Despite its rather humble
origins - a small dorm room in Harvard - Facebook has become the world's
largest social networking site with roughly 900 million users worldwide, even knocking
off MySpace, the former king of the cyber social community. One crucial
difference between Facebook and its predecessors is the concept behind it. The
idea of Facebook was a means to put one's real life online, whereas MySpace was
a means to put on a facade, a fantasy, of who one wanted to be. MySpace calls
this self-expression, the idea where one could create an identity for oneself.
Facebook has gone far beyond its
origins as a college student interaction site. It has taken a force of its own,
from past events to the recent Kony incident, and has created a unifying
community. It is safe to say that Facebook is a social phenomenon that the
world has never seen before. For a social networking site that has been so
long-lived, it has maintained its original vision due to its flexibility and willingness
to adapt. But one cannot help but ask, under who's direction?
Since its launch in February
2004, Facebook has slowly climbed its way to the top, perhaps due in no small
part to Mark Zuckerberg's unusually large control over Facebook as well as his
leadership. Despite the company becoming a publicly traded company in Februaruy
2012, he owns 18.4% of the company's stock, the majority after the IPO , as
well as 57.3% of the company's voting power. With that, he is effectively still
the main powerhouse behind Facebook. And for that reason, he is responsible for
its practices and changes, things that have aroused attention and concern.
One of the main concerns was what
Facebook does with its data. At its core, it is pretty much an archive that
keeps tabs on the information it has amassed. Think about it. Facebook has
created no products to sell . So what is the purpose for its change to selling
stock? It's inventory consists of our personal information. Companies use this
information and buy ad space. Facebook then runs the ads to its users, this
allowing companies to reach us. Advertisers focus on certain aspects of
Facebook such as relationship status, activities, location, employment, etc to
create ads specifically targeted at certain people. In other words, each
profile has certain ads specifically for that person based on their
information. In places like Europe, there are laws that prevent potential
misuse of this information. But in the U.S., such things don't exist. A counter
argument could be that as a company that has gone public, Facebook needs
additional ways to take in income. However, the information gained from your profile
can be used against you. The IRS can search through Facebook data for evidence
of tax evasion. The United States Citizenship and Immigration services
scrutinize photos and posts to confirm whether relationships are real or are
shams. Even employers are making use of this data. There has been a study
showing that 70$% of employers reject candidates based on what they found on
profiles. With a such a huge chip on its shoulder, Facebook has tried to address
this. Called Download Your Information, it is what its named suggests. Users
can download their information. Although released before in 2010, the previous
one only gave users a copy of their
photos, posts, messages, list of friends and chat conversations. The
current version includes
previous user names, friend requests and the Internet protocol addresses of the
computers that users have logged in from with more categories on the way. This
still does not change the fact that Facebook and the government have complete
access to your information.
Facebook has recently acquired
Instagram at the cost of one billion dollars. Did I say Facebook? No, more like
Mark Zuckerberg. Solidifying his control over the company, he has exhibited his
lone wolf approach and bought Instagram, supposedly without letting his board
members know. So in the end, the criticism wouldn't have meant much anyway.
Deals like these show highlights of what might come in the future. And despite
Zuckerberg's age, he still hasn't messed up. The real problem lies with the
users of Instagram, who have mixed feelings over the Facebook takeover.
Instagram is an amazingly simple concept. One takes a picture, and with the use
of filters and other special effects, and shares it worldwide with other people.
The main concern now lies with the ownership of those pictures. Everything that
is under Facebook's name is essentially its property. So for aspiring
photographers, especially those that have found jobs through Instagram, this
could be a huge blow. They are worried that Facebook will sell those photos or
place ads all over Instagram. Even worse, there might be a melding of the two. On the other hand, there are others that have
decided to reserve judgement - at least for the time being. In their eyes,
having Facebook control Instagram might lead to an expansion of photo editing possibilities.
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