In Defense of Facebook (Sort Of)

Anyone that regularly reads this blog knows that I have luke warm feelings about social media in general, particularly Facebook.

We now know because of pressure from Special Counsel Robert Mueller that Mark Zuckerberg and his executives stonewalled and outright lied that they didn't know that false stories dressed up as news were being circulated on their platform during the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign and that a fair amount was immenating from Russia and it's satellites, all at a profit to Facebook.

There's a reason Mark Zuckerberg is a billionaire, aside from the grossly bloated value of Facebook's stock, the platform is now reaching two billion people worldwide and growing. Zuckerberg's mentor and original investor has sounded an alarm concerning Facebook's behavior and business model, he has been joined by a former Facebook manager and a former Google executive in saying that Facebook needs to clean up it's act. They are not alone, many in Silicon Valley are saying the same thing. Zuckerberg refuses to take his former mentor's phone calls.

Zuckerberg has said his goal in 2018 is to see Facebook refocus on it's original mission of being a place for personal sharing and to cut back on the ads and push campaigns which yields the company a lot of money. Really? What company has ever risked it's stock rating by saying, no no, we're making too much money, let's reduce our bottom line. He has sugggested getting out of the news business. This of course is Zuckerberg's great hypocrisy. When Facebook was being criticized about all the fake news stories on it's platform, he countered with the defense, "we're not a news service", this in spite of the fact he's on record as boasting about how important they are in delivering the news.

The critics are warning that Facebook is doing great harm to society globally by fostering extremist political views based on false information being shared. There is no doubt that Facebook has the ability to identify suspicious players who are paying to use the platform. But exactly what can they do about those two billion users? The spreading of lies is squarely on the shoulders of the average member that doesn't want to take the time to see if something they're sharing is true or not. They don't bother because the information fits their own viewpoint and if it's false they don't care. Multiply that false share by millions per day and you have nonsense absorbed on all sides and zero dialogue because any attempt to point out something isn't true simply devolves into a hyena pack attacking the person trying to point at that simplest of things, the truth.

In many ways Facebook is an ugly reflection of society itself. With the exception of a few hobby groups, honest and respectful exchanges of ideas is non-existent. Users politically divide up into their comfort zone and stay there. I often overlook blatant falsehoods because I've learned that more often than not my attempt to correct an error is met with at a minimum, "so what, it's still true," and at the most the hyenas emerge.

I've unfollowed "friends" and in extreme cases unfriended members. Facebook is heavily used as a marketing tool by many, which is absolutely fine, it's also why you can expect very little change from Facebook's core business model. As a writer I have used my Facebook page to promote this blog, it has helped very little. You can also create other pages. I was unfamiliar with exactly how these worked so recently I created one for kanesrealm, however, I immediately began getting pressure from Facebook to "boost" my posts for a fee, it was incessant and I deactivated the page before I ever launched it to my "friends" to like it.

There is psychological data showing that Facebook is addictive, that users frequently check it throughout the day, in search of that quick high from a "like". Based on my own experience, I'd have to say it's true. I've left it twice and I've only been a member since the summer of 2016. Perhaps the third time will be the charm, or maybe I can simply stay off it without deactivating it. I truly find it lacking in real value to my life, I had hoped it would be, but intellectually I have a hard time justifying being a member of something so utterly devoid of stimulating contact and calling someone a friend whom I will never meet and in reality do not know.

If I were famous or even broadly known for my writing I would absolutely have a presence there but as a guy just looking for a little brain wrangling, not so much.