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I'd say Facebook is opportunistic more than anything. They know how badly people can't sit still or be alone and they simply profit off that. Like Tocqueville s
by rblion 16y ago
I'd say Facebook is opportunistic more than anything. They know how badly people can't sit still or be alone and they simply profit off that. Like Tocqueville said 'people get the government they deserve.' This is what happens when people don't think about how closely freedom, privacy, and selfhood are linked. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
- sqrt17 16y agoExactly. For social networking, people go to the big, nice-looking site that all of their friends seem to like. It sells your grandmother on the slave market? Oh, too bad, no one told me this! I think Facebook has survived long enough in a very competitive market segment that they can't claim to be stupid. They do care about privacy etc. - to the extent that they need it to remain in the market, but not one ounce more, and to some extent their business model (not charging their users, ever) means they have to do scary stuff on the side (with all privacy implications) to remain competitive with for-fee sites (e.g., Xing, LinkedIn) as well as sites that are financed through generic advertising.