Ben Cummings' Blog

If you believed that everything you see and post on social media today stays within your network of friends, you would be dreaming. Social media is a platform that enables people to connect with one another. Although users want to connect with others on these sites, the companies motive is not what is best for the user. Facebook recently conducted a study in collaboration with Cornell University on the transmission of happiness and sadness through social media. Facebook altered over 600,000 users newsfeed’s, changing the amount of positive and negative posts that they see, without informing them which posts were modified. The ultimate goal of the study was to explore “emotional contagion” which is the transfer of moods and emotions within a network.

However, altering over half a million users news feeds without consent brings up many ethical issues. Federal law requires Facebook to give informed consent to users which in this case would give them a chance to opt out of the study if they choose. As I explained before, the study is on the effect different posts have on the users mood or emotions. Facebook is essentially manipulating the users emotions, they are changing the posts users view to see how it effects their mood. They don’t know the effect that prolonged exposure to negativity or even positivity can have on people, and depending on the user, it could lead to long term emotional problems. This is a prime example of a company disregarding morales (acting unethically) in order to make advancements. 

References

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/368001/scitech/socialmedia/the-legal-and-ethical-issues-behind-facebook-s-massive-psychological-experiment