Just recently CNN has published an article about the possible new feature of Facebook. The article called “Facebook testing disappearing posts” discusses the possibility of users adding an expiration date or time to a particular post. With the success of Snapchat, which allows users to post photos, videos, and texts to sooner be deleted (matter of seconds); other social media platforms are also enticed to try the feature out. If successful, the feature could come in handy for when communicating a specific message regarding the time and place of an event, for example. However, it also opens up room for discussion concerning what is known as “ephemeral data” (Bradshaw, 2014). Namely, data that is not necessarily as temporary as it seems. According to Bradshaw (2014), Snapchat “deceived consumers with promises about the disappearing nature of messages sent through the service” which has lead to a huge privacy and control issue. The creators of Snapchat even agreed that some major improvements in their privacy policy ought to be made. “While we were focused on building, some things didn’t get the attention they could have,” Snapchat said (Bradshaw, 2014). Although quite alluring the idea of a ‘Snapchat-type-of-post’ on Facebook, some users still do not trust that their information will not be stored somewhere on the web. Therefore, people are a bit skeptical regarding this possible new feature.
I personally would not make use of it, since whatever message I need to send in the same fashion will be probably done via email or Whatsapp.What are your opinions on that? If Facebook were to implement the feature, would you use it? If so, why?
References:
CNN. (2014). Facebook Disappearing Posts. Retrieved from:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/11/tech/social-media/facebook-disappearing-posts/index.html
Bradshaw, T. (2014). Snapchat settles privacy complaint. FT.Com, Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1533879199?accountid=13598
I agree with you, I also would not use this Facebook feature. I think it is unnecessary, since there are already plenty of apps that can do this. Still, I think a large part of the Facebook users will be using this function, simply because they can and because they already use Facebook.
In addition, I think that anything you post will continue to exist on the internet. As with Snapchat, where different apps were developed to save the photos that people sent. Some people were even saving the photos on their iPhone, using the screenshot feature.
I do not think it is bad to experiment with this, but I simply do not see the benefits of this new feature.
For my personal post on Facebook, I think this function is unnecessary, and I don’t like to post about things that are too personal since many people can see it. But maybe for a event it will be more handy for page managers to control the time for their message automatically.
It also reminds me of a chatting application that is used in Asia more often called Line, which has a new function that people can set the duration time of their message sent (up to two seconds the shortest). Maybe Facebook can implement this function in the future for private message.
However, I think whether the content or message can really disappear and can never be retrieved from the whole web outside Facebook or Line still remains a question mark. So it’s better not to post something too private or personal at this stage.
I agree with the other commentators, I find the feature to not be effective. If I wanted to post something on Facebook, and lets say I have over 400 friends, it most likely be something I actually want to share. If it was something I did not want to show for a long period of time then I would share it with only close friends on snap chat or directly send it to the individual. I think creating a disappearing feature allows users to hide behind the computer or mobile device more than we already do. What is the purpose of a social media platform that includes the option to have your post, photo or videos to be deleted within an hour? Although it may sound ideal to some who are generally more private, I think it creates more of a fake world that virtual networking sites like Facebook are already accused of.
-danaitgk
I would definitely not use this new feature, as I do not trust anything on the internet if it says “it will be deleted”. I’m trying to say that nothing is private and especially not with facebook. If I want my post to be private for others I will not post it on Facebook or I will send it directly to the relevant people.
However, this feature could be usefull for companies who are regurarly posting links on Facebook to their websites. Users will now get their message, but the companies facebook page will not be full of those “Link” messages.