{"id":10,"date":"2025-11-22T05:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T05:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/joshstolper\/?p=10"},"modified":"2025-11-22T05:00:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T05:00:14","slug":"the-facebook-dilemma-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uww.edu\/joshstolper\/2025\/11\/22\/the-facebook-dilemma-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The Facebook Dilemma&#8221; Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Quit social media | Dr. Cal Newport | TEDxTysons\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3E7hkPZ-HTk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of the more positive implications of Facebook are found at the beginning of part one of \u201cThe Facebook Dilemma.\u201d \u00a0These benefits are described alongside depictions of the steadfast ambition and \u201cfull steam ahead\u201d attitude that Facebook was taking in its early stages. \u00a0Both Zuckerberg and his employees would routinely remind each other of this goal of connecting the world, which at the time sounded like an unquestionably admirable goal. \u00a0\u201cMove fast and break things\u201d was the motto of the time, as the amplification of scale became the top priority. \u00a0This was noted to bring about some beneficial factors. \u00a0Employees were integrating and accommodating hundreds of languages, allowing Facebook to function as a platform with an open embrace of cultures and people from all over the world. \u00a0There were also features that allowed people to feel more engaged in the daily discourse that took place on the platform. \u00a0The like button was a primary example of this, as it allowed users to directly relay their thoughts on a post to the post\u2019s publisher, causing an exchange of expressions to happen on top of the exchange of information. \u00a0The global scale and widespread community creation\u00a0offered by Facebook even led to the toppling of unfavorable regimes. \u00a0An example shown in part one of \u201cThe Facebook Dilemma\u201d was the revolution that took place in Egypt in 2011, led by Wael Ghonim. \u00a0Ghonim kick-started the revolution by establishing a Facebook group that allowed\u00a0people to share anecdotes and information relating to the mistreatments and shortcomings led by Egypt\u2019s sitting government at the time. \u00a0This led to the eventual resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, effectively resulting in regime change. \u00a0A Facebook page playing such a role in events like this is evidence of the strength of the platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, other sections of \u201cThe Facebook Dilemma\u201d part one and most of part two refute the idea of Facebook being an overly beneficial idea. \u00a0Even two of the benefits cited a little while\u00a0ago, the like button and the revolution in Egypt, were said\u00a0to also come with downsides. \u00a0While the like button allowed for an increased sense of engagement on the platform, it also made it easier for harmful or inaccurate information to spread across the platform. \u00a0Facebook\u2019s algorithm determines favorable posts by like count, since posts that receive lots of likes would be thought of as posts that people like seeing. \u00a0However, that means that any post could be promoted by the algorithm if enough users engage with it. \u00a0This can lead to Facebook accidentally promoting false information. \u00a0An example of this was the \u201cPope endorses Trump\u201d claim mentioned in part two of \u201cThe Facebook Dilemma.\u201d \u00a0Despite this being an inaccurate report, it was able to be seen by countless users because it was being widely engaged with. \u00a0With Wael Ghonim and the revolution in Egypt, Ghonim seemed to retract his endorsement of Facebook after his newfound notability came at the expense of Facebook users falsely accusing him of being an intelligence operative. \u00a0Facebook prioritized user freedoms when it came to engagement and posts, as was mentioned in part one of \u201cThe Facebook Dilemma.\u201d \u00a0However, those freedoms can serve as double-edged swords when mishandled. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Part two of \u201cThe Facebook Dilemma\u201d addresses the major controversies that have plagued Facebook\u2019s reputation: the US presidential election of 2016\u00a0and the Cambridge Analytica scandal. \u00a0More specifically, an issue related to the presidential election revolved around the allegations of Russian interference through Facebook. \u00a0A discovery someone in part two of \u201cThe Facebook Dilemma\u201d noted was that there were politically charged Facebook groups being set up that would encourage more passionate and extreme stances on social and political issues. \u00a0These groups would exist for opposite ends of each issue and were artificially amplified in their extremity to sew divide in the American voter base. \u00a0This all played out on Facebook, which ultimately dragged them into it as a guilty party as well. \u00a0While some of the hostility springing up around this election period may have been manufactured, its\u00a0ability to take place on the platform still serves as an indictment of Facebook\u2019s structure. \u00a0The Cambridge Analytica scandal also acts as a blow to Facebook\u2019s reputation because it demonstrated how data analysis services can maliciously use data on Facebook in ways that were\u00a0not regulated by the platform. \u00a0Cambridge Analytica was gathering user data being posted on Facebook and using it to push political ads onto user feeds. \u00a0These ads were tailored to the emotional habits that users demonstrate through their Facebook activity, effectively capitalizing on user behavior. \u00a0These tactics were essentially being conducted in the shadows and entirely without user consent. \u00a0This was a massive violation of user trust and saw an analytical corporation using patterns in users to tamper with a presidential race. \u00a0There were also reports that Cambridge Analytica was taking liberties with how truthful some of the promotional material was, again demonstrating Facebook\u2019s habit of improperly handling the spread of fake news on its platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While both parts of \u201cThe Facebook Dilemma\u201d do serve to demonstrate some of the broad-scale implications of Facebook\u2019s shortcomings, the personal impact Facebook and platforms like it have on individual users is not the central focus. \u00a0This is where the third video, Dr. Cal Newport\u2019s \u201cQuit social media\u201d speech, comes into play. \u00a0In the speech, Newport addresses common arguments made in favor of social media usage and explains his disagreements with them. \u00a0One of Newport\u2019s major points is his comparison between social media platforms and slot machines, using the comparison to label social media as an entertainment source. \u00a0However, it is the difference he draws between the two that is the most important aspect of his point. \u00a0Newport states that the difference is that physical slot machines are location-locked. \u00a0Players sit down, use them for a certain period of time, then stand up and leave. \u00a0Social media, however, exists primarily on your phone, thus making it accessible at all times. \u00a0You can pull the metaphorical slot machine lever repeatedly all day, and that also causes anxiety when you are not pulling it. \u00a0Newport notes that people having the constant ability to pull out their phone and look at social media causes stress when users have that ability and are not exercising it. \u00a0Another point Newport makes against social media use is that it is not the key to job prospects that people say it is. \u00a0Newport claims that it is not truly marketable to be active on social media because being on social media is so easy. \u00a0While it may be a way to find connections, the market is looking for demonstrable skills, and being active on social media is not one of them. \u00a0Newport employs a more individual-oriented mindset with his speech that differentiates from some of the grander implications made in \u201cThe Facebook Dilemma.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These videos are extremely valuable in considering how social media has evolved and changed, because a lot of these problems still persist in social media today. \u00a0I was never an active Facebook user, so I have no experience with this platform in particular. \u00a0I was, however, an active X user for a while, and I stopped using the site months ago for some of the reasons mentioned in these videos. \u00a0Content moderation was a major problem in X while I was on it much in the way that \u201cThe Facebook Dilemma\u201d described for Facebook. \u00a0However, the content I saw on X that went unregulated was extremely harmful and malicious. \u00a0I would occasionally encounter very racist and sexist posts on my algorithm despite never engaging in such content, and I would get notifications and encounter posts regarding political issues that were verifiably incorrect. \u00a0These posts would have tens of thousands of likes, and yet they remained on the platform with no action taken against them. \u00a0The platform carries the same energy that Facebook had in its early years with the \u201cmove fast and break things\u201d mentality, and it felt as though it lacked any consideration for the intent and nature of some of its content. \u00a0The problems outlined in \u201cThe Facebook Dilemma\u201d and Newport\u2019s \u201cQuit social media\u201d speech are still here and still poisoning these digital communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most of the more positive implications of Facebook are found at the beginning of part one of \u201cThe Facebook Dilemma.\u201d \u00a0These benefits are described alongside depictions of the steadfast ambition and \u201cfull steam ahead\u201d attitude that Facebook was taking in its early stages. \u00a0Both Zuckerberg and his employees would routinely remind each other of this 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