For the sake of full disclosure, I should probably start this piece by making it clear I am not currently on Facebook, for reasons other than the many other reasons I am going to talk about below. However, the more I think about it, the more I find myself wondering why I feel compelled to use it, and why I feel pangs of guilt along with anxiety when contemplating reactivating my account.
Facebook has become the dominant form of social media for many, which is kind of funny when you think about how it started out as a way for Zuckerberg and his pals to ogle at girls while at college. Being a millennial, I remember when you had to have a university email address to set up an account, and when 'writing on a wall' and 'poking' people were things we did on there.
Fast forward a decade and a half later, and it's a primary news source for many, while also being a place where people share photos and stories of their lives. It's also a place where relationships are forged and broken, and where free market principles are taken to their extreme in the sense of allowing toxic and harmful discourse to flourish with little or no recourse. And that's without mentioning all the 'fake news' that is not only permitted but has in the past been encouraged as part of their platform's business model, and all the data mining that people supposedly consent to but in reality have very little idea to what extent they are being exploited and manipulated.
So when I look at it objectively, if you were trying to describe Facebook to an outsider who has no previous knowledge of it, you would struggle to get them to understand why so many of us are at its mercy. It has been allowed to dominate, and without a competitor, people continue to use it because the alternative is to find yourself isolated from many shared experiences and opportunities to make and sustain social connections, particularly at a time when we're greatly limited in our social interactions.
After watching The Great Hack on Netflix last year (although that feels like a gazillion light years ago now), for weeks I found myself mulling over what the implications were for democracy, especially with talk of a general election looming. I couldn't fathom how we could continue to allow Facebook to play such a big ole in our democracy, but low and behold, we went bigger than ever with it, with political parties throwing millions into Zuckerbergs coffers for the chance to influence where people put their X.
This sends a confusing message. You can't on the one hand be criticising Facebook in Parliamentary committees for its actions, or inaction, and then at the same time line their pockets when it suits your needs. There is no incentive for the company to improve its product if its bottom line isn't being affected. There is no incentive to engage meaningfully with legislators if they know that in a few months or years time, you'll be relying on their product to get your message across to voters.
Which is why I welcome the announcement made by the Labour party yesterday. Yes, it's only a short boycott, but it has the potential to start a conversation about how we as a society want to conduct ourselves, both democratically and socially. A chance for us to agree on a set of standards, of what will and will not be tolerated. There is a world of difference between disagreeing with someone on a policy position, and disagreeing whether someone deserves to have equal rights based on their race, gender identity, sexuality, ethnicity or any other protected characteristic. Some things, such as basic human rights, are not up for debate. Period.
Refusing to contribute to the platform financially is a start, but let's not forget that nothing is free, and even if you don't pay to use its advertising services, we are all paying with every bit of data we input. Every like, every comment, every reaction, every click, it all feeds the machine data which can then be used to control what you consume. Is that really what we want?
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