Social Media is Playing You!

The year was 2004, I was starting my first year of college and had been an avid MySpace user for quite some time. For all my Gen Z’s reading, MySpace was pretty awesome. MySpace was an online social media platform where you could meet up with friends, demonstrate how “unique” you were and share your most recent taste in music. In fact, if you went to someone’s page you would be attacked by the music because their featured song would automatically start playing for your enjoyment. If you were a little bit tech savvy with HTML you could do all sort of things with the background and various add-ons. It was awesome, but around the year 2004 it was about to get demolished by a competitor.

Facebook came out of literally nowhere, and what started as a college student’s only platform, by 2006 was open to anyone 13 years of age or older. Facebook started out the way most other social media platforms started, but in order not to die off the way MySpace did, Facebook had to evolve and start generating revenue. When revenue is the focus then the customer is the focus and don’t go lying to yourself in thinking you are Facebook’s customer…

Facebook, along with most other social media giants, have a huge customer base of advertisers that need you to buy things. Facebook sells your data and your browsing history to the highest bidder in order to get the products you are likely to buy, placed right into your newsfeed. Additionally, any manipulator world-wide pretty much has the ability to polarize your views on any given topic and you appear to not care. As with all businesses Facebook is A) Trying to turn a profit and B) Looking out for their clients.

Is it Facebook’s fault or is it your fault?

According to Gallagher, Schomer and Tran (2019), the outrage felt by the Cambridge Analytica scandal was very short lived as Facebook Daily Active Users (DAUs) only dipped in the US & Canada in Q4 of 2017 and went right back to normal by Q1 of 2018. What should have been catastrophic for Facebook turned out to only be a blip when your user base demonstrates a total lack of concern. It seems that the public has made the decision to keep feeding the Facebook beast regardless of a lack of ethics and this beast is huge. According to Gallagher et al. (2019) a potential case for antitrust exist as 60% of total global digital ad spend is directed toward the duopoly that is Google + Facebook.

Since the evolution of social media has caused a great shift away from the public that these platforms serve and into the arms of the companies that pay to manipulate us, how should we respond? According to Lanier (2019) we should do two things. In the short-term Lanier suggests that we log off. We should shut-down until these companies respond to the users. In the long-term Lanier suggests that we should understand that these services should work from a subscription based model, reminding us that if we aren’t the real customer then our needs will never be the focus. If you want to avoid the brainwashing you currently receive and enjoy social media for its original purpose of connecting humans, then you have to present yourself as the customer and be willing to pay the fee.

References

Gallagher, K., Schomer, A. & Tran, K. (2019) Top 10 trends in digital media. Business Insider Intelligence Report. BI Insider.

Lanier, J. (2018) Why you should delete your social media accounts. TRT [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J1MIDTi9h8

Dr. Rick L. Mask, 32, author of Social Capital 2.0, received his Doctorate of Business Administration from the Department of Business Management at Capella University. He holds a Master’s Degree in Education from Bethel University and is currently continuing his educational journey by working toward an MBA in Economics from Southern New Hampshire University. He has held various leadership positions in the banking and retail industries as well as various positions in the education community. Dr. Mask is currently an Associate Dean for SNHU, an adjunct professor, speaker and small business owner. Dr. Mask is also a philanthropist who is actively involved in volunteering and donating to charitable causes. In his spare time, Dr. Mask likes to attend mentoring events, through his partnership with LinkedIn, spend time with his family, and enjoy the outdoors through hunting and fishing.