Social Network
These days, as I open my Facebook and start to scroll down the Newsfeed, instead of seeing photos of familiar faces, tens of advertisements that I would not be willing to spend my time on reading fill my screen.
Yes, it has not been a pleasant experience. However, reading the article: Why an Ad-Free, No Cost Social Network is Unsustainable, made me think in a different way of viewing the relationship of the advertisement I get when I am on a particular website and the management of the business that runs the website. Taking the developed technologies for granted, I- who strictly have believed in a quote “no pain no gain”- have not seriously thought about what I paid to these social-network companies in exchange of the services that I get every day.
“Collectively we seem to have bought into the reality of the digital age: If you’re not paying for a product you’re using, you are the product.”
This makes me wonder, about the issues that has been so concerning for the past few years: where did our privacy vanish? Some people have been criticizing companies and businesses for collecting and exploiting their clients’ information, and of course exposure of personal information without consent is illegal – but have not people giving a consent to the company to use their personal information of getting access to the services? When we signed up an account to get a service in a website or to download an app, we always encounter a huge paragraph of contract or a small box to check in to further process. By clicking “I agree” button, we actually have been agreeing to share part of our information. I, and I believe many other users theses days, have been underestimating what we are signing for.
The article also mentioned about an USA Public Benefit Corporation, Ello, that challenges such process of sharing clients’ information in exchange of providing them with services.
“Virtually every other social network is run by advertisers. Behind the scenes they employ armies of ad salesmen and data miners to record every move you make. Data about you is then auctioned off to advertisers and data brokers. You’re the product that’s being bought and sold”
Reading the article again reminded me of the fact that nothing is free in this world. Instead of merely grumbling about how I get enormous number of advertisements everyday, I at least now now those advertisements, being the major revenue streams of a business, are the fuel of the companies to run and to provide me with the services that I chose to get.
Reference:
Pearson, Mia. “Why an Ad-free, No-cost Social Network Is Unsustainable.” The Globe and Mail. N.p., 30 Oct. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.
https://ello.co/wtf/post/about
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