Is “LEGAL” the same with “ETHICAL”?
We live in a society where we could not “survive” without using social media to keep us updated and informed. But what if what we recognize as an essential tool of communication treats us like the laboratory rat?
An example of this is Facebook manipulates it users by conducting an experiment that tests how their different new feeds would impact people’s moods. During the experiment, users were unaware that their new feeds contained less positive emotional posts. As expected, users who were shown more negative emotional posts would post more depressing posts themselves and their word choices also seemed more negative.
This experiment illustrates the dangers of social media’s ability to control the public’s mood especially regarding vulnerable teenagers. Teens are highly sensitive and vulnerable to the information they receive. Facebook’s actions can cause depression among teens that are prone to drug use, poor school performance, and suicidal thoughts. Yet, with all these negative psychological impacts on the users, the experiments that Facebook have conducted are considered as “legal”.
These actions carried out by Facebook are extremely unethical! The large-scale psychological experiment would cause social uncertainties. If Facebook still continues to use such unethical methods in conducting experiments, users will lose trust in using it as a communication tool.
Works Cited
Goe”CNET Update – The Ethical Problem with Facebook’s Emotional Experiment.” YouTube. YouTube, 30 July 2014. Web. 26 Sept. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1rOYKhcQlg>.
Goel, Vindu. “Facebook Tinkers With Users’ Emotions in News Feed Experiment, Stirring Outcry.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 June 2014. Web. 26 Sept. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/technology/facebook-tinkers-with-users-emotions-in-news-feed-experiment-stirring-outcry.html?_r=0>.
Of course, law cannot provide all the barriers to protect the external benefits and keep businesses run ethically. That makes businesses have to be responsible for their own actions. To provide a good growing environment for teenagers will not only need a good society but also ethical businesses. Not just Facebook, but also Instagram and other communication App must have the duty to take care of what they are allowing to do on their platform.