Can Facebook Fall?

After reading the article, "Facebook's Fatal Weakness" I can't agree more with the author's grievances with the platform. Like Google, Amazon, and Apple, Facebook is a digital behemoth and is used by most people who actively use the internet for social media. However, unlike its tech counterparts, Facebook is particularly notorious for not pertaining to its users needs. Time and time again the company confirms that their primary goal is ad revenue even if that goal is a detriment to user satisfaction.
Despite its backwards rhetoric, Facebook continues to maintain its widely active user base. This arises a question, can this Social Media Monopoly be toppled? What past examples can we learn from?
Back in 2012, we did see a new social media app unlike anything before it that started to chip away at Facebook's user base, however, this success was moot after Facebook purchased the photo sharing app for $1.3 Billion. The only independent social media platforms that still stand to chip away at their numbers would be Snapchat and Twitter. While there are a myriad of other platforms, Twitter and Snapchat are the only two that have a significant number dedicated non-facebook users. Regardless the platforms likely will not be able to pose a serious threat to the mighty Facebook as their platforms are not as dynamic and Twitter especially has had difficulty capitalizing on its platforms success.
We all remember when the original major social platform MySpace was suddenly toppled by Facebook's far superior platform. Its possible that in the future another college start up could tackle the beast that is Facebook but until that time comes, we will continue incessantly checking our feeds and posting our status again and again.

Are We Actually Careless About Our Data?

Privacy is a tricky thing to keep track of when your online as much as someone like me. Just about everything I do nowadays is online from my work to shopping, banking, entertainment, and more. If someone were able to take an extended look at all of the information I submit through the web, they could essentially construct my entire identity. This is a scary thing to think about especially when news continues to come in about governments and hackers constantly trying to  get at your personal data.

While many people like to tout that younger people are too open about their personal data, there is the contrasting argument that we have little to no control over how our data is tracked. Essentially I am always looking to decrease the likelihood of data breaches by staying aware of security liabilities online. I'm always hedging my bets with how mail platforms, social media, and other websites and apps manage my data. Research and awareness lead me to decisions to drop Yahoo's mail client, avoid shopping with debit cards, and diminishing the amount of personal info that can be found on social media.

The fact that millennials tend to share more data is likely just an effect to the fact we are more avid internet users. We tend to use more websites and apps to simplify our lives though this means we bleed more data as a consequence. However, I'm curious to see research that determines who tends to leak more detrimental personal data more often. Just because we tend to create alot of data doesn't mean it can necessarily be used against us, at least, not if we're careful and aware of who we trust to keep our info safe.

We're Too Social For Social Media

As we moved into the digital age, we have become increasingly avid social media users online. The platforms of Facebook, Twitter, Snap chat and many more give us unique ways to share our own ideas and connect with one another without direct physical interaction. Not many things before have become so paramount to our own psyche than social media sharing. It gives us that perfect balance of an open forum without the pressure we get from physical interaction. It has been so efficient, in fact, that it is actually making us less social in the traditional sense. Many people now actively avoid direct social interaction opting for the web in the confines of their home. Social Media addiction is even being diagnosed by doctors at an increasingly rapid rate.

Why is it that we cant take our eyes off our phones even when others are physically right next to us? One reason could be that social media platforms give us a broader audience to share our ideas too. The more someone builds a following, the instant gratification social media offers continues to grow. The more attention someone receives, the more they feel obligated to post. It can turn into quite a vicious cycle. Its no wonder thousands of people are being treated for social media addiction. It acts just like any other drug, isolating individuals who over use it to the point where they are trapped in a cycle of borderline self-abuse.

Now of course, if you use social media often it doesn't mean you are going to turn into a shut-in Twitter addict. However, it is good to be aware that this is a real condition that others deal with and if gone unchecked, we may find ourselves in a similar situation. Anything can be addicting but social media addiction is unique in the fact that it is the only drug you can get addicted to by being too social, at least in the sense of sharing and following others.

Faster Is Not Always Better

Since the tech explosion in the early 2000's he have become increasingly fast thinkers and doers. Now that any answer is just a Google search away, we have become trained to expect results immediately. From the classroom to the work place, people have become accustomed to getting immediate answers for just about any task. This instant gratification we have become accustomed to is usually great for our productivity, but does it actually lead to better work?

For the sake of an example, I currently work as part of a small marketing team for a nationally expanding business. The company, which currently owns about 30 dining and entertainment centers across the country, employs our small team of 10 people who together are responsible for developing and executing a multi-channel, nationwide marketing strategy. Because our numbers are so limited, we need to have quick turnover to be able meet each of our deadlines. My team has been quite adept at meeting all of our deadlines however, as a consequence of much of our rushed work, some mistakes slip through the cracks. Something as small as a broken hyperlink or a mistyped line of a legal disclaimer can have disastrous results for the companies returns. In my case, I could be doing work on our email distribution platform learning as I go with the FAQ posted online. If I were in a particular rush that day, I may opt to skim the FAQ instead of reading the full thing and once I finish drafting out an email, I could hit submit to send it to our database. But wait, this message was a coupon which was supposed to go to a select few people, however I already sent the message for a $20 coupon to all 1 million of our email subscribers. Next thing I know, I'm in the CFOs office being scolded for losing the company thousands of dollars. While nothing this serious has happened to me before, small mistakes occur daily and it makes me wonder, if we just hired 10 more people and slowed down, wouldn't that improve the overall quality of our work?

We all want to be able to work better, faster, but we have to be aware of when we are moving too fast. The brain is a remarkable machine and we are great at adapting to whatever needs need to be met but it also helps to slow down and think deeply about how to solve an issue. This is how our creativity comes out to find unique solutions for particular problems. It allows us to work smarter not harder.

The 2 Factors of The Third Person Perspective

The Third Person Perspective (TPP) is a cognitive phenomenon in which an individual will typically perceive themselves to be less susceptible to media effects than those around them. Generally when we analyse media that appears to be impactful on a particular group, it is easy to conclude that the group is more susceptible to media than you are. While it may be true that a particular form of media may be influential to some, we fail to acknowledge that other forms of media effect us just as often. This is frustrating reality for anyone (and this goes for most) who have assumed that others are simply less clever or aware when in reality we are all equally susceptible to varying types of media we interact with.

In trying to better understand the root cause of this effect, I searched for the defining factors driving this behavior. What this effect comes down to is the combination of two significant factors: The desirability of the message and the social distance between those of which a comparison of the media effects is taking place. In terms of message desirability, an individual interpreting the media will take into consideration their own feelings on the topic of which it is associated with. If the individual likes the message/perceives it to be positive, the more likely they are to assume that it would not have a significant effect on others. Conversely, if the message is perceived as negative, the more likely an individual is to assume that others will be susceptible to it.

The other prominent factor, social distance, suggests that an individual will have a predisposed biased when assuming media effects on groups socially further away than them self. Essentially, someone is less likely to assume significant media effects in regards to their own friends as opposed to individuals from another state or country. The more narrow the scope of comparison is, the less likely we are to make negative assumptions.

The Third Person Perspective is a particularly interesting topic not only because of its applicability in studying media but as an aspect of social psychology as a whole.