For my research paper, my topic will revolve around Facebook, peoples’ declining use of the platform, and the main factors contributing to that. I plan on acknowledging past predictions surrounding the ‘death’ of Facebook (similar to that of MySpace) and comparing their reasoning to the current state of the platform. Mainly, I want to analyze and predict whether Facebook’s latest breach of privacy with the Cambridge Analytica scandal will prove to be an irreversible setback for the platform, given the legal issues now arising, the #deleteFacebook movement, and major financial losses plaguing the company from their multitude of recent privacy and security controversies. To properly research and write about this topic, I plan on keeping up with the developing fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and looking at past predictions and studies who have predicted a digital ‘death’ for the popular platform. The main thing I want to answer in my research paper is whether or not major privacy & security breaches can significantly affect worldwide use of the most popular social media network, or even ruin it for good.
When discussing this topic with my peers, they liked my overall idea, however they believed it was a bit too broad to effectively cover in this assignment. I think that I can avoid that by specifically focusing on the progression of the Cambridge Analytica scandal to where it is today, and compare that with previous research conducted about social media privacy and Facebook usage patterns.