{"id":767,"date":"2018-04-04T09:06:12","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T13:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=767"},"modified":"2018-04-04T09:06:12","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T13:06:12","slug":"im-not-the-customer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2018\/04\/04\/im-not-the-customer\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Not the Customer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m Not the Customer?<\/p>\n

Please don\u2019t talk about Facebook images of cats and kids. That\u2019s not what the Facebook \u201ccrisis\u201d is about, and it diminishes the political and cultural importance of \u201cthe platform\u201d (even though cats and kids are also a part of the plan.)<\/p>\n

What an existential dream: to connect everyone in the world, letting them communicate, send pictures, even show live videos to each other. Borders are non-existent, language barriers overcome, even governmental differences in law and freedom leveled. It was what we all hoped that Facebook could be, and we marveled at the brilliance and technology that allowed us to easily participate in this world experiment.<\/p>\n

We thought we were the customer. We thought that Facebook was serving us, both individually and as a world culture. And certainly this was what Facebook encouraged us to see, a benevolent technological force serving all.<\/p>\n

But of course, that wasn\u2019t true. Mark Zuckerberg developed Facebook, placed it step by step into the nervous system of our culture, and worked to gain a profit. But the profit wasn\u2019t in a fee for membership, that wouldn\u2019t generate enough income and would limit participation. So what was the \u201cproduct\u201d to be sold, to generate income, ultimately billions of dollars?<\/p>\n

What were people willing to give up (knowingly or not) in order to participate in the \u201cgreat Facebook experiment?\u201d If they weren\u2019t being charged a fee, then were they getting \u201csomething for nothing.\u201d Of course, that wasn\u2019t true, there\u2019s always a cost: the information that the participants gave to Facebook. It was personal data, it was movie choices, song choices, color and birthday choices, and the massive amount of commercial data. What advertisement did you click on (ultimately linking your web browsing to Facebook) and what political \u201ctrends\u201d did you follow.<\/p>\n

What could Facebook sell? They could trade everything they knew about you, and they could trade it to people that want to sell or convince you of something. They developed micro-targeted advertising, telling companies that they could identify their potential customers by using the incredible wealth of personal information they willingly gave to Facebook. Facebook employees were \u201cembedded\u201d in the buyer\u2019s offices, to help them direct their advertising campaigns.<\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t just car parts, clothes, and music vendors. It was political entities that weren\u2019t trying to make money, but gain a vote. They were selling their ideas and beliefs, working to convince you to believe in them. And, as we now know, it was other nations pushing their propaganda, and working to persuade or inflame you with real or fake events and ideas.<\/p>\n

It was all for sale. And the sale price was based on volume: how many \u201cclicks\u201d would your particular \u201cpost\u201d gain. And Facebook discovered what probably makes common sense: controversy and divisiveness stirs users up more than joy and unity. Sowing the seeds of \u201cFacebook craziness\u201d gets everyone in the argument. If you\u2019re not sure what that\u2019s about, check out the hundred plus comments on any post about guns these days.<\/p>\n

So, make things crazy, let the \u201cbomb throwers\u201d loose, and more people get in, the volume of clicks go up, and Facebook can raise their rates.<\/p>\n

And most insidiously, Facebook would let \u201cothers\u201d experiment on us. That little fun \u201cquiz\u201d that you took, determining whether you are \u201cemotional or stoic\u201d not only went into the pile of your data, it gave up all of your friends\u2019 data to the buyer as well. Facebook put that data out seemingly without restrictions \u2013 passively allowing the creation of \u201cpsychographic polling\u201d claiming to be able to identify and motivate targeted voters.<\/p>\n

Facebook offered their customers tons of data \u2013 about us. Somewhere in the \u201cuser agreement\u201d we gave them permission to do it. So we did pay for Facebook use, in a new currency called \u201cdata.\u201d And Facebook recognized the dangers and justified it. Two years ago, long before the election of 2016, a man murdered another man on Facebook Live. It was shocking and outrageous. A leaked Facebook internal<\/a> memo of the time stated:<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools. And still we connect people. The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de facto* good.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Does Facebook believe in connecting people because it fulfills the existential dream, or the prospect of unlimited profit?<\/p>\n

Should we abandon Facebook? Should we view Facebook as the real version of the \u201cSkynet\u201d (the malevolent computer system that took over the world in the movie \u201cTerminator\u201d) and step back? Or do we continue along the path, accepting that Zuckerberg is not working just for the \u201cgood\u201d of mankind, and knowing that the \u201cbuyer must beware.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly we need to regulate this new, most valuable commodity, data (Zuckerberg would have us regulate advertising, but leave \u201chis\u201d data alone.) In order to gain the transparency that Facebook (and other platforms) have failed to achieve, intentionally or accidentally, we need a non-industry effort to gain control of the use of our data. It will be difficult because so much of what happens is proprietary to the platform, and in what to most of us is a \u201cblack box\u201d.<\/p>\n

But the existential dream shouldn\u2019t be lost. The good of Facebook, opening the world and communication to all; is worth dealing with the problems. And, frankly, if Facebook was \u201cshut down\u201d someone else would find a way to modify the algorithms and continue the experiment. So let\u2019s find a way to keep the good, moderate the bad, and work our way into a new world.<\/p>\n

Hopefully it won\u2019t take a \u201ccyborg\u201d returning from the future to protect us!!<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be Back!!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m Not the Customer? Please don\u2019t talk about Facebook images of cats and kids. That\u2019s not what the Facebook \u201ccrisis\u201d is about, and it diminishes the political and cultural importance of \u201cthe platform\u201d (even though cats and kids are also a part of the plan.) What an existential dream: to connect everyone in the world, … Continue reading “I’m Not the Customer?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nI'm Not the Customer? : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2018\/04\/04\/im-not-the-customer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I'm Not the Customer? : Our America - Essays on Politics and American Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019m Not the Customer? Please don\u2019t talk about Facebook images of cats and kids. That\u2019s not what the Facebook \u201ccrisis\u201d is about, and it diminishes the political and cultural importance of \u201cthe platform\u201d (even though cats and kids are also a part of the plan.) 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