast. It’s also neither good, bad, or neutral. Technology is what we make of it. The future holds great potential, and, one day, maybe we will see if there is a line drawn between ethics and profit.
