The last two years big tech companies in social media have been bad in the news a lot. During covid, there was a lot of fuss about miss information that was spread through the social media networks. According to Avaaz (2020) misinformation on health was viewed 460 million times through the Facebook network in April 2020 alone. In September 2020 the Netflix documentary “the Social Dilemma” was released. The documentary explains, through the use of ex-employees and experts, how social media platforms operate and how their business model tries to get users to see as many adds as possible (Gao, 2020). And just a few days ago, Frances Haugen testified in front of a subcommittee of the senate about her former employer Facebook. In her own words, “The company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer but won’t make the necessary changes, because they have put their astronomical profits before people” (BBC News, 2021).
So, it is clear now that the Big Tech companies aren’t doing us any good and probably do not have our best interest in mind. But if all these scandals keep happing and it is becoming so obvious that these social media networks aren’t good for us, then the real questions should be, why are we still using these platforms? Why did we not all remove our Facebook and Instagram accounts after watching the social dilemma? Why do we keeping on letting these big companies use us for their profits? It makes you wonder, who is really ad blame here? I personally think that we as consumers are the ones that should stand up and quit these networks, because if we don’t, then who else is going to stop these companies from harming us? In the end we are their product, if we stand up and show that we will not stand for this, these giants will have to listen, but if this ever will happen will remain the question.
Sources:
Avaaz. (2020). Facebook’s Algorithm: A Major Threat to Public Health. Retrieved from: https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/facebook_threat_health/
BBC News. (2021). Facebook harms children and weakens democracy: ex-employee. Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58805965
Gao, M. (2021). Popular Netflix movie ‘The Social Dilemma’ slams social media but offers few solutions. Retrieved from: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/21/netflix-movie-the-social-dilemma-slams-social-media-review.html
Hey Rik, thanks for sharing your article. You mention that we should stand up against social media companies and quit these networks. What other alternative do we have to these social media companies? They have become an incremental part of our daily lives, from communication platforms to sources of income for others. I do agree with you that behind the scenes they are exploiting us and that there must be better transparency. What needs to happen in your opinon for this to happen?
Hey Keiko, thanks for your comment on my post. I don’t think we should quit every social media network right away, but in the case of instagram or Facebook this might be the right step forward. Another social media platform will probably come along, hopefully listening to consumers and with our best interests at heart. Hopefully it won’t come this far and these networks will start to listen to their consumers.