I Will Never Do That
Never is a big word and should be used with caution. Thirty-five years of marriage and two adult kids has taught me that proclaiming you will never do something is often followed by you doing exactly what you promised to avoid. Nevertheless, as recently as last fall, I was still stating boldly and convincingly that I would never join Facebook. My resistance was rare, launched in the fall of 2006, Facebook grew rapidly and by 2009 had surpassed 300 million users. Today there are 2.9 billion Facebook users with 6 new profiles being added each second, with much of its growth occurring internationally.
In the initial days of Facebook, I didn’t join, because I didn’t believe I would enjoy it. As time passed, and my career evolved, I began to work with artificial intelligence scientists; as a result, my resistance to Facebook became more about their algorithm and exposing my information and profile to that beast. I am not sure I understood why the scientist thought Facebook was bad, I just observed that none of them were willing to have a profile.
Everything changed for me in December. Imagine my dismay when I learned that “every published author really must have a social media presence and a Facebook page.” Ugh. Once again, I was doing something I said I would never do. At least I wasn’t an early adopter. Call me a late, very late adopter.
Being so late to the party has proven to be very interesting. I am joining after the Facebook algorithm is very mature. Thus, my experience is different than what those early adopters initially experienced.
For example, the speed with which a google search for a product finds its way to a post on my Facebook feed is much faster today than it was historically. I could argue, the fact that they are able to capture your search profile in real time and convert it into a marketing opportunity is frightening and should engender concern; but I will leave that topic for another day.
What strikes me the most is how effective Facebook is at targeting what you see and from whom you see it. Facebook’s agent was built to solve one problem; how do we get people to spend time on the site so we can sell advertising? They concluded the simple answer was to get users to read more. The next step logically became, if users read something while on the site, they are interested in the topic. If you make that assumption, which I think is generally fair, then naturally the algorithm is going to give you more of that topic.
Herein lies the problem, and it is happening on my profile at an alarming rate. In four short months the range of what I see has narrowed so much as to be a repeat every day of the same thing from the same people. There is a lot of activity happening online, I’m just not seeing it; it is showing me, almost exclusively, content from whomever or whatever I previously showed, even the slightest interest in, each time there is a post from that source. It means if I lingered over an image or a joke, or read a post from someone, Facebook has concluded that I want to see more of that type of content. Maybe that is true, maybe it isn’t. I thought that the initial dog joke was funny, but how many dog jokes can there be?
Other than I find this to be quite annoying, is there any other problem with being fed the same content from the same people? I think there is. It has been said that Facebook has opened and connected the world, and in aggregate that is likely true. The ability to connect, almost instantly with people who you might never have known at scale, has produced a more interconnected world. It has also accelerated tribalism.
People now have a venue to gather with likeminded people and affirm any belief they have. It has become a form of confirmation bias on steroids. If you perceive that everyone you know believes exactly what you believe it becomes easy to assume there isn’t anyone else who thinks differently. I remember being in New York City in November 2004 the day after the presidential election. Bush had won a second term, and it wasn’t close like 2000. However, in every interaction I had that day, people were stunned. Repeatedly I heard, “how did this happen, I don’t know anyone who voted for Bush?” The same phenomenon has repeated itself with the last presidential election among fervent Trump supporters. I hear people say he couldn’t have lost. “There is no way that many people voted for Biden. I don’t know a soul who voted for him.”
Those are small examples without the benefit of a broad sample size. Facebook expands the sample size and scales beliefs. It also makes the world a smaller place for individuals. The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that even though it has connected the masses, it has isolated the average person. No longer do we see anything other than what we liked before. Think about it, even though we may intuitively know it is good to seek information about subjects that we may not agree with, we easily fall into the trap of only consuming what we like. It is after all supposed to be fun and entertainment.
I have a distant relative by marriage who I friended on my profile. Admittedly we are not close enough for me to have known his views on much; until now. When I first saw his posts, I read them because he was family. I have concluded he sees the world differently than I, and I would argue his views are extreme. Because I showed an interest in him, I receive all his posts and they are all the same. He traffics in one message, and it is relentless. But that isn’t the point. What I find striking is what must be happening on his feed. I suspect he is connected to people who like his message and likely post similar views. Said differently, his profile, with the help of Facebook, has created an echo chamber that reinforces all day, every day, the same perspective over and over. I may be wrong, but it appears virtually impossible he will ever openly experience another view. He is locked in and, I would argue trapped.
I am not badmouthing my distant cousin. My thoughts aren’t about him. I am concerned about what is influencing how we think and who we are. To be fair, not everyone on Facebook is extreme and suffering from this unfortunate outcome. But I would argue that everyone on Facebook has become or is becoming more isolated. I know, for me, my short time on Facebook has narrowed my daily interactions to a small group.
As I said, never is a big word, that is hard to live up to. Things happen and circumstances change. I don’t think the creators of Facebook would have ever thought their recommender agent would have evolved into this platform, but it did. I didn’t think I would be on Facebook, but I am. I wouldn’t have thought as we become more connected in society, we would become more tribal, but we are. Stuff happens.
Having said all that, I am stating right now, I will never allow Facebook to isolate my thinking. I can’t allow my promise to never do this, to fail. I don’t want to narrow my thinking; I want to expand it.
