Whether you are a part of the Facebook community or not you likely know someone who is an avid Facebook user, or you at least are familiar with the popular social media platform. It’s the app where you can find recent news, articles, videos, and where your family posts embarrassing childhood photos of you. Since Facebook's start in February of 2004, it has become one of the most commonly used social media apps offered to internet users.
With Facebook being around for as long as it has, I believe it’s safe to say that we’ve grown accustomed to its presence in our day-to-day society. It seems that Facebook will remain a place to share, post, and like until we find ourselves sick of it. Just as many apps before it and many apps that will come after it.
However, perhaps we are underestimating the amount of power Facebook has as a social media app. Although we have labeled Facebook as this app as one for our parents and grandparents, this app can impact a lot more than we give it credit for.
As of recently, we have considered how social media has impacted American democracy. We’ve grown up learning that our system of government was built upon the procedure that eligible voters in the US could vote for elected officials to represent them. That’s how it’s been and continues to be.
In his book titled Antisocial Media, author Siva Vaidhyanathan explores how Facebook can be a problem to American democracy.
“The Idea of bringing the world closer together has animated and driven Zuckerberg from the beginning,” Vaidhyanathan stated. This desire to connect people has been the driving force that has resulted in what Facebook has evolved into over the years. Facebook has now become a means of virtually interacting with friends and family, online dating, and receiving news from various regions of the world. Needless to say, Facebook has definitely fulfilled the goal of connecting others. Zuckerberg even went as far as to think that the connectedness that his app offers even helps the democratic process.
However, Vaidhyanathan argues otherwise. He suggests that Facebook as a social platform contributes more negative effects to our democracy than anything. And in addition to that, Facebook has grown far too big for us to try and control these negative effects.
One negative attribute of Facebook is that it provides an easy means of spreading false information. Anyone with a Facebook account can post just about any material as long as it falls in line with general guidelines that Facebook has implemented for users. Which is not very limiting when you really look at the specifics of the guidelines themselves. Afterall, Facebook still manages to spread material that spikes rises in discrimination, bigotry, and violence.
These posts that propose misleading narratives on a variety of subjects often generate strong reactions from users. Which can also result in a confrontational divide between people. People with opposing views and interpretations that stem from these posts often will bicker amongst each other. Vaidhyanathan points out that due to this common occurrence, Facebook offers no means of having a constructive, productive conversation.
Vaidhyanathan also notes that Facebook takes the data that it has collected on your interactions (likes, comments, shares) and uses that to present you with similar content. Vaidhyanathan describes this as Facebook rewarding users with more of what they tell the companies they want.
Let’s look at my own Facebook for a minute. I’ll admit that I don’t use Facebook that often. I mainly use it to stay updated with family members. But I’ve interacted with content just enough to where Facebook has gathered some understanding of the material that I'm interested in seeing. Just by scrolling through my Facebook feed for about five minutes, here are a few of the post that it suggested to me:
If you can’t tell by that alone, I’m a major nerd. So Facebook has used its algorithm to suggest to me posts that relate to fandoms such as Avatar the Last Airbender, Star Wars, and the Marvel cinematic universe. I don’t know when I first interacted with the initial post that taught Facebook that I’m interested in nerd material, but all it took was me doing so in order for Facebook to keep showing me things related to these topics. Now this isn’t related to politics, but you can by now understand how Facebook can do the same with people who interact with political material. All it takes is for a user to like one post related to a specific side of the political spectrum for it to filter more material related to that kind of political view.
Another negative aspect about Facebook is that it contributes to the dwindling faith in American democracy. There are some people that believe that democracy doesn't exist. That it is instead a false narrative that we have been fed from the beginning of our lives. According to Vaidhyanathan, those that don’t believe in democracy don’t care about the truth. They will just choose to believe what they wish to believe.
This lack of truth and trust has been made apparent on Facebook. It appears that some have placed their trust in Facebook and Google rather than news outlets and original sources. Instead of lending their ears to those that dedicate their professions to revealing the truth to the public, they would rather just dismiss it all together.
Which lends the question: If we can’t have trust in anything, can we have trust that our own democratic system will be okay?
In addition to this question, we should also recap that Facebook is contributing towards the deteriorating faith in American democracy, encouraging confrontations amongst users over disagreements, and is spreading hate. With that recapped, should Facebook be continued to be allowed to operate in the current state that it’s in?
Facebook has clearly shown that through its mission of connectedness, it has managed to grow to an extreme that no one considered it ever would. And through this growth we are beginning to acknowledge the negative effects that Facebook offers.
Is there hope for American democracy with Facebook being a present factor? Or should we reevaluate how we utilize this app in order to minimize the concerning effects that it has demonstrated in regards to maintaining democracy?
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