(Memes by me)
Watching the Zuckerberg testimony is fascinating. Long, but fascinating.
Back in 2012, I made a Facebook Post stating that I would gladly pay a fee of about $5 bucks a month to have an advertisement free Facebook experience. At that time, I was responding to the policy change that saw the platform “turn off the organic reach” allowing our content to only reach 16% of the people, whom signed up to be notified of new posts. Unless of course.... you wanted to pay to get your post out. I certainly didn’t begrudge Zuckerberg and their investors wanting to make money for the monolithic company they were running. I just didn’t want to be trampled on, while they made their money.
I was so ticked off, and felt betrayed that I had invested so much time into building my online community, only to now be extorted advertising money, if I now wanted my posts to reach the same amount of people that I could the day before. This had all the characteristics of being an excellent Mafia scheme. The image of facebook’s Zuckerberg waving a baseball bat while saying “Ya wanna get past me, Ya gotta give me your lunch money” came to me frequently. I know that sounds overly dramatic… but at the time I knew that real problems would develop on the platform, now that shareholders had expectations of high ROI and annual dividends.
Back to my 2012 post though…I asked my 2000 or so friends at the time if they would prefer to pay a $5 per month subscription fee, and have the platform stay ad-free and wide open, or let the company just develop the platform the way it wants to, and just give up more an more control, in order to keep it free.
I remember it so clearly, not surprised by the answer, but somewhat overwhelmed by the intensity of it, people said they wanted Facebook to remain free. They preferred to give up some control to keep it that way. “Idiots” I thought to myself in just a little bit of a condescending tone. Followed by “We’ll see.” Because the thing about giving up control, is that IT ALWAYS SLIPS OUT OF CONTROL!
…. And fast-forward to today, these same people are acting shocked to learn that when they agreed to give access to third party apps and Facebook, that they really were, actually giving all their privacy away. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise! Why? Well because they just couldn’t live without knowing what Friends character they are most alike, if they are a Betty or Veronica, or what renaissance painting they most looked like, or that kind of none sense.
Yesterday, in Zuckerberg’s most Robotic mannerism, he shared during the Congressional hearing that Facebook most likely will be introducing a user pay system, in order to claw back the privacy breaches that has effected so many of it’s users.
Well, it is about time I say.
*Emily Couchie Barnett is a creative specialist and owner of House of Couchie, were she creates digital content and sells vintage clothing. When she isn't in her studio, you can find her working in film & television, producing fashion shows, baking bread or snuggling Sadie the Siamese cat. *
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