So Facebook has a new name? I’m pretty sure they’re going to keep the same practices.
refer to the company as “Meta” because, you know, there’s more intrusion coming.
None of that angst and concern will translate into change, though.
An actual whistleblower has testified, twice. A massive document dump, so revealing it’s officially the “Facebook papers,” is causing all sorts of heartburn. And calls for government regulation have resurfaced.
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It turns out that Instagram, owned by Facebook, is bad for children.
These are all signs of a coming reckoning for social media and Facebook, right? Something has to be done.
We’re too late to stop it
So, revolution is upon us? Nope.
It’s too late for that. We’ve given up too much of ourselves. We’ve plugged in too much of our lives and turned a blind eye for too long.
While we were sharing our lives online and jockeying for likes, tech companies were behind the scenes monetizing it as the foundation of an intrusive and powerful digital empire.
They did it with our full approval and accidental help and that’s not going to stop, for three huge reasons.
First, and honestly foremost, we don’t want it to stop. Not enough of us are going to disconnect or delete our accounts for it to matter. In fact, we’re going to do it more. We’re going to double down and actually further grow social media’s influence and footprint in our lives.
USA TODAY Editorial:Hold Facebook accountable: Protect teens from Instagram’s dark side
Did you notice that during all the recent Facebook-shaming and online protesting the company’s bottom line saw almost no impact?
A breakdown by CNBC says the recent third-quarter earnings included a rise in Facebook stock shares and daily users hovered around 1.93 billion, which met analysts’ expectations.
That’s not a fluke.
That same report, and many others, show the next step for Facebook. Spoiler alert, they want to be involved in much more of our lives.
My parents banned social media until I was 17. I’m glad they did.
But every generation since mine has grown up in an exponentially more digital world. That’s not going away. We want to have shared experiences so much that we’ve collectively decided it’s OK if that means giving up some of ourselves.
It’s a need that tech geniuses saw a mile away and used to create the social media landscape we see before us. All that to say social media isn’t going away and our love for it will only keep growing.
So we need an outlet and, so far, Facebook has done the best job of providing it. We’re not, in any numbers that matter, going to stop using it because we love the idea behind it, myself included.
Maybe I’m wrong, though. Maybe humans will rise up against Big Tech in a meaningful way and demand we get back control of our data and push for better protection, right?
Perhaps there will be a straw that breaks the digital camel’s back and we can regress a little to a time when we rebelled against increased surveillance instead of welcoming it.
Until then, please share this column on Facebook. I could use the likes.
Louie Villalobos is a member of the Editorial Board and an editor at USA TODAY Opinion. Follow him on Twitter: @louievillalobos