REACTION TO :

FRONTLINE THE FACEBOOK DILEMMA

February 26 , 2021

by Julianna Rigoglioso

After watching Frontline The Facebook Dilemma, I couldn't help but reminisce on how I first joined the Facebook social media platform myself. When I was about ten years old, my mom and manager created a separate Facebook page for myself in which they posted and monitored for me. I am an actress, so my management and agents suggested for me to become more active on social media. Nonetheless, at the time, the new "Facebook Fan Page" feature was a great way to start. My mom and I took pictures and posted together about different Broadway/off-Broadway shows I was in at the time, where I was performing on tour, backstage photos with fans, movie and television premieres, and more. It wasn't anything crazy, nor did I go on it every day. That account was eventually shut down; my mom and I gave up and I was more into managing my own social media as I hit my pre-teens. This was when I became interested in Instagram and Twitter. I didn't create my own Facebook profile until 2019! I realized that there were various Facebook groups for incoming freshmen at colleges I was interested in attending. I used Facebook to connect with my future classmates and peers!

It is because of Facebook that social media has evolved into a creation so advanced, interactive, important—yet dangerous. The key to audience engagement is finding and displaying information that suits them; personalized ads, news, tweets, pictures. Facebook created and used algorithms to find this information from user's data, keeping them intrigued. 10 years ago, we did not notice these things; society was more concerned about their Facebook post for that day. Throughout the years, we as a society, however, have become more aware of social media companies, like Facebook, and how they unethically operate their business. Companies thrive off of storing, purchasing, and selling personal data. They use their creations to over-step into our personal lives—without users even knowing it.

After viewing Frontline The Facebook Dilemma, boy do I wish I never joined the app as a young girl. To think that my personal searches and data were/are being tracked, stored, and sold, is very unsettling. I am not surprised, however. If I shop for clothes online early in the day and browse news feeds later that night, ads for that brand, or similar brands, will pop up on the site—I notice this happens daily. I try to clear my cookies and search engine weekly to remove my search data from these websites. Facebook users are treated as pixels: this is just so unethical. The documentary highlights the issue that after Facebook partnered with brokers, data is collected and sold: more importantly, our private data is being sold—let that sink in.

Sources:

https://www.pbs.org/video/the-facebook-dilemma-part-one-s43cuc/

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/facebook-data-privacy-scandal-a-cheat-sheet/