“Sweet! It’s a nice idea!” I could imagine Zuckerburg in his college dorm exclaiming out loud to Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra—the ones who had the idea for HarvardConnection.com.
But then Mark Zuckerburg did not just end with “Sweet! It’s a nice idea!” Instead, Zuckerburg went onto say, “I can make this idea into an even better product!” and ultimately conclude with “Facebook connecting everybody in the world together.” Of course, these sayings by Zuckerburg all happening within the imagination of mine. But still, it’s close enough.
So many “buts” but I got to state my point in this way. Perhaps there’s so many usage of “buts” in this article because of skepticism we, the people, have towards Facebook. Well, Zuckerburg might have proclaimed that “Facebook connects everybody in the world together.” But here’s the thing. Just because you say something and you act certain ways does not necessarily define the individual with such prior proclamation and actions.
Yes, Facebook may have connected people through the social media platform. BUT is this truly the case now?
Where do you read your news? Facebook. How do you connect to people? Facebook. How do you reach out to people? Facebook. You can’t decide on what to do for the day and so what do you do? Facebook. You are bored and you have to do something on your phone and so what will that something be? Facebook. You are in your car driving…in a hurry and what do you need to open? Facebook.
Facebook reaches into people’s personal preference in politics, religion, social cause, and so on in which the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed Facebook abusing the nature of its users’ data. Using the Facebook users’ data for politics, sell more products, increase advertisement revenue, and so on…ultimately directing our lives. Facebook is not connecting people anymore. No, I will make it into a much simple point. Facebook is indeed connecting people but now it is in the form of a control. Facebook controls people. Market develops due to constant demand. Demand comes from people. Facebook controls people. Hmm? Oh crap!
Another thing, in the recent Cambridge Analytica, Zuckerburg got away unscathed. No battle mark, wounds, or anything of the sort. Zuckerburg seems to portray an image of humility and helping out people—a stark contrast from a Capitalist image. But is this the case? I repeat myself. Zuckerburg got away from the data breach scandal. Politics. Rent-seeking. Special interests. You name it.
So, one simple question to Mark Zuckerburg and Facebook in terms of staying true to its original founding principles. Here is the question: What the Zuckerburg?
