The "Share" Button on Facebook Should Be Eliminated
by John Lawrence, January 31, 2021
Facebook is set up in such a way as to maximize the number of page views, the more page views, the more money they make since people are supposedly viewing the ads as well as the content. When something "goes viral" they make a ton of money. This makes it possible for someone, somewhere, anonymously to make a clever poster which vilifies, incites violence, promotes hate or some other nefarious cause and then share it among all his "friends" who, by the way, Facebook has encouraged him to have thousands of, and then all the "friends" share it, and so on and so on. If the poster is catchy enough or clever enough, it might be shared thousands and thousands of times. Most of the sharers do nothing more than click on the share button. They do not add any original content.
Therefore, I'm proposing a couple of changes: 1) Any content that is shared must identify the original creator of the poster or cartoon; 2) The person who shares must choose those people individually that they want to share it with i.e. they must identify those friends they want the content shared with and not leave it up to Facebook to share it with all their "friends." This will limit the sharing because it will require more than just one click on the "share" button to transmit content to thousands of people. Facebook keeps pushing users to add more and more "friends" even people you don't now or you've never even heard of. They are thereby proliferating the distribution of content completely anonymously which may be hurtful, defamatory, hateful or even inciteful to violence. Facebook should be in the business of "sharing" original content, not just allowing people to proliferate with one click content they had nothing to do with the creation of. Any improvements along these lines, however, would diminish Facebook's profits.
The vast proliferation of Facebook content among "friends" has allowed "support groups" like Qanon to exists and to prosper. Q himself epitomizes the posting of anonymous content which encourages his followers to follow him down the rabbit hole to Fantasyland. This wouldn't be possible if every poster had to identify himself including Q. Additionally, Facebook should fact check lies and conspiracy theories and not allow demeaning or hateful postings. People that have continued to post lies and hateful stuff, like ex-President Trump, should be deplatformed which is a fancy term for having their account deleted. His should stay deleted especially his Twitter account.
Facebook will email you any time one of your "friends" has posted something even if you have no interest in what they posted. If one of my "friends" posts a picture of their dog, I'm not interested in wasting my time going to Facebook to see it. It's also filling up my Inbox with garbage that I just have to delete. Facebook should only encourage original content by real friends and family whether it be pictures or original writing. Instead we are treated to stuff that has been posted anonymously and then just passed around by one click on "share" even though the clicker may not have added anything original him or herself.
Facebook collects tons of information from each user and then sells this to advertisers who want to target people with a particular profile. This can get dicey as well. What if an advertiser selling AK-47s wants to target all the Proud Boys or Oath Takers or Boogaloo Boys or other groups such as the ones that almost took over the Capitol. It probably is a lucrative prospect for both Facebook and those advertisers. They give Facebook users with a certain profile ads designed to sell them exactly what they want to buy. However, this might not be something that actually contributes to the betterment of society.
A privately owned company like Facebook should not be in the business of determining what is and what is not free speech especially when some of the speech that should not be allowed even in a free society is the most profitable for them to allow. What social media has demonstrated is that there should be censorship of social media, and the determination of what should be allowed and what should not be allowed shouldn't be left up entirely to Facebook. Another suggestion:
"Let me format comments and posts. One of the first things you see on Facebook is the big “Update Status” box, which asks you, “What’s on your mind?” And unlike Twitter, which limits your characters, you can basically write a small book in Facebook posts and comments. So if Facebook really wants people to share their thoughts, why don’t they allow formatting? Facebook may not care about bolds and italics, but I do — sometimes it’s useful to get your point across instead of writing in all caps."
Social media should represent more than just an advertising model to maximize page views or to collect personal information so that advertisers can better target their consumers. Too much of it is frivolous and doesn't have any redeeming social value. Fostering conversations among people is one thing. Proliferating garbage, some of it hateful and even violent, is quite another.
