Facebook is the largest social network in the world and as such, it concentrates a quantity of data and information unimaginable, never before reunited by entity or any body. The influence of the site created by Mark Zuckerberg in reality is undeniable. The world is no longer informed through traditional channels: in Mexico alone, more than 36% of the population uses social networks as their main information medium and 92% of Internet users in the country navigate on their favorite site. More than 2 billion users.
Between profiles of friends (and strangers), memes, videos and all kinds of content available to consume, it is common to lose track of time. The average user spends more than 5 hours a day on Facebook, a network that at first glance, embodies all the goodness of the Internet and is highly effective for doing media, entertainment, agenda, work platform and news. However, looking more closely, the site hides secrets that many still consider part of the imagination, although the facts of the day to day affirm them as a tangible reality. Meet 5 raw truths of the social network that the world still refuses to accept:
Facebook is not free
"It's free and it will always be," says the Facebook homepage; However, the reality is very different. Everything has a price, especially when it comes to something that promises so much for so little: "Facebook helps you communicate and share with the people who are part of your life," says the home of the social network once again. The price to pay for being part of the largest virtual community in the world is simple and at the same time very simple. It is not hundreds of dollars, not an annual membership or any other monetary sign, but something hardly more valuable: your personal data.
For Facebook, you are the business
If you still do not discover how lucrative Facebook is or do not end up understanding why, you are very likely to contribute greatly to the true raison d'être of the social network. The site created by Zuckerberg is not a service to the community to communicate much less, but a huge showcase where thousands of companies announce their products and services daily. Your data (from your preferences, age, favorite music, locations, places you frequent, family, hobbies, time you connect and all kinds of tastes) are compiled to feed an unprecedented hypersegmentada market machinery, filtered to the taste of Any customer.
Facebook is vulnerable to espionage
One of the most relevant leaks of former CIA and NSA agent and consultant Edward Snowden in relation to the computer surveillance network operated by these US agencies was the existence of PRISM: a specialized espionage software that offers both The NSA (National Security Agency) and the UK Government Communications Headquarters the ability to access e-mails, stored data, voice messages, chats and file transfer on social networks. The cables revealed that one of PRISM's favorite targets is Facebook.
The information bubble and fake news
Facebook algorithms create a bubble that encloses any user in a fictional environment, where all opposing thoughts, antagonistic opinions and diversity of topics and points of view disappear because the numbers have chosen that is not relevant to the user. From this principle, it is common to fall into pitfalls as false news and the naive idea that everyone thinks the same way, homogenizing opinions and thoughts.
Big Data is not critical, but compliant
Imagine walking down a street full of everything you love and consider valuable, correct or precise. The ideal world unfolds before your eyes at every step: none of your thoughts or actions are subject to discussion. In your way never appear real problems, different opinions to the own one or realities that you refuse to see. That's how Facebook and Big Data work when applied to market logic. The nature of the algorithms of the social network is purely mercantile, it is not designed to inform, nor to feed any critical speech, but to make you feel comfortable and please you in every way.
Reference:
Cultura Colectiva
