Many of my friends don’t prefer sharing their data on social media. They don’t want to get the relevant ads and also don’t want their privacy to be revealed to the social media companies. I guess that’s a fair reason.
Unlike many of my friends, I have never cared much about sharing my data with reliable companies who can make the money out of it. It is OK if they sell my data or do whatever with it. I’m however skeptical about sharing my bank account details, by the way. 😉
Why I feel comfortable sharing my data?
There are plenty of reasons why I feel comfortable about sharing anything about myself out to the public.
I’ve always wanted the online data centers and the processors to understand me more and show me the relevant content that I’m interested in.
When I’m scrolling through the news on Google discover, I prefer to get the news about the technology world politics, innovations by Google, Microsoft, Apple, electric cars, and other green innovations.
And, I really don’t want to get any news about the NFL, cricket, or sports of any kind.
This is why I feel like sharing data and become very important. I really want my data to be used in a way that shows similar relevant information to me.
Google search is always there to help me with anything different that I’d want to know.
With our data, many of these companies show relevant ads to us.
Painful Ads vs Useful Ads
I understand that the ads can be very distracting. But I also feel like sometimes the ads can be very useful for us to find some good products. The products that we really needed in our daily lives.
For example, when I’m watching a video on YouTube I really don’t want to get distracted from the flow. So, simply I hate YouTube ads.
That is the reason why I have been using Microsoft Edge and I also have been using an ad blocker on my browser to avoid watching the YouTube ads.
Sorry, Google!
Anyways, the ads that are presented by Google that are on the page in the form of banners are not painful to me at all. Because they give me an option whether I want to click them or not.
Also, some of the ads which are very irritating are when we are playing some new game downloaded from the Play store and the ad shows up what we are playing the game. That can be very annoying and distracting.
Talking about some other kinds of heads which are very annoying to me and the ads that I can’t skip.
Facebook Ads
I think most Facebook ads are the best. I love Facebook ads in so many different ways. However, and the way Facebook handles my data is so much annoying.
On the grounds of connecting people, Facebook is constantly trying to come up with products that try to create more engagement and a more digital presence.
Facebook about the digital presence
It feels like it is so much dragging me to use Facebook for a long time. And after knowing the intention of Mark Zuckerberg, it has been even more clear that he really cares nothing about how much digital presence is going to harm my health.
Facebook brags about how billions of people are connected on it and how millions of people visit Facebook for news content and many more.
Yet they don’t say how much misinformation they are spreading and how little control they have over the data that is created and that is very likely to cause violence in the society.
According to recent investigations, it has been found that Facebook only eliminates 5% of the misinformation posted.
This is not just about the gun violence I’m talking about here. This is about the emotional drama that one has to go through. Facebook has never tried to come up with anything that asks us to be less available on Facebook.
Instead, it constantly feeds us with whatever information is disturbing or painful for us. It shows us the torturing contents because that is what people mostly want to engage in.
According to some of the recently leaked information about Facebook, it has been found out that Facebook tries to promote the contents on its newsfeed that have more angry reactions.
Facebook vs Google
Unlike Facebook, Google wants me to use my phone less.
Google has all my information and yet it asks me to set a reminder to set a timer to read my notifications to reply to my messages and so much more without even asking me to touch the phone.
Because on top of selling ads Google also cares about how much it can disrupt by my real-life activity with a lot of digital presence.
One of the biggest reasons that I’m using a Pixel phone (made by Google) is because it has great assistant features.
I don’t even have to look at my phone to do so many activities. Because, as a software developer, I already am spending most of the time looking at the screen of my laptop.
I don’t want to develop an unhealthy habit of having a lot of digital presence.
When it comes to digital presence, I prefer Google over this. Because not only it gives me the relevant information, but it also wants me to live a healthy life.
When it comes to health, Facebook feels merciless. Facebook constantly wants to show me so much more engaging content one after another, throw the notifications at me, and every single day that costs me concentration.
Facebook and Mental Health
No wonder why Apple has been taking very strict actions against Facebook.
To be honest, Facebook actually has never thought about how much spending time on social media can hurt our lives. It has never thought about how much digital presence can destroy our mental health.
At every Congress hearings, the representative from Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg always tells how proud they are to have a platform that connects billions of users.
They always brag about how billions of users use Facebook every month.
The recent products launch and the name change to Meta look like Facebook again is trying to increase our digital presence by creating the virtual world everywhere we go. I don’t think that’s necessary at all.
But I have never heard of him saying how much they care about the health of the people and how strictly they work on eliminating the engaging provocative conspiracy theories and the contents that promote the violence.
The only thing that matters to them the most is engagement. More engagements lead to more ad clicks, and the more ads they can show/publish, the more revenue they generate.
To cut things short
What I honestly believe about Facebook is, it really is a great platform for communication and information exchange. But, sadly it is led by a douche.
It doesn’t seem to have a humane direction as it evolves.
The way Facebook is trying to dominate the social media market is costing the mental health of millions of people (mostly teenagers).
It is very important for the laws and regulations to be very strict so that Facebook works much harder on removing the conspiracy theories and the false contents in limiting the online presence of the people.
Not just in the United States, I think it is important that it implements such regulations for all the countries. And until Facebook comes up with some solutions, I’d recommend you limit the digital presence by yourself.
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