I find this post ‘Facebook has a Big Tobacco Problem‘ just excellent – and the title is great too. Facebook is clearly addictive, pervades society, has adverse effect on mental health, and.. is in denial.
“Facebook’s problems are more than a temporary bad PR issue. Its behavior contributes to a growing negative view of the entire tech industry.“. Facebook is currently working hard to change its image, but the amount of evidence of its effect on behavior also mounts.
This existential issue is a threat to the entire technological world and society will have to find a solution that will necessarily involve regulation.
Some comparisons developed in the post are even thrilling: “As in the 1990’s, when Big Tobacco felt its home market dwindling, the companies decided to stimulate smoking in the Third World. Facebook’s tactics are reminiscence of that. Today, it subsidizes connectivity in the developing world, offering attractive deals to telecoms in Asia and Africa, in exchange for making FB the main gateway to the internet”
It might well be that there will soon be some kind of existential crisis to make social networks mature in terms of model and rules.
