With our environment becoming more and more digital, there’s a trend. Our lives and those of our children are shown, exposed all over social media. Pew Internet and American Life has estimated that 94% of (American) teens who use social media, are on Facebook. People enjoy its functions because of how many people use it and how much data you can find. The problem is that Facebook sucks up people’s information like a limitless vacuum. By sharing what occupies you, you hope friends will ‘like’ it, implying you’re doing something good in life. So actually, Facebook is addicting (to teens) because it makes us feel good every time our brain is stimulated with a notification. My life goes in, attention comes out. Therefore, the platform has become extremely popular for connecting the younger generation. And I believe that by opening privacy settings up even more, it’s just a corrupt measure that gains Facebook way more ‘generous’ info givers, and profit off of selling your detailed information.
Now that we have our massive world embedded in an interactive website, people can use and abuse it. Means of accessing your attention in general, not only cyberbullying, have shifted along with the masses. I can target exactly who I want to, just by specifically searching for “friends of friends who live in Haarlem” and I will get a list of people. But in this case, your little sister will also be on that list, with her profile wide open and available for any passer-by to look at indirectly linked ‘tags’, ‘stalk’, send messages and comment on any of the visible posts. That is, if these posts are visible to the public! Saving kids from the possibility of being bullied is inevitable, but what is possible is to not make them share everything publicly by default, or they’ll be put at risk to the unknown public world. One might argue we need to stimulate kids to deal with incoming threats, like our immune system fights bacteria. While at the same time we shouldn’t encourage misbehaviour… Limits have to be set and enforced by Facebook, not just their useless ‘extra reminder’, but the incapability to share openly (by mistake). For starters, there should be a certified approval via email or Facebook from the parents/authority.
Various questions pop into my head dealing with what the benefit could be of all this, e.g. ‘If they have the post which was shared privately, wouldn’t it make more money by selling it to the public? And why would Facebook want the public to know everything?’ Facebook said it would give (IT) interested teens the possibility to explore/expand their possibilities more, instead of restrictiveness. Apparently it could give them more worth: “Teens are among the savviest people using social media, and whether it comes to civic engagement, activism, or their thoughts on a new movie, they want to be heard.” A quote from Facebook’s explanation blogpost, virtually meaning Facebook answers to our youth’s attention need, targeted specifically for their own benefit, even if we don’t think it’s right.
Leaving the possibility open for young, ‘like-obsessed’ teens to share anything, has and will be harmful to individuals. If we disable their exposure, we may not spare them of bullying, but it sure would limit the unwanted chances to zero. With Facebook being such a crucial place to be, shouldn’t it be a safe environment to share freely to those intended to share to? Corruption and injustice can’t be controlled if we don’t do something about it.
John Ashworth, G5 English
(This is actually still during my assignment ti