Dear Facebook,
We used to be friends once, what happened to you?
I remember spending hours scrolling through my wall (then eventually news feed), posting updates and seeing what friends were up to, excited whenever you made small changes to make life that little bit easier – I mean, birthday notifications, anyone? Revolutionary stuff.
Now though, not only do your complex algorithms constantly define and redefine what I see in my feed, for some unknown reason you’ve decided to have a stab at solving broader societal issues in the only way you know how – through emotional manipulation and reliance on the power of subtle suggestion.
A recent article on CNBC revealed your plan to encourage more people to get flu shots, involving updates such as dedicated pages providing information on vaccines, badges for users to share when they got their shot, and forums for users to share and promote their experiences as a way of gathering positive testimonials for getting the jab.
I gotta say Facebook, I felt an intense surge of white hot rage rush through my veins when reading the article. While I could somewhat put that down to my own aversion to flu shots, I was more bothered by the fact that it wasn’t your first offence – you’ve done this before with your secret mood experiment via news feed manipulation, and who knows how many other times! Your only saving grace now is that you had the sense to scrap the flu project before it went anywhere.
In future, I implore you Facebook, don’t even start these projects.
I’m not an idiot, I can understand that emotion drives user response. By manipulating users into having an emotional reaction to content, they are of course more likely to get involved in the flurry of conversation and activity that would arise from that content (in turn, adding a sh*tload of cash to your coffers). I understand it, but that doesn’t give you the right to do it.
You are a platform for people to make a statement or share their opinion – we shouldn’t be hearing yours. This is especially important given your questionable monetary motivations.
I want to be friends again, Facebook. But you need to go back to being the nail, not the hammer, first.
Yours sincerely,
Disgruntled
Story written by Dunja Spasic
The Edittoir 