Comedian, actor, and director Sacha Baron Cohen tweeted last week about Facebook and the inescapable reality that, effectively, one man (CEO Mark Zuckerberg) has an inordinate amount of influence and control over what 2.5 billion people worldwide get to see and talk about. “We don’t let 1 person control the water for 2.5 billion people. We don’t let 1 person control electricity for 2.5 billion people,” Cohen tweeted. “Why do we let 1 man control the information seen by 2.5 billion people? Facebook needs to be regulated by governments, not ruled by an emperor!”
Tech titan and billionaire Elon Musk tweeted in response: “#DeleteFacebook It’s lame.” Ignoring the irony of using one social media platform to criticize another social media platform, this has stirred up fresh discussion about the role and impact of social media.
There are some for whom the internet has been a wonderful thing by providing a platform to meet people, have their opinions heard, and in some cases, even land their dream job. Puppeteer YouTuber Barnaby Dixon, for example, landed a role working on the Netflix series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance thanks to his fantastic short videos.
The concerns about how much of the population is tied to only a handful of platforms controlled by a minority of people - often in Silicon Valley - are valid. Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s multiple platforms, as well as others, all seem to have a near-total monopoly on where people spend their time online. This controls what a typical Internet user says and reads.
To some, it feels inevitable that calls to regulate or split up the big platforms will only grow louder and louder. But, as with all such things, only time will tell.
I have been thinking about giving up on social media. Facebook seems full of drama, mostly. I never liked Twitter at all. I dunno if Reddit is considered social media, but I never really like it either.
I never use any of the social media platforms because I simply don't trust them.... and not just with my personal data but for the control people like Zuckerberg exercise over users. I briefly opened a YouTube channel [like I went there just the once] but I really didn't find a need for it to share stuff and hear others trial and tribulations
All the online socialising I do, need to do is done here at WC, where I have made some really good friends who share similar interests to me. Dramas, I don't need 'em, and social media platforms are riddled with drama and various users who are total pains in the ass.
As for Facebook and Twitter going forward, they do need a better management team where profit is not the prime concern, as it is now. I'm not too sure about government control, but in any event, those platforms do need to be wrested away from that meglomaniac Zuckerberg. Maybe then security and users privacy will be handled more efficiently. If not, the shut the fechers down and move on. People existed and communicated without Facebook before, and they can do it again.
My two bob's worth.
I certainly agree that some social media platforms tend to breed drama, but I also find it just as easy to block that side of it all out. I keep Facebook primarily as a good way to see photos and keep up to date on what's going on in friends and family's lives who don't live close to me, though I recognize that there are certainly problems that come with the platform and who maintains it.
This.Learn how to interact with them (i.e. Facebook) and spend time to set it up to fit your needs and make it work for you and not the other way around. Choose your friends and who you follow wisely and I think most of you will be surprised how useful Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media can be. Using Facebook "out of the box" without changing any settings is a disaster.
Yeah, Shaunna [my ex-wife] did all that, used various filters and stuff to block anyone outside of her circle, yet trolls still managed somehow to hack their way into conversations, etc.... and Facebook did little to nothing to prevent it. She ended up disusing that account and began another when Facebook controls improved some. These days she is not botthered by trolls, etc and is generally happy her new account, but I'm still not convinced that it is for me.
I hear you, starkers. Social media is by far perfect. Nor are we humans, and in my experience, the problems with the aforementioned, software & use of computers in general, the errors and misbehavings are more than likely to occur on the keyboard end of it all.
The only winning move is not to play.
My thought exactly. I went to Facebook just the once when a family member suggested that I could keep in contact with family and friends. I signed up and was immediately inundated by Facebook related emails.... like nearly 700 in just two days. I asked Facebook to cease and desist but the emails just kept coming.... and coming.... and coming. I ended up having to create a new email account to end the lunacy.
I've not been back since and never intend to do so again.
Never been on any of that social media crap. Forums are as far as I go. Knew what it was all about when they started rolling them out and avoided them all like the plague! Never needed that kind of thing to stay in touch with family and friends before, still don't need it now.
The same can be done with texting/messaging on ones phone/pc (emailing), I don't use Facebook anymore, nor do I use any other Social media, I communicate with family/friends through my phone/pc, including trading photos.
What!!!!!! You use your phone to make.......phone calls?
The sky is falling!!! ....
What!!!!!! You use your phone to make.......phone calls?The sky is falling!!! ....
Yes, believe it or not Paul, I do make phone calls now and then... LOL
Signed off of my Facebook page before the reputed censorship of news, because I would get bombarded with friend requests from people I did not know nor cared to know. Did not help that one cousin would post multiple pictures of her dog daily. Like come on Cuz if I wanted to read about dogs I would have signed up for a Fidobook account.
It wasn't her puppies that had me turn off FB. I could just pass over them. It was being notified to friend everyone of her friends, all my other cousins friends, all my siblings friends, all the children of the previously mentioned, all of their friends and all the friends of the friends of the friends of their friends. Say fifty requests each time I booted up plus phone pings. With the exception of a couple of dozen family members I do not care to know anything about the rest.
Just as I value your input on Stardocks product I could care less what you had for lunch or if your boss was mean to you today. The first is TMI the second is life as usual, or as we used to say in the Army " Stuff happens" or words to that effect.
I do hope you have a nice day, but do not need a report on it .
Lol yeah, "stuff" is right! Well said sir.
The idea of completely blocking or transferring control of Facebook to the government sounds a bit childish. Let's be honest; social networks have simplified life for many of us and given us a vast number of opportunities. It will not be possible to get rid of them in the 21st century. However, I agree that it would be wise for each social network to have its owner company. This was the case until recently until Zuckerberg bought everything. I don't know how it will end, but at the moment, I only use Instagram to promote my business. Thanks to megafamous, I can maintain the level of my asset, and I don't need more.
Why blame Zuckerberg? People granted him that power in masses. He didn't seize it. It makes money for him and advertisers...and people get what they want out of it...contact, influence, shallow nonsense, etc.
Daiwa quoted it correctly and he's right: "The only way to win is not to play the game."
A small addendum. Seems facebook stock has dropped 20%...weak earnings and fewer users. A shame, that: https://m.economictimes.com/tech/technology/meta-shares-sink-20-as-facebook-loses-daily-users-for-the-first-time/articleshow/89312356.cms
I ditched Facebook after just one visit to sign up. Yeah, I did all the privacy things to avoid crap that didn't interest me, but the emails from Facebook about this person and that person I didn't know kept coming and coming until I demanded they cease and MS eventually intervened.
Nope, no fechin' social media for me. If I can't visit people in person then I will make contact via phone, email or a 'snail mail' delivered letter.
On a different note: Mark Zuckerberg was speaking at a charity event when he quipped that his mother reckoned that it wasn't the size of his wallet but that he had the kind of face that turned womens heads....
Melinda Gates, also in attendance, piped up: "Don't do their stomachs any good, either"
Oh yeah, getting back to it, wouldn't it be cheaper to just drive past the dog pound each day? Zuckerberg is making a mint off that Fidobook site.
True, people went to Facebook in droves, but Zuckerberg isn't somebody you could trust and it's his management of Facebook that comes into question. While the site offers some opportunities and a place to hang out, millions feel pissed and betrayed by him.
Indeed. Zuckerberg does what's good for himself, like so many others. No surprises there, Mark.
I have a very basic account with FB as i need to have news and info about the site i Admin for the membership. I only joined twitter as i needed updates about a site i was heavily involved in during it's downtime, sadly it never came back online.
Seeing what a lot of peeps put in there FB pages, and with camera tech getting better and better allowing the zoom in of high def images, it does not surprise me how so many peeps get hacked or have identity theft committed against them. It's all there on FB, Kids names, dates of birth, pet details, wife, cousin, uncle. Seeing as a lot of users make up passwords based on these details, not surprised at all, even seen a credit card on a table in more than 1 photo (oh the joy of hi def photos).Peeps tell the world when there home will be empty (Holiday Snaps), in real time.
So yes i do have two very specific Social media accounts, but none of them offer anything for free to the bad guys to help them screw me over.
Never did understand the need to take a photo and publish it showing all what you had for lunch, but not sure what is worst, the original Lunch photo or the numerous replies saying Yum. Just Crackers.
Listen to naroon1 ...
We see Recent Windows as a data grab if not set up correctly from the beginning, but Social Media is it's own massive "Hand It On A Plate" Animal, only in this instant, most social media users happily hand over those details willingly if not intentionally, it is all there if you just look at the average active account page.
The question isn't whether you use your telephone, Don. The question is whether you skin it.
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