Facebook: it’s over.Too bold a prediction?The rapid-fire assault on the social networking giant has usefully pulled back the curtain on a company that pledged not to be a company. At least not in the conventional sense.Remember? Mark Zuckerberg, whose personal fortune, which had been estimated at $70 billion (U.S.), plunged by $5 billion during this week’s share meltdown, addressed the investor community at the time of Facebook’s initial public offering. Following in the trendy footsteps of Google (“Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one,” et cetera) Zuckerberg penned a lofty founder’s letter informing investors that his intent was to “accomplish a social mission.” His letter didn’t have the “don’t be evil” sound bite quality of Google, but it did state a clear intent to “give everyone a voice and to help transform society for the future.”Was it ever that, really? Or was it a time-sucking vortex into which users would gaze balefully upon the latest shiny purchases/accomplishments/foods consumed by their marginal friends and more marginal acquaintances — or, worse, a crowd-sourced, depression-inducing black hole? Too much? Clearly you have already forgotten the infamous Facebook study of emotional contagion in which the emotional content in the news feed was purposefully raised and lowered to determine the effect on posting behaviours. Close to 700,000 Facebook users were the unwitting guinea pigs. The findings: when positive expressions were reduced, users produced fewer positive posts and more negative posts. And vice versa. Any parent of any teenage Facebook user would understand the nasty implications of the manipulation of emotion. Researchers noted that such emotional contagion would lead users to experience the same manipulated emotions with no awareness as to what was happening. That’s just terrifying.In October 2014, Facebook said ...
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