Social media giant Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced last week that users would see changes in their news feeds over the next few weeks.
News articles and marketing content have created an imbalance that is “crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect with each other,” Zuckerberg said. Thus, users would have fewer of such intrusive, distracting material.
Research suggests, he said, that people are generally happier and have a better well-being when they use social media to connect with the people they care about.
It’s an acknowledgment that over the years, Facebook—with which almost everybody we know have an account —has changed from a tight-knit community of family and friends to a forum for an exchange of political views or a forum for business promotion.
The exchange sometimes turns nasty, if they were even based on real news in the first place. The promotions become shameless.
It could also be a reaction to accusations that social media companies have had a hand in the proliferation of fake news. Knowingly or unwittingly, users share and spread what appear to be news stories but which are not.
Social media have also been used by political operators to further their agenda, bring down their opponents, or simply sow chaos and confusion.
Filipinos, zealous Facebook users in general, would also benefit from the reimagination of their favorite site. While the reasons for using it may vary for each individual, there are some common themes: connecting with family and friends, wanting to keep up with what is happening in one’s not-so-inner circle, keeping up appearances, looking as though one were knowledgeable in current events and latest trends, getting a pulse of one’s “friend,” allaying one’s FOMO —fear of missing out.
After discerning why we are in Facebook in the first place, we can also look into how it is affecting the way we live our daily lives. Can we strike a balance between the need to know what is going on and the threat of distraction?
Filipinos also have to be aware that such sites are not so innocent as they look. They have algorithms that predict what we would likely want to see or hear or buy based on surfing history—and these may make us think we need or want something, even if we don’t. In the process, a faceless stranger registers a sale.
It will be interesting to know what exactly the changes will be and how they will change users’ experience. It will be even better if users, too, improve their awareness of why they are in social media in the first place. If we were to fight anything, it should be the attempt to turn users into mindless consumers—of products, services, information, ideologies.
