Most of my friends live in other countries. Phone and text are not an option in a world where free messenger services exist. And email is just too slow in that same world.
Yeah, Mrs Peas still has FB and I’ll admit I still piggy-back on her account to use marketplace.
Thanks for that. It’s something I’ve really just become aware of recently, so haven’t really read a lot on the subject yet. This helps.
This has always been a scam pushed by corporations and conservatives to reduce government power. They know “ethical consumerism” is a scam. It goes back to at least the “crying Indian” affair where the beverage industry responded to negative pressure from the public about plastic garbage everywhere by convincing us all it was our fault for littering, not their fault for creating it all. They successfully avoided any anti-plastic legislation for decades with that.
That worked so well that pushing every systemic problem down to “personal choices” (to prevent regulation and having to spend any money to fix anything) is now standard playbook for corporations and trade groups.
It’s more complicated than that. For the first several years, people were lied to about what Facebook is. People thought it was a convenient way to share pictures with grandma and keep in touch with old friends. Then once the truth came out, people were locked in. For many, FB is the only tool they have now for many social relations. Furthermore, the evil FB does is difficult to explain to people and many don’t understand the harm of using it. This is not an informed consumer choice that people are making. It’s active deception.
It matters where you put that effort. Putting a compost pile in your yard and sorting your cans isn’t doing shit for climate change, but people think it is. That time is better spent writing letters to congress, or earning money to give to climate-change-fighting causes. Corporations want us to believe that the problems are fixable without government intervention, and the individual effort required is to change that idea.
It wasn’t even for grandma when Facebook first appeared. If I remember correctly, it was for students.
I’m referring to the primary growth period when all those 3 billion users that “voted for greed” were acquired. I was refuting the simplistic idea that FB exists and is evil because people wanted it that way. FB’s early history as a student tool for creeping on co-eds isn’t relevant to that point, though it is relevant to Zuck being a disgusting sleaze.
Thanks to @Doctor_Faustus for reminding me about the Digital Markets Act, I totally forgot about that.
In response to the various points raised by @cannibalpeas, @Narwalt and @VeronicaConnor around the topic of individualization of responsibility: I don’t mean to deny that we need to hold those in power responsible, and that we ultimately need a systemic change for things to get better.
We all share the responsibility for facilitating that change, and putting our efforts where they matter. Because those with vast amounts of power are ultimately granted that power by the cumulative action (or inaction) of all those who have little or no power.
That’s true. It wasn’t until 2012 or so that it became obvious that there were massive privacy concerns and hints of even deeper issues (some of which were confirmed in 2014, others even later), so even most people in my tech startup bubble found it weird that I deleted facebook (early 2013). I was suddenly cut off from most events even then, and lost contact to a lot of people, because 90% of the people around me were on facebook. As @Narwalt pointed out, people simply forget about one’s existence, which is sad and frustrating, and not a price one might be willing to pay. For me, it ultimately turned out fine, and I’m not looking back. YMMV.
What exact “primary growth” period are you referring to? Facebook growth was pretty linear between 2009 (.4 billion) to 2020 (2.7 billion).
I’m totally with you that we need to be careful where we put our efforts.
Throwing organic waste in your yard sure beats having it carried away in trucks when it comes to climate change. And one can have a compost pile, and write a letter to congress, and give money to climate-change-fighting-causes. Outside the US there’s even places where you can actually vote for parties that make the fight against climate change a priority. I’m off facebook, and I can still advocate against it.
Not supporting corporations that are"evil", advocating for government intervention and adjusting one’s personal lifestyle to one’s values is not mutually exclusive. It takes effort, but it is rewarding, because ultimately life is one indivisible whole.
BTW, through its very design facebook is detracting people from the things that matter, and on top of that it makes a business from supporting corporations and other bad actors in pushing the exact narrative of individualization of responsibility you are warning against.
Apologies for that impression, I should have expressed my point in a more nuanced way: Think dependent origination, not causality.
The part after it was a tool for Zuck to creep on co-eds in his college dorm. I was responding to the unnecessary pedantry of someone saying it existed before grandma existed. Now you’ve added more pedantry in a different direction. You all know what I mean, for fuck’s sake.
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