Mona J. Barnes Written Analysis 5 on my topic of Facebook

            In choosing Facebook as my Popular Culture topic I have come to realize that media as we know it has changed.  In the past there were newspapers, the six o’clock news, radio, and magazines.  People couldn’t wait to get either their local newspapers for updates on what is happening in their communities, or their Sunday papers to get a more in depth worldly news summary of the past week. 

            Today there is a new way of getting that same information, still via the ways listed above but also faster and with online feeds from those same publications, and social media.  This includes Facebook, Twitter, and the other entire fast, on the go sites that give you up to the minute, as-it-is-happening news.  Today along with this, you get pictures of the grandkids that you would have previously had to wait for in the mail, up to the minute updates on your favorite television shows, and your family and friends all in one place and you can reply just as quickly.

            You can buy and sell popular culture items like Barbie, matchbook cars, so many things with online yard sales that are run through the Facebook application on your computers and mobile devices.  Things have become popular and reached far more people through Facebook than in stores.  You are actually not only reacting to popular culture, you are inventing it.  I have become more aware of the commercialism as well as the personal advantages and disadvantages of social media.  Businesses use Facebook applications to not only bring items to your attention for sale or discussion but basically create what they think should be brought to our attention and what merits attention.  They use Facebook as a tool to mold your opinions to what they want them to be. 

            I have become more aware that I need to become more aware of what I am being told, the source of the story or item, and the validity of it.  I initially thought of Facebook as a way to keep in touch with my family and friends, old and new.  Not I believe there is actually a darker or more underlying story to how Facebook presents itself, what it decides we need to see, and even the way in which we will see it.  I have learned to look more critically at these social media applications.  I believe that they can be dangerous to young minds in a way that shapes their thoughts as opposed to letting them decide for themselves.  In only getting the view the sponsors of the site want you to see, you may be blinded to what is really being done to your thought process and formation of values and morals. 

Weekly Analysis #4

  Mona J. Barnes                Weekly Analysis #4   due May 3

            Facebook has a very specific formula that they use and have been using for the past few years.  They have this formula down to a science and make millions of dollars a day due to this formula; which is based on advertising and tracking what you as a user click on, look at, like, or read.

            Advertisers buy space from a popular site to advertise their products or services and of course the more viewers or users Facebook has, the more they can charge for these companies to have their product or service advertised.

            Facebook has a computer generated program that tracks everything that every single user looks at as listed above.  They actually have their site set up in such a way that certain advertisers ads will be seen every so many minutes at certain time intervals. 

            When you click on a page that you want to follow, it will send other things similar to that page to you.  I happen to like Rick Gervais and Karl Pilkington from podcasts; TV shows they have done together, as well as their old radio show in London.  Once I click on Karl Pilkington’s page to follow him, I will get sent many other things of this type (humor, television, podcasts of other comedians). I thought that Facebook was tailor making my page for me.  They are doing that but as a means to make money by having me click on more of their advertisers information, not because they were nice and thought I would be interested. 

            They also use this formula for Facebook users worldwide to see what is attracting the main attention whether it is a product page or a subject matter that is trending.  They will make sure to include those items or stories as one of the top 10 items in their News Feed.  Once they get you interested, you usually have to watch a small video to get to the story you are looking for.  This is where Facebook makes money from us and from the advertisers, a sort of quid pro quo.  They have made millions as advertisers for mobile phones. Most companies, if you read their privacy policies, will tell you that even when you click on the “do not share my information” button, it is really not done, someone finds a way around it to get to you via advertising. 

            This formula, once they figured out the algorithm for the computer to do the tracking, it determines what we see and in what order we see it. This formula has made Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, billions of dollars.