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Facebook is just transitioning to becoming the digital equivalent of an oil company. They make a product that billions consume, but that many people think is do
by muglug 7y ago
Facebook is just transitioning to becoming the digital equivalent of an oil company. They make a product that billions consume, but that many people think is doing damage to the environment (even though many of those critics still consume the product).
That's why their PR machine is now switching to these slightly astroturfy campaigns. The next step is an advert along the lines of "They call it pollution. We call it life".
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- r00fus 7y agoAnalogies in fiction to the "oil company uber alles" - Technocore in the Hyperion Cantos [0] as well as Phyrexian Unlife [1] in Magic the Gathering CCG. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos [1] https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Discussion.aspx?multiverseid=218058 https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Discussion.aspx?mult...
- EamonnMR 7y agoPhyrexian Unlife might be the most emotionally effective magic card.
- webdva 7y ago> Facebook is just transitioning to becoming the digital equivalent of an oil company. They make a product that billions consume, but that many people think is doing damage to the environment (even though many of those critics still consume the product). I like that analogy or narrative. The aesthetic value of the analogy is appealing to me.
- Spooky23 7y agoI’d argue that’s an improvement, their previous PR regime sounded like the Soviet information ministry.
- notadoc 7y ago> Facebook is just transitioning to becoming the digital equivalent of an oil company. Seems more analogous to a tobacco company. Some people think it's bad and they use it anyway.
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago> Seems more analogous to a tobacco company They have an addictive product in common. But oil seems more apt. The sale of tobacco is highly regulated. Oil, less so; Facebook, not at all. Oil became useful in the Industrial Revolution, and enabled downstream innovation. Facebook came about amidst the modern Internet and is likewise a platform. Tobacco is old and the end of the line; the ancillary market is limited. Finally, both oil and Facebook are tools (for some). Tobacco could be thought of as a tool, but it‘a more universally hedonistic.
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- protastus 7y agoOil so useful that modern society would collapse without it. Facebook is not meeting a core need. It's peddling something entirely optional to society. At best it provides entertainment value, while being extremely addictive and dangerous. Facebook is like crack.
- muglug 7y agoHuman connection is a core need. Facebook provides it (or something a lot like it).
- jf 7y agoAnd yet, after not using Facebook for over a year, I don't miss it one bit and feel like my human connections have improved as a direct result.
- protastus 7y agoHuman connection can be had in many alternative ways, with a lot less drama and controversy. Reading these posts full of hyperbole, one would think human society couldn't exist without Facebook.
- throwaway1777 7y agoIt certainly could and did for thousands of years... but it would be very different. If facebook went away you would just get other companies springing up to fill the void (Snapchat, Tiktok, etc). That’s how you know it’s a core need.
- AndrewUnmuted 7y agoI don't understand how "it would be very different" if other companies were to just spring "up to fill the void." Doesn't this phenomenon merely indicate that some market forces believe that the industry Facebook works within has potential for more profits than are currently being extracted?
- 7y ago
- zartar 7y agoOne interesting aspect of FB's externalized cost structure is that the damage is both to society (like pollution as you mention) and also the individual consumer (more like cigarettes) because the product is designed to be addictive and while releasing momentary dopamine to the user, makes them more depressed on the whole.