Understanding Facebook

Facebook's strategy — somewhere between greed and misguided idealism?

St. Francis in the Desert by Giovanni Bellini, 1480 (Google Cultural Institute, Public Domain)

“Learning without reflection is a waste. Reflection without learning is dangerous.” — Confucius

I’m struggling with Facebook.

Just as Facebook seems to be struggling with itself.

In a way, that's a pair of evergreen sentences, isn't it?

Five years ago, I had chronicled a list of transgressions that Facebook had already racked up. In that case, Facebook users were unwitting participants in a scientific study.

Looking back at that, Sheryl Sandberg's response should have tipped me off as to the kind of uncaring, growth-at-any-cost mentality we’ve come to know Facebook for: “it was communicated poorly,” she said.

Their defense ignores the lack of ethics behind the decision in the first place—they treated it as if the communication was the problem.

But more subtly, look at the structure of the phrase she used: it’s in the passive voice.

Right there, you see someone who's unwilling to own the decision.

Ha…