The other day Facebook went down. It was inaccessible. It turned out to be an interesting social experiment. Seeing people’s different reactions was illuminating. It really reflected how entrenched social media have become.
I know there are some different theories out there about why Facebook went dark. Some even say it was intentional, overlapping with the Facebook whistleblower. I don’t know. Regardless, it seems that most had a strong reaction to the sudden absence of Facebook. For many who are addicted, this threw people for a loop!
I happened to have been busy that day and unaware of Facebook’s disappearance until later, once it was back and running, so I can’t really comment about how I would feel. Also, as one who is Sabbath observant, I withdraw from Facebook and social media weekly, for a pause of 24 hours, so not to access Facebook would not be totally novel to me. Yet, having Facebook suddenly disappear is certainly different from electing to withdraw from it, especially as it has become a tool so many of us depend on.
There were those who breathed a sigh of relief and enjoyed the reprieve as well as the brief respite from the constant FOMO whirlwind that people seem to be living in.
Certainly, many of the people I saw freak out as they processed their reaction to Facebook disappearing are Shabbat observers, too. Constantly churning out “content” on social media has become normative. More than that, it has become part of how people brand themselves and engage with the world, be it socially, politically or entrepreneurially.
To be sure, the humor flowed too. Since Facebook’s advent of noting and notifying everyone of Facebook Friend birthdays, who even remembers anyone’s birthday on their own anymore? Lots of jokes about birthday remembering circulated.
Of course, there were the jokes about hearing strange human sounds of sorts — was it talking? was it laughing? Was it baseball? There were remarks mocking the the problematic attached-by-a leash-culture of devices, versus humans, that we seem careening toward.
Humor aside, though, contemplating a Facebook-less world did give pause for thought.
The loss of Facebook would indeed be a meaningful loss for some. At times, Facebook can boost quality of life. Obviously, having Facebook during the pandemic was significant in retaining connection while living in isolation or lockdown. For some, that situation is permanent; for example, people who are disabled or for whatever reason homebound. For them, Facebook is a lifeline of social interaction and connectedness.
Facebook has also become a resource of sorts. There are people I turn to for their wisdom posts, insight or expanded understanding of a particular issue they may be expert in — access that I normally wouldn’t have. There’s a lot of good that has come from Facebook, in addition to keeping in touch.
While the infamous Facebook comment threads can get nutty, there have been so many valuable ones, where I feel lucky for the exposure to some really smart, sophisticated and interesting people piping into stimulating conversations on crucial issues of the day. Sometimes Facebook almost feels like being part of the intellectual salons of yore.
At the same time, there has been a lot I have become disenchanted by. I don’t just refer to the challenge of Facebook’s potential addictiveness. The screeching craziness can get out of hand. Thinking back to this past election and how toxic it became, stop and ask yourself how that election would have looked without Facebook or social media in the picture. Even in non-politically charged times, many Facebook users view their page as their personal soap box and use it loosely to editorialize about anything and everything.
What bothers me is the groupthink mentality that Facebook can cultivate, especially in young people. I may sound like a geezer, but once upon a time, if we had wanted to understand a topic and formulate an opinion about it, we had to go to the library, look up information, think about it. Opinions and positions were formulated over time, by our due diligence. These, days, it seems whoever screams the loudest — and whomever Facebook deems the “right” opinion gets a stronger voice and exposure on Facebook.
And the masses follow.
It’s all algorithms.
One of them is an algorithm that leads to Facebook jail. Yes, if you repeatedly express and advocate for a perfectly fair and democratic position that happens to be anathema to Facebook’s worldview, you get thrown into Facebook jail. Your account is suspended, either because you have been reported or artificial intelligence flagged you, based on your content or certain words used.
That’s way too much power to Facebook.
It’s one thing to limit hate and violence — I respect that. But somehow terrorists seem to enjoy having Facebook accounts; so too Holocaust deniers. But if you express political opinions not in line with
Facebook and whoop — Facebook jail! That’s dangerous.
While I am not exactly one of the biggest Facebook users (I don’t post pictures and have an unusual status update history, only when there’s a war in Israel) I recognize Facebook has indeed brought much good, and certainly fun. It has succeeded in simultaneously expanding and shrinking our world. But it has become a behemoth worthy of questioning whether Facebook ought to proceed in the precise way it has so far.
Perhaps there’s a middle ground between all Facebook and no Facebook.
This past week’s glitch is a good opportunity for that conversation.
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