The power – and the value – of Facebook is about fostering emotions. Why should we then be surprised when Facebook conducts research about emotional reaction to posts?
There has been a lot of uproar last year when a report detailed some research done by Facebook about how certain types of posts create different emotions (see for example this Guardian article ‘Facebook reveals news feed experiment to control emotions’ and this Atlantic column ‘Everything We Know About Facebook’s Secret Mood Manipulation Experiment’).
The interest of Facebook, of course, is to make sure that it creates the most positive emotions in its users, as well as curiosity, so that users stay and come back (under the assumption that we are always weak when it makes us feel good). It can even sometimes border on addiction – another emotionally-related reaction.
The value of Facebook in our lives is about the experience, i.e. our emotional response to the stimuli presented to us. It is what makes the attractiveness and ultimately the market value of Facebook. Why are we so surprised that Facebook tried to improve that experience to hook us up?
