Category: Effects of Social Media

1. Abstract

This paper explains how social media (technology more in general) which now is part of our everyday life was shaped on the basis of the history and culture of the particular social and political needs of a restricted group of users (particularly in academic and military environments). Social media and smart devices arose from the use of basic methods of communication, such as signs, symbols, letter writing, flags, visual signals, lamps, bell ringing, or lights during the First World War. During the war itself, the military had some form of cumbersome transmitters which operated some long wave signals for communication purposes. As the war progressed, the Pilots in warships were using the voice-over radio for communication and were able to link up and share military skills and secrets with ease over very short distances. This was the birth of a new communication trend otherwise known as the birth of social media. The rise of social media and smart devices (Technology) also come about with some adverse consequences which I shall address in this paper.

1.0 Introduction

The history of social media can be traced to before the First World War when the different methods of communication were by the use of signs and symbols. During the war itself, the military started using some form of cumbersome transmitters which operated some long wave signals for communication purposes. As the war progressed, the Pilots in warships were using the voice-over radio for communication and were able to link up and share military skills and secrets with ease over very short distances. This was the birth of a new communication trend otherwise known as social media. In this paper, I will discuss the rise of social media and smart devices as well as some of the adverse consequences of social media. I will also look at the differences between social media and smart devices and how they have been used to shape modern forms of communication.

I will use as my case study, The Republic of Cameroon which is a developing country located in Central Africa to demonstrate how social media has been used in modern days as a liberation tool. I shall also use some African countries to back up my ideas.

1.0 Definitions

1.1a. Social Media

Social media has been defined by the Merriam-Webster website as “all forms of electronic communications through which users create communities to share ideas, personal messages, and other contents. “[1] I personally hold the belief that social media is an avenue where people, businesses, and the general public come together, with friends to communicate, interact, and share ideas of their personal interest using some kind of smart devices.

1.1b. Technology.

Throughout this paper, technology will be used to mean any form of device, system, or method that through any practical or scientific manipulation will yield knowledge and development. This brings about the idea or notion of progress as an extension of other manipulations. ‘To the minds of most people the desirable outcome of human development would be a condition of society in which all the inhabitants of the planet would enjoy a perfectly happy existence’ [2].

1.1c. Machines.

Machines in this paper will be used to mean some kind of defined functions or roles which if performed correctly will yield a particular task. This also brings about the idea that Machines (technology) development is shaped by historical and cultural context. ” the physical conformation and functionality of the machine we use is determined by the history of technologies from which it arose” [3]

2.0 Body:

History holds it that old methods of communication were done using signs, symbols, or even letter writing. Before the First World War, some basic methods of communication were using flags, visual signals, lamps, bell ringing, or lights. This birth of a new communication trend otherwise known as the birth of social media, actually started during the First World War with the military using better forms of communication which became a paradigmatic view on which we have to accommodate. During the years what emerged is just an effort to try to adapt the needs of the users to the machine and not vice versa. More so, what has prevailed is the idea of using social media as a liberation tool rather than a constriction due to its constantly changing functioning mechanism. ” A smart device is a context-aware electronic device capable of performing autonomous computing and connecting to other devices wire or wirelessly for data exchange” [6]I personally do not see a clear distinction between social media and smart devices. Since its inception, social network sites like WhatsApp, Instagram, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc, have attracted millions of users, and many of them have integrated these sites into their daily activities. Some share the view that it is a major means of communication while others use them as a tracking device. In this present generation, I can hardly remember someone who can be for about a day without browsing social media. As we browse, communicate, and use the media, the constantly changing behavior of this site becomes a danger to the public.

The development of social media creates a closed world discourse that shapes the way we think and behave. I will take a case study of Cameroon and its relationship with the mainstream media, located in the central part of Africa with little infrastructure and is deprived of all up-to-date communication facilities. In some areas or sections of the country, there are no roads or electricity thereby making life even more difficult. Social media in Cameroon around the early 1990s. I can remember this period when it was difficult to communicate and share ideas with some of my family members. We had to travel miles or kilometers to be able to talk to someone over a fixed telephone. Texting was not possible and cost was very expensive. More so, it became more difficult, complicated, or even almost impossible to request for someone to call back. The situation gradually began to change with the rise of new technologies like cell phones (old large NOKIA telephones). At this time few people who could afford the cost of cell phones could now communicate, text, and share ideas with families, friends, and business organizations. Towards the middle of the 1990s, there was a speedy rise in mobile and smart devices in the world.” Africa took the lead in the global shift from fixed to mobile telephones, as reported by the UN International Telecommunications Union. “[4]. During this same period, there was a boom in the business of what was popularly called the “Cyber cafes” a place where you could go and use a desktop computer to read and send emails using the desktop computers. Nowadays the use of cell phones and smart devices in Africa, Cameroon in particular is on a steady rise. There are many Internet platforms and applications such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook that allow users to communicate and share ideas, and resolve issues with less stress. Today if we carry out a comprehensive study of the most usable social media application, Facebook in Cameroon we will realise that its usage is on a steady increase. Many people now communicate; share ideas read the news online, and watch TV and football on their mobile phones tablets, etc. Thus social media now makes international news more reachable to everyone. “Social media is now considered the first port of call for news amongst a substantial proportion of the Affluent population”[5]. In Cameroon in particular, they enjoy the social media platform as a place or tool for free speech they often use it to call for democracy in their country.

Some may argue that this shift in paradigm from the normal use of cell phones to more interactive use has brought about civilization and has awakened awareness in the continent. Politicians and the government do not share this same view. The most recent event is in the crises of the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon, where the government through its Minister of Communications shut down the internet and the widely used social media platform for more than six months because it was believed to be widely used to give live updates to Cameroonians living in the Diaspora on the events taking place on the ground and to decimate information faster. The government argues here that social media was used as a medium to spread false images of the armed conflicts between government forces and separatist fighters in these two regions of the country. The government also cited social media as a threat to destroy the form of the unitary state of the country. The government and other political leaders now see social media as a threat to their leadership since it is capable of revealing some internal information about the government with just a click. Another most recent event in Africa was the social media app “#This Flag campaign” which was a popular Twitter campaign site to force the resignation of President Mugabe of Zimbabwe from power. Another recent event in Cameroon was the ANTISADINAS which is a current and popular site to force President Biya to step down from power In so far as social media is used to map out a communication chain between people bringing them into a social network to share ideas and communicate, I argue here that the governments of most African countries try to wrap the social media with politics thereby denying the acceptable shift in paradigm of the use of the social media as a liberation tool.

2.1 Conclusion:

Though we can perceive social media as a platform where people around the world come together with opinions, views, and ideas online to share, Its usage goes far beyond this. Africans use social media for personal development, and to raise money for education, health, and business purposes. At the same time, they use it to clamor for change in their country as we saw in the “#This Flag campaign”. ” ANTISADINAS” in Cameroon. One of the consequential effects of social media is that there could be a spread of false information from the original version through Photoshop which sometimes results in the clash of views from the information shared online compared with its “appropriate” content leading to cybercrimes and threats to national security. I argue here that to carry out a comprehensive study of social media we should create some kind of awareness of how the information of the past can inform and shape the present. We can therefore conclude that social media is the driving force of technological progress which we need to follow not the other way around.

References

1. PolinaMarinova, Fortune, ‘Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman on Bitcoin: “I Was Raised in a World Where Someone Needs to Control Currencies”,’ 17 Sep. 2019
2. Bury, J.B. The Idea of Progress. London: Macmillan, 1920.
3. Penny, Simon. Experience and Abstraction, The arts and the logic of the machine. DAC 07 proceedings, also online at Fibreculture 08v1
4. Measuring the Information Society: The ICT Development Index, 2009.
5. The 5th Affluent Survey Africa, released by Ipsos on 13th September 2018
6. Azhar, S., & Cox, A. J. (2015). Impact of mobile tools and technologies on job site operations. 51st ASC Annual International Conference Proceedings,]

Social media is used as a photo-sharing platform that connects you with people from all over the world social media was originally invented so friends and family can stay in touch but evolved into a world of photo-sharing with strangers and influencers. The first recognizable social media 6 Degrees was created in 1997 social media is undeniably popular with over 3.2 billion users that’s 8 in 10 people. 95% of these people are teenagers a true 12 to 17 everyone knows so she has a big impact on people’s lives but there a both good and bad effects to this impact.

Come on known common effects that mental health such as anxiety and depression there are other effects for instance addictions, social skills, behavioral issues, and insomnia. However there are less known effects that could be fatal, for example, Takosubo cardiomyopathy also known as broken heart syndrome. Although Takosubo Cardiomyopathy has no common cause it is associated with stress shock anxiety and depression for example when a person is very stressed or depressed it begins to put pressure on the heart and the heart eventually becomes stressed and stressed that will cause disruption in the way the heartbeat and can cause clotting along with numerous other problems such as Plamonart Edema which is a buildup of fluid in the lungs and hypertension more commonly known as low blood pressure. The disruption in the hat can go undetected and commonly cause more serious issues like heart failure stroke and heart attacks with these conditions you will need procedures such as an angiogram which can escalate into bypasses and cardio stents.

Over 450 million people suffer from some sort of mental health illness 1 in 5 teens are affected. As social media has become more popular mental health issues have dramatically increased depression along with anxiety and more common depression affects on average 2 in 5 people every year and that number continues to rise depression is a feeling of disconnection, seclusion from the world, a feeling of never-ending sadness, of course, everyone feels sad from time to time but the feeling eventually goes but someone with depression has a sad feeling all the time with little or no upside to the sadness people with depression after say it feels like a never-ending circle of sadness and that there is no light at the end of the tunnel, unfortunately, some people lose sight of the direction their lives cooks take them, they give up and commit suicide. Anxiety on the other hand affects on average three or five people and that number also continues to rise anxiety often turns into depression anxiety is where people feel very anxious about something for example an aspect of themselves that be the white flannel how tall they are they will do anything to fix this and most the time they begin to lock themselves inside and away from people this slowly spiraling into depression around 4 million people suffer with anxiety a year social media is linked to anxiety due to body image people wanting to look like these influences and receive the likes they have.

Social media also causes addiction which can lead to behavioral issues insomnia and lack of social skills which can lead straight back to depression social media is thought to be more addictive than drugs smoking and drinking. More and more people are becoming addicted to social media which will affect their social skills research is showing that as the generations move on their communication skills are becoming poorer. Social media also makes profound changes in the brain people are becoming more infatuated with receiving likes and follows on social media and when they receive the desired amount of likes and followers they release dopamine in the brain, dopamine is the chemical in the brain that creates a feeling of happiness when they receive what they desire this creates a feeling of pleasure a similar feeling experience when someone wins the lottery. Furthermore, addiction causes behavioral issues as teenagers especially can be influenced by everything around them social media is making a big impact on their lives and often influences every decision they make from what they wear buy, and eat.

Throughout the years, school violence has not only left scars in our society but in our entire nation. Other than home, schools are the single most important place in the development of teenagers and children, schools are supposed to be a safe haven. Teens and children are taught how to grow socially and school provides opportunities to reach milestones to become the people we will be today and in our future. Simple things such as religion, sexuality, and race can lead straight to bullying in todays society. More than one out of seven students have been victim to assault and physical assault in their own school. Even today the impact of school violence is not fully understood more than the cause. School violence such as bullying and school shootings puts all hope and development to an abrupt stop. School violence has become a leading concern in the 21st century, the current rise in school violence is caused by increased exposure to social media, decreased access to outside mental health resources, and simple access to weapons.

Social media allows us to have the social freedom we desire, but in this we find that many people take this to their own advantage to purposely hurt and bully others. From violent video games, violent media, to problems in their own home, teens have taken bullying to a whole other level. Teen brains are not fully developed until the age of 21 and what they see and take in now will forever affect the way they think. Most Media today focus’ and often glorifies the violence going on around the world today. With millions of teens watching this, they absorb all of this information. Violent video games such as Grand Theft Auto, and Call Of Duty can, in some teens, trigger the emotional part of the brain called the amygdala which emotes feelings such as depression, anger, aggression, and impulsive behavior. These emotions can often take control for the better or worse. Aggression and impulsive behavior play a huge part in the bullying of others because of they way that the perpetrators think. “Brain changes, aggressive behavior, poor decision making.” The things that teens or children take in play a huge part in their decision making, especially in school. Social media is the perfect platform for bullies to target others.13.6% of teens and children are involved in some type of cyber bullying, whether they are the victim or the perpetrator.

There are plenty of methods of cyber bullying being used in and out of school in social media today. Beginning with harassment; the use of text messages, direct messages, or email are used to target or embarrass the victim. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook are the best places to spread rumors or create fake accounts to mock or ridicule others. Arising from these harsh comments and ridicule, children and teens become self conscious and think that they will never fit in. These feelings usually lead to depression because the thought of people thinking badly or maliciously toward you is overbearing. The constant backlash from bullies leaves a bruise every time on those who cannot handle it, unfortunately there are many who have committed suicide because of this. Exclusion is another form of bullying, this makes specific targets feel like they don’t belong anywhere or fit in to any group. Outing is the sharing of victims personal information or secrets. “Instead of controlling your child’s online access, focus your efforts on educating your child about the risks of cyberbullying.” All of these types of bullying on social media may make a permanent mental imprint on some people, leading to various unwanted feelings. Many teens today may not be able to speak to anyone about it because they feel like they’re alone. Some can’t even afford to seek out therapy or mental health resources. It is of upmost importance that those being bullied have access to any type of help.

Mental health is important for adolescents because it helps them achieve wellbeing and helps to have a positive mentality throughout their years into adulthood. Teaching adolescents how to deal with coping, good judgment, bullying and resilience is important for the development of their character and how to handle issues that will come now or in the future. However, not many teens can have access to mental health resources due to various reasons. “Over 15 million children and adolescents need psychiatric help, but only about 8,300 child and adolescent psychiatrists practice in the United States.” There has been a shortage of physiatrists in the US which means that not many adolescents can find mental help which is a huge problem. Acts such as the Affordable care act causes socialized health care, and in that, it has caused that type of environment. Therefore companies lack competition and have no necessity to outcompete one another causing rates to drive up and making people choose from few mental health care companies. Medicaid is not provided by the federal government like the affordable care act, Medicaid is provided from states themselves. It is funded through tax payer money and Medicaid helps promote those who cannot afford the healthcare options that don’t cover their symptoms or needed help. The real question is what can schools can do to prevent violence inside of school and how to provide help to those who need it.

Since teachers and faculty have the experience and training working with each other, they can play major roles in preventing school violence in their own school. Counselors and school officials can begin by addressing and trying to figure out the amount of bullying or violence happening in their school under the radar. They should also monitor and offer help to those who seem distressed so that their emotions do not grow into something that can potentially cause violence or harassment. Many schools do not offer or even pay much mind to the mental health of their students, it is a silent epidemic. “Up to one in five kids living in the U.S. shows signs or symptoms of a mental health disorder in a given year. So in a school classroom of 25 students, five of them may be struggling with many issues such as depression, anxiety, etc.” Research also shows that 1 in 10 students have severe emotional issues that may affect the way they act in school and at home. Teachers can inform and communicate with parents of anything they may come across so that parents can also be more vigilant with their child. By addressing the amount of violence and emotional development in school and putting in our part, we can reduce the number of violent cases in schools, especially with weapons.

In today’s society, access to weapons has become very easy in adolescents.” Almost one-third of all homes contain guns with estimates that 50 million Americans own 300 million guns. Despite continuing educational efforts, the majority of these guns are kept loaded, unlocked, and potentially accessible to children.” In homes, parents usually keep their weapons or firearms at hand, whether it be a kitchen knife, or a firearm kept under the bed or in the closet. Research has showed that if a gun is stored in a home, the risk of the child stealing it or even suicide increases majorly. Adolescents are prone to taking risks, at this stage of brain development it is shown that they are drawn to risky behavior. Therefore, keeping weapons at hand would not be such a good idea. Parents must play a part in keeping these firearms safe in their own house, they shouldn’t keep their weapons at hand for their children to get a hold of. It is as easy as storing it in a drawer unloaded locked with a key or simply keeping it u loaded wherever they are storing it. As previously said, adolescent brains are not developed until the age of 21, therefore the child or teens mindset is prone to making risky or curious behavior. Mental health is also something that has to be paid mind to in your child.

Teens may act without thinking in most cases. If teens have emotional issues they may see a gun or weapon as a easy way out or a way to harm others. Most mass school shootings usually come from troubled teens. Nikolas Cruz, 20, Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooter, has many bullying issues. Cruz was ostracized by his own classmates, made fun of, this turned him to become violent and volatile. His emotions and feelings became so overwhelming that he began practicing shooting whether it was in video games or make belief, but what led him to all of this was bullying, not enough parental guidance, and easy access to weapons in his own home. Adam Lanza, 20, Sandy Hook Elementary Shooter, was also bullied. When he attended Sandy Hook Elementary, he was taunted, and assaulted. This got so bad that his mother, Nancy Lanza, considered suing the school. All of this led up to him beginning to play violent video games, he racked up thousands of headshots in a couple days alone. He had many emotional issues such as aggression, depression, etc. He was prescribed medicine to help him with his emotions everyday. He also has easy access to his mother’s multiple guns which is what led him to the shooting itself. All of these shooters were bullied in young age. It is very important to treat others kindly because you never know what one “small” insult can cause a person to feel or do. “Remember, you are responsible for the safety and well-being of your children. And since guns are found in more than one-third of all American households – even if your family doesn’t have them, chances are your child will visit a house that does.” Weapons are very dangerous and should not be exposed to adolescents in their own household or others. It is best to keep them concealed and away from young teens. It is always better to be safe than sorry.

In conclusion, school violence is caused by a variety of things, from social media, to no access to mental health, and easy weaponry access. It may leave scars in our nation, but as a nation all should learn how to work together to put all of this to a stop. The nation needs to learn all of the causes of school violence so everyone can make schools the safe haven they are supposed to be. Throughout the centuries school violence has become worse and worse, but everybody should put in their part to make this nation a better place for the children of the future. Through these experiences, there is always a lesson, free will does not come without a cost, the job is figuring out how to better it so bad things can be prevented from happening

YouTube has been a long-standing platform where people filmed everyday lifestyle videos. However, it is no longer enough to produce engaging content that satisfies oneself. With increasing pressure to stand out by feeding the algorithm that promotes a video’s popularity, it has become common for modern-day Youtubers to seek professional help in their video content production. Consequently, a new layer of jobs has emerged, one that people do not intuitively regard – farming out professional video editing to third parties. In the context of YouTube, I will be investigating the repercussions of the Reputation Economy and the responsibilities of platforms, as well as providing my evaluation and recommendations.

Reputation Economy of YouTube and how it encourages self-promotion

The landscape of YouTube is drastically different from when it first started years back. Today, the number of subscribers, likes, and comments generated from posting a video has become strongly correlated with the success of a Youtuber, which can be explained by the “Reputation Economy”. The Reputation Economy is a cultural and economic system that has come to prioritize the online reputation as a form of capital, giving rise to efforts of self-promotion. With a Youtuber’s online reputation built into a system whereby his number of subscribers and likes for a particular video is prominently displayed and represented qualitatively, viewers can easily compare a Youtuber’s popularity and perceived competence. Views, likes, and comment count eventually influence the decisions of users when viewing or sharing videos (Shifman, 2013). A YouTuber’s visibility is equated to his credibility, which encourages self-promotion, and the active managing of his metrics, and visibility. To build a strong online reputation, these Youtubers have to regularly produce high-quality content in order to promote themselves.

YouTubers need to constantly keep up with the algorithm to maintain their reputation

Once these Youtubers have garnered a reputation, they need to exercise consistency in content creation or risk losing favor with the algorithm. Top Youtubers feel compelled to make nonstop videos for an ever-growing audience. Some creators even clock 80- to 100- hour workweeks just to maintain their status. Since the algorithm dictates where talent ranks, creators are deterred from taking breaks due to the fear that they will face a drop in their ranking. (Spangler, 2018). As such, to keep up with the frequency of video production, it has become a norm for many Youtubers to seek professional help in their content creation. (Walker, 2019).

The burnout Youtubers face as a result of trying to maintain their reputation

“It’s toxic: the point at which you are breaking down is the point at which the algorithm loves you the most”, said top Youtuber, Matt Lees. Other prominent YouTubers such as Michelle Phan explained her fatigue and eventual burnout from maintaining her YouTube channel, even with production assistance. Burnout is a problem that has affected hundreds of Youtubers. Numerous prominent Youtubers have taken breaks, but the rate of creators who mentally burn out is drastically higher. (Dodgson, 2019).

Evaluating YouTube’s effectiveness in addressing burnout & why it should do more

YouTube operates under a gig economy whereby most of the cost is offloaded to the worker, except in this case, at the expense of a YouTuber’s mental health. Currently, YouTube addresses this issue by posting a series of short introductory videos where licensed therapists discuss burnout. Yet, this is clearly not enough as many YouTubers continue to burn out. As YouTubers are the main value drivers of the platform, YouTube should do more to take care of their well-being. Not doing so eventually drives out talented Youtubers from the platform and replaces them with new creators who ride on the metric-driven Reputation Economy of YouTube. Instead, YouTube should treat all YouTubers as valued workers who are unique and irreplaceable, as not doing so may also cause fans who are viewers of their favored YouTubers to leave the platform, which is detrimental to the sustainability of the platform as a whole.

Are the algorithms to blame or the people behind it?

At a glance, it seems like the constantly changing algorithms are indeed fuelling the burnout as YouTubers frequently fret over how to display their content accordingly. (Walker, 2018). However, it may not be reasonable to attribute full blame to the algorithms. As Youtubers get bigger, they start to get overly caught up with extracting value out of the creator-subscriber relationship. Instead of focusing on what value they can provide to their viewers and reaping rewards as a by-product, they are obsessed with producing content that maximizes their rewards. What initially started off as a platform to connect passionate creators to viewers might have evolved into one whereby YouTubers are more caught up with the monetary value that can be extracted from their content. For instance, popular YouTubers such as Alisha Marie claimed that her reason for taking breaks was that she no longer had pride in her content. As such, the people behind the algorithms have larger blame for the situation.

Evaluating whether the Reputation Economy of YouTube results in gain or exploitation

The user metrics of YouTube skyrocket over time coupled with the constantly changing fuels of the Reputation Economy and self-promotion. Arguably, this led to an economic gain in the form of a new layer of jobs being created. However, upon deeper analysis, there is more exploitation than gain. Firstly, in order to suit the changing algorithms, creators have to put in substantial hours behind the scenes doing editing, and script writing for their videos. The hours put in are substantial, but the payoff is usually uncertain since YouTubers cannot ascertain for sure how much they will make. YouTube pays YouTubers on a pay-per-view basis, and sometimes, YouTubers get fewer views than expected due to factors such as people not being online at the time the video was posted and the algorithm not showing the videos on subscription feeds. Collectively, there is the exploitation of YouTubers since their efforts are not commensurate to their payoff, even though they contribute to the platform with content.

Secondly, it leads to a “winner-take-all market” – Only the top Youtubers with a strong reputation capture a large share of the “rewards”, while budding YouTubers have expressed their discontent that the platform protects a handful of stars, promoting them at the expense of the masses struggling to break out. YouTube’s search and recommendation algorithms accelerate the convergence of views towards a few content providers. (Kim, 2012). Only very few can enter the top 3% most viewed channel, which fetch $16,800 in advertising revenue per year. (Bartl, 2018). Popular Youtubers with a strong online reputation and thus high channel traffic garner more views, which is equivalent to their “wages”. Conversely, those with weaker reputations may get fewer views as the algorithm favors them less, regardless of their effort and production of quality content, leading to the exploitation of those with a weaker reputation.

How YouTube and the community (viewers and creators) can improve the situation

Perhaps YouTube can ease the problem of burnout by blocking YouTuber’s access to hyper-specific metrics such as when and where people stop watching videos, which makes it easy for YouTubers to obsess over the numbers in an effort to improve their likes and subscribers. Instead, this potentially encourages YouTubers to channel their energy into producing the best possible work. Additionally, it is necessary to inculcate heightened awareness and thus empathy for viewers and creators, that people on the platform are real people who have feelings, make mistakes, and need time to themselves just like any other human being. For creators, it is essential to take a step back whenever they feel that their effort outpaces the reward. For viewers, it is pertinent to manage expectations rather than harbor unrealistic expectations for Youtubers, because they are just any other human being at the end of the day.

Facebook is the most famous social network website that people can connect across countries and all over the world. Facebook has around 800 million active users. It focuses on social relations among people who can share their common activities, ambitions, interests, and experiences.

But in the last few years, Facebook is found to be losing clients because of security problems as data attacks. It became a source for sharing news than of social network as usual.

In this research, we intend to discuss the reasons of this attack as well as Facebook features.

1. INTRODUCTION

A social network is a service website which allows users who have similar interests to contact together and share information, photos also videos.

In addition, people use social network in personal endeavor to communicate by many forms of media to contact and show their interests as well as their life events. The most famous social networking websites are Facebook, Google, Twitter.

Also they can use social network for business purposes as marketing. Enterprise can use social networks as their main platforms like Socialcast and Yammer.

Facebook is a famous social network service launched in February 2004, operated and owned by Facebook Inc.

2. HISTORY OF FACEBOOK

Facebook website founder is Mark Zuckerberg, Chris Hughes, and Dustin Moskovitz in 2004 who were students at Harvard University. First, membership was restricted to Harvard College students, during the first month, around half of the undergraduate population was registered on Facebook service.

Mark Zuckerberg and others promoted Facebook website. After that most of United states universities use Facebook.

Day after day, Facebook became an interesting investment for entrepreneurs, Facebook became incorporated in 2004.

3. FACEBOOK AS PERFECT SOCIAL WEBSITE

Facebook is the most effective social media marketing platform. Here we will discuss reasons of why Facebook is the most effective social media tool:

1. Facebook is the most famous social network. As there is around 1.4 billion users and visit it around 900 million users per day.
2. Facebook users encompass all demographics. If the users are trying to reach various types of users from different ages, Facebook is the suitable choice.
3. Facebook is “sticky.” users spend average 40 minutes per day. As time spent on Facebook means more interaction with business there.
4. Facebook is growing. Facebook dominate the use of social media as well as it shows no signs of slowing.
5. Facebook advertisement service is affordable. Facebook advertisements average cost is around 5.99 dollars per thousand impressions. Also users can control the budget so the marketing costs are expected.
6. Facebook advertisement service is highly targeted. As businessmen can target wide audience range factors as locations, ages, and interests.
7. Facebook allows reach out to website users. Facebook allows users to show advertisements to people who visited the business website previously.
8. Facebook allows spreading from Friends to Friends of Friends. If the target customers see Facebook posts and advertisements, Facebook Friends will be able to see them too, addition effectiveness to Facebook market efforts.
9. Facebook helps measuring results. Facebook Insight tools allow tracking the Facebook market results, as advertisements and posts. Also the user can get detailed information about prospective customers and how to engage him with business at Facebook and number of likes and compare to past measures, engagement type ( comments, shares).

4. FACEBOOK DATA LACK AND ATTACK

Facebook has around 50 million accounts breached by an unauthorized access harvesting attack. It was expected that around 40 million may compromised so in all 90 million of the users reset their credentials.

This breach attack is the most dangerous in Facebook history and there is a trial to determine if the attackers misused accounts or stole users private information.

The attack origin is still a type of mysteries, but the hacker accessed digital keys of the users and the attacker has full control of accounts of victims, including log in the third-party apps that use Facebook Login. First, the administrators said there is no need for users to change passwords. But users have troubles in log in as some of them forgot their password.

5. FACEBOOK BREACH NATURE

In 2018, was the year of the Facebook biggest terrible events in terms of security and it faced massive data attack breach where millions of users accounts were manipulated by political interests contributing Brexit and US president Donald Trump election; the spiraling of the ‘fake news’ epidemic and Facebook’s initial pooh-poohing of its seriousness as well as fears that Russian hackers have infiltrated Facebook social network.

The breach attack was discovered on 25 September 2018 and 50 million accounts were affected. After that Facebook turn off View As feature as it conducts a thorough review.

The administrators said that the breach exploited complex interaction of many issues in Facebook’s code.

Most users didn’t know they have been affected until they were asked to log in.

6. THE BREACH REASONS

Facebook has not been forthcoming with the details. It is hard to know if the administrators have no information about the hackers.

According to an official release, a feature on Facebook called “View as” had a bug and hackers exploited it.

This “View as” feature for users, they can see their Facebook account page just as someone else would see it. Hackers used “View as” feature to log in as account holders.

The administrators say that the breach was because of three bugs that compounded the security flaws in View as feature, so it opens a hole for hackers to steal information. These bugs were faced in 2017 when Facebook changes affect video uploading feature. In the last year, Facebook added a new feature to make it easy for users to post “happy birthday” videos, and this open the hole for security flaws that led to this breach.

7. FACEBOOK TREND

Facebook is one of the top three of return on investment (ROI) between all the social networks. By comparison, 63.5 percent of respondents ranked Twitter and 40.1 percent ranked Instagram among the top three ROI drivers.

The start of Facebook was in 2014 with around 60 million users. Then Facebook continue to develop in incredible increasing number of users until the top in the start of 2018 it reaches 220 million users but the drop was at the mid of 2018 when the breach occurs the drop started gradually with around 100 million users.

Facebook said that there is investigation around the hackers and the problem has been solved. In 2019 there is light increase and we are all waiting for the results of the investigations.

8. FACEBOOK PLATFROM OF SHARING NEWS THAN OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATION

On Facebook, the largest social media platform, news is a common but incidental experience, according to an initiative of Pew Research Center in collaboration with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Half of users of Facebook users -adult, 47%, knew their news from Facebook. This percent is around 30% of Facebook population. Most American adults do not go to Facebook searching for news, instead, the majority of Facebook news users, 78%, get the news when they are on Facebook for other reasons.

However, this survey introduced an evidence that Facebook exposes users to news either they want or not. So 38% are the only percent of Facebook news followers who say that Facebook is an important method for them to get news, and 47% among users who follow the news less often. Younger adults are engaged with Facebook news. That far outpaces the 20% that they account for among the users who do not get news on the site.

Younger adults between 18 and 29 year old get their news from Facebook from topics at roughly the same levels as older age groups, turn there as often for breaking news and deem the site as important a source of news.

9. FACEBOOK FEATURES

The main feature in Facebook is the ability to organize newsfeed and contacts. If using personal profile like a marketing tool (that accept all friendship requests) also the user can sort out friends list as family members. Facebook main features are:

1. Organize Friends List. Open home news feed and under explore tab on the left-hand side you will see friends list through it you can add friends and organize categories.
2. Groups. The user can utilize groups as part of marketing strategy. Groups are a nice method to grow the interested community for product and services. This allows to connect and provide information to members.
3. Watch Party. The ability to have a group of streaming videos for your members to view and comment on. The user can share videos on Facebook from different pages. The user can create a watch party, so the post will look like a normal post, but the next step will allow selection of videos. This can be through the following:

   Search – look for related videos on Facebook

   Pages – choose video from page

   Watched – select videos that you have previously watched on Facebook

   Groups – select a posted video in a group

   Live –into the party

   Saved – choose from saved videos

   Suggested – pick video from videos

4. Notification to members. The user as an admin for the groups has a tool to support Facebook by asking direct question. If members break the group rules, Facebook will notify members about the broken rules and add notes about removed post.
5. Filter the content. Any member at the group can filter the content he see, and can choose from notified posts, from friends or highlights. Groups became a great place to organize contents, notify members and get real-time value.
6. Scheduled Posts. The user can schedule contents to be posted by choosing inside Facebook Groups, like Facebook Page options!
7. Facebook Group Insights. The insights are going to give admins only at this stage, information about the growth of groups as well as membership details.
8. Messages. The third party application are called Many Chat, so the user will be able to again build list and talk to subscribers in real time using mobile devices. Facebook messenger has a great open rate compared to email marketing. Facebook encourages adding messenger button to the posts and adding a call action to the messenger. This allows making conversions and engagement with fans.
9. Royalty Free Music. There is no need to worry about posts or videos uploaded to be banned from Facebook because of copyright. Under the publishing tools, there is an ability to find the sound collection. The site contains many tunes available for download, add to our videos and all royalty-free.
10. Live streaming to multiple pages. Live streaming is the strategy to connect with fans on Facebook. Facebook can encourage users to have live streaming and create their own show. Broadcasting content to your audience increase users expertise and promote engagement. A related feature is the ability to make live streaming to many pages, which is called cross-promoting.
11. Scrapbooking. The scrapbooking feature allows parents to create photos scrapbook album for children and the parents are only who can tag children and share images in the scrapbook, the parents can customize the privacy settings on photos.

10. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHANGES

There are lots of things many users wish Facebook do. As stopping political advertisements, because of trying to enforce gamed rules seems to have trouble than it’s worth. We wish Facebook get rid of all the News Feed rankings altogether.

Here we will discuss some changes that Facebook should change as:

• Add ephemeral controls for News Feed posts

  In the last year, Mark told investors that he thought ephemeral video Stories will become more popular among users than posts in feeds. After that, Mark admitted that Story sharing on Facebook grew slower than expected, and started emphasizing the emergence of a “feed-plus-stories world.” But users think Facebook has one part of the equation right as people want to share ephemerally in News Feed, without trying to persuade them to share more videos instead of text. We as Facebook users love to have the ability to make our posts disappear within 24 hours.

• Give the option of reporting irrelevant notifications

  If the user is absent for example for three days and he got Facebook emails notification that friends shared a link or posted a new photo so this is disturbing thing as the user can’t take a break from irrelevant notifications. Facebook should give the users the ability to manage what represents irrelevant notifications for them.

• Share details about time spending on Facebook

  Facebook should join phone makers as Apple on the Facebook mobile app, to allow users see how much time they spent on the app, and allow receiving a push notification when they spent more than desired amount of time.

• Offer a subscription option in exchange for no ads

  That’s one reasons of Facebook last attacks. Facebook has managed to irritate the group who could affect the company’s operations as lawmakers. Facebook failed to stop Cambridge Analytica from obtaining users data, this put Zuckerberg to be judged in front of Congress for the first time, with lawmakers handing down threats of regulation if Facebook couldn’t make more to protect the privacy of their user.

• Set ethical advertisements policies for other firms

  Facebook should change the way they address users privacy concerns that might have harmful effects on the rest of the world. Limiting the targeted advertisements as well as giving the users the control over their data are steps towards the right direction.

The creation of Facebook direction should be to respect users privacy by providing features that can enable marketers to deliver targeted advertisements ethically will be a balancing act.

11. CONCLUSION

A social network is a service website which allows users who have similar interests to contact together and share information, photos also videos.

Facebook website founder is Mark Zuckerberg, Chris Hughes, and Dustin Moskovitz in 2004 who were students at Harvard University. Facebook is the most effective social media marketing platform.

Facebook has around 50 million accounts breached by an unauthorized access harvesting attack. It was expected that around 40 million may compromised so in all 90 million of the users reset their credentials.

This breach attack is the most dangerous in Facebook history and there is a trial to determine if the attackers misused accounts or stole users private information.

REFERENCES

1. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/5-things-facebook-needs-to-change-now-to-restore-confidence-according-to-security-experts-2019-02-25
2. https://www.journalism.org/2013/10/24/the-role-of-news-on-facebook/
3. https://nealschaffer.com/facebook-features/
4. https://venturebeat.com/2019/01/05/4-ways-facebook-should-improve-in-2019/
5. http://techgenix.com/facebook-data-breach/
6. https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/facebook-statistics/
7. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/FB/facebook/stock-price-history
8. https://www.siliconrepublic.com/enterprise/facebook-data-breach-questions-access-tokens-third-parties
9. https://www.web.com/blog/grow/social-media/9-reasons-facebook-is-the-most-effective-social-media-marketing-tool
10. https://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/social-network
11. https://www.slideshare.net/Ayesha839/facebook-ppt-phase-3
12. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271013529_Facebook_usage_socialization_and_academic_performance
13. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691612442904?journalCode=ppsa

The differentiating effects of gender have been studied in various fields regarding Internet use due to it being such a basic demographic variable. When comparing Internet usage between men and women, it is clear that men have a much higher rate of usage, exploring a broader range of sites, however, women show a higher frequency of social media usage (Biernatowska et al. 2017). Studies have shown that more often, men play online games, contribute to discussion groups and visit gambling and pornography sites. Conversely, women show more interest in using the Internet for communication purposes which can be achieved through social networking sites such as Facebook (Ono & Zavodny 2016; Joiner et al. 2012).

According to Hargittai (2007), when comparing the use of social media between men and women, the differentiation between the two aren’t statistically significant, however, women are more likely to spend a higher frequency of their daily Internet time on Facebook compared to men. Thompson and Lougheed (2012) found that women also find themselves spending more time on Facebook than intended. These reports include feeling signs of addiction as the effects include having a negative perception of their image when seeing pictures of others, feeling anxiety and stress while on and off the platform and losing sleep. Additionally, women spend more time posting pictures, making status updates, and sending private messages and friend requests (Muscanell & Guadagno 2012). Men, however, show fewer signs of addiction, as they use Facebook for making friends, online dating, learning about events and gaming more than women. (Raacke & Bonds-Raacke 2008; Muscanell & Guadagno 2012; Joiner et al. 2012).

In order to differentiate how men and women use Facebook, it is crucial to understand the different styles of Facebook usage. As stated by (Biernatowska et al. 2017), there are six different styles of Facebook use, all differing among its users. The first style relates to general use which includes everyday activities such as communicating with other users and scrolling through the site as a form of leisure. The second style concerns users who use Facebook solely for the purpose of gaining visibility. This includes posting status updates and media on a daily basis, as these users are most notably celebrities. The third style is associated with gamers who mainly use the platform for gaming purposes, however, this is no longer prevalent as the frequency of playing games on the platform has decreased over recent years.

The fourth style relates to users who pay close attention to how they are perceived on the platform and what they post, creating a picture-perfect representation of themselves. Users who employ the second style are most likely to also utilize this style, as creating a virtual showcase can contribute to more visibility. The fifth style correlates with fan page members who use the platform to receive frequent updates about their subject of interest and contribute to discussions on the page. Lastly, the sixth style concerns users who seek information on the platform such as news. Considering this information, it is essential to recognize how preferred styles differ between men and women and how it could lead to either gender using Facebook more.

This article was issued in May 2012 by Stephen Marche in The Atlantic. In this article, he told us about the technology which was more connected to our lives even more than from our still but still by using this person themselves lonely.

From the last three decades, in a country like New York people fed on extra socializing and have much less time for the real society. We live in logical contradiction the more they feel alone. We were guaranteed that we have inhabitant surveys to express huge suburbs of data. However, this is the main reason why people feel more loneliness because more than 800 million people were using social sites and Facebook is one of them. Facebook is becoming a vast day by day because the usage of Facebook is more than the coffee industry.

It is not the simple isolation which is rising sharply. Its depression as well which make people unhealthy. However , if some people have external issue loneliness is not the only reason. For example, the Dutch Twins had some anxiety because of depression. In 2010 AARP survey found that 35% of adult children are desolate because they have a lot of loneliness in their lives and might be suffering through depression and have theirs through doctors.

Another having a less friend circle is also the reason for loneliness. It might be because of confidence because about 20 to25 % people have confident to talk to the people. That is why they told us that before Facebook interacting people face to face is the socializing so that can connect with the different people. But some people might not like they don’t like to meet different people from which they also suffer from the loneliness so being in depression or living alone problem existed before Facebook.

We can get all the things in Facebook whichever we want we can like them by clicking a button of like and we can also write comments but by the press of like button is less satisfied then the personalized messages from we can interact more than any else. Moreover, people use it just to spend a time on like checking their friend’s accounts they don’t have the any valid to use Facebook. However, some people find that Facebook is not the reason for loneliness. A person who uses facebook can experience the different things by reading the other people thinking and what happens with the life they can motivate by reading them.

Moderately it depends on a people that how they are using it. They tell us that social media do different advertisement from which get to know about that what is happening around the world when the football tournament is going similarly they get to know about the different things happening around the world. Basically, technology has been made so that lives of every people become easy whether it is related to their work, to their personal issues because of technology people can’t depend on each other they buy their own. However, sometimes people feel embraced to show their feelings in front of others but because of Facebook, they can update their status by posting pictures and videos.

More than 700 million pictures get posted on facebook by different people within a weekend. However, people who were 13 to 34 years old check their facebook after waking up early in the morning whereas 28% do this when they came out their bed. Wistfulness, it would be the unreasonable in any case because Facebook tells us about human nature, and tell the bond with others. And people deny thinking about ourselves because they have connected to the Facebook more than their personal lives.

Introduction

A range of computing applications has been evolved in the past decades but nothing as popular as Facebook. Facebook is one of the most globally popular social media platforms in today’s world. According to a report by statista.com, there were 2.7 billion active monthly users during the second quarter of 2020 and 1.82 billion daily active users during the third quarter of 2020.

Facebooks impact on the global economy is also tremendous. According to a report by Deloitte Facebook was responsible for 227 billion US dollars and 4.5 million jobs globally in 2014 .

To further understand how computing has changed our way of life and its socioeconomic impact on our daily lives let’s look at a survey conducted by one of Europe’s leading economic firms. Copenhagen economics had surveyed 7700 businesses across all industries and sizes in 15 European countries. The survey has shown that Facebook has helped them to produce 208 billion euros worth of revenues, economically speaking an estimated 3.1 million jobs last year.

For this reason, I believe that Facebook is the best example and a perfect platform to study to understand and explore the socioeconomic impacts, challenges, opportunities, inequality, and ethical issues that have come with computing technologies.

Socio-economic Impact

Facebook has changed our lives in many ways. Whether we know it or not the way we think and see things is greatly influenced by various social media platforms and Facebook is at the forefront. It has a tremendous impact on our economic, social, cultural, and political aspects of our daily lives. Facebook has changed the traditional way of communication. Nowadays using Facebook, you can hang with your friends regardless of geographic location and get updated with each other on a daily basis. It has also created an opportunity for a lot of people to find like-minded people and build communities. By connecting over two billion people Facebook has changed the way we see the world. People can share cultures, learn new things which result in understanding each other, and promoting shared values and goals across the globe. It also creates an opportunity to create businesses and get connected to billions of people. It has also provided us with a platform where individual users can advertise to sell things as it has a dedicated marketplace. Facebook has also a great influence in political elections. Political parties and candidates can engage and mobilize a wider community easily compared to the traditional way of using the mainstream media. It also creates an opportunity for the wider community to raise awareness regarding the various issues that arise in their society and forcing politicians to address them. Although different computing applications have proved that they have significant importance in our daily lives and have played an important role in uplifting our standard of living there is a major issue that has come with them and needs to be addressed which is social inequality. One of the major inequalities concerning Facebook is the digital divide.

The digital divide is the gap between regions and demographics that have access to modern internet infrastructure services. It exists globally between developing and developed nations and locally between cities and rural areas. For instance, if we see the gap between Africa and the west while only 27% of the African population has access to the internet, around 90% of Europeans and North Americans have access to the internet.Furthermore, the digital divide among developing nations is much higher (between rural areas and cities) compared to the developed nations. As Facebook is based on internet infrastructure digital divide is one of the major issues of Facebook. The cost of using Facebook and the ability to use it on daily basis is also another factor that creates inequality. While in some big cities of developed countries wi-fi access is provided freely on the main streets and most of the hospitality industry provides free wi-fi for the wider public, citizens of most developing countries can’t afford to use and browse Facebook continuously on their daily basis as the cost of internet is much higher compared to their income. The consequences of this inequality are that billions of people are discriminated against for all the benefits that Facebook provides and are left alone creating a major social inequality. Another issue that arises with Facebook is the gap in demographics which we call the social divide. According to data released by Facebook, young people are the biggest demographic group that uses Facebook whilst the use of Facebook by elderly people (65+) is low . Although Facebook is relatively easy to use, the ease of use is another element that creates social inequality when it comes to how well individuals can utilize it. Well educated people can utilize Facebook to their needs in promoting their businesses and starting digital marketing as compared to low educated people which further increases income inequality.

Ethical use

Privacy

Another concern that comes with Facebook is ethics. Facebook collects a lot of data from its users. Users have been always worried about their privacy as a lot of their data from basic information to their likes, preferences, and even their day-to-day mood is exposed. Improper use of personal data or data breach is one of many ethical issues facing Facebook. Cambridge Analytica data scandal in 2018 is an example of Privacy issues where Facebook has been accused of misusing the personal data of its 50 million users nevertheless Cambridge Analytica has admitted to collecting data from only 30 million users.

Fake News, Harmful and Hate Speech

Fake news hate speeches and racist content are also some of the biggest ethical problems Facebook has to address and could have a devastating effect if not properly addressed. As Facebook is an online platform where users can post textual and video content and hosting live streams without any censorship, the nature of the content is a major concern. Without polarizing free speech content that promotes ethnic conflict, xenophobia and religious radicalism should be filtered out and banned from Facebook. If we consider the role of radio Rwanda on the Rwandan genocide , we can imagine how unethical and improper use of Facebook could affect our well-being and harmony. Another example is that research conducted by the University of Warwick in 2018 found that Anti-refugee racist and xenophobic posts are the main reasons for increased violence against refugees in Germany . Organized online disinformation is also another ethical issue that needs to be addressed as it could cause political and economic uncertainty and could have a great impact on our democracy.

Digital Ownership

The role of computing applications in creating the digital world is non-negotiable. Several computing applications are out there making our life much easier. But They have also posed a great concern for Digital ownership. Face book could facilitate copyright infringement as videos and contents can be shared illegally without the author’s approval.

Fraud

Facebook fraud is also a major issue. There are so many real-world events where Imposters with fake accounts are using Facebook messenger to defraud users.

Discrimination

Facebook has allowed a lot of businesses to advertise to a large range of audiences and targeted advertising is one of the common practices used by Facebook. But there are incidents where advertisers are using it unethically in which they are found to ban certain people according to their race, religion, and other interests. One example of this is that the charges brought against Facebook for breaching the US fair housing Act as advertisers are restricted certain categories of people from accessing the housing-related ads .

To tackle these ethical challenges that come with Facebook or other computing technologies governments should need to regulate it constantly and need to follow a stricter approach to reduce any conflict of interests and to force these at Facebook or other platforms to address them properly and take a strong initiative to fight these problems.

Conclusion

Computing and computing applications have a huge impact in today’s world. The rise of various social media and communication platforms has a profound influence on our economy, social interaction, and even our thoughts. Facebook as a leading social media platform has changed the business and marketing industry. It enables several businesses to build a solid relationship with their customers and helps customers to have a say on the services they get by easily sending feedbacks. It also creates us a platform where we could easily follow any news and events across the globe and a platform where we could easily share and broaden our knowledge. But on the contrary, Facebook has brought us several challenges. Improper, illegal, and unethical use of Facebook could affect so many businesses and even innocent lives. The risk that comes with computing technologies is serious and there should be a global understanding of their usage and they should be regulated by governments.

This assignment has helped me to understand the opportunities and challenges that come with computing and to realize the power of computing in both positive and negative ways. As a person aiming to join the software industry, I found this project is useful in preparing me to acknowledge the responsibility and ethics associated with computing.

References

1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/346167/facebook-global-dau/
2. https://about.fb.com/news/2020/01/european-economic-impact-report/
3. https://about.fb.com/news/2020/01/european-economic-impact-report/
4. https://www.ocorian.com/article/africas-digital-divide
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal
6. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/mar/28/facebook-ads-housing-discrimination-charges-us-government-hud
7. https://www.omnicoreagency.com/facebook-statistics/
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_T%C3%A9l%C3%A9vision_Libre_des_Mille_Collines
9. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/world/europe/facebook-refugee-attacks-germany.html
10. https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/
11. https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/2018/Facebook-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2017-Results/default.aspx

Facebook is one of the leading social network platforms, founded in 2004 with a mission to “give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together” (Facebook, 2018). This suggests that Facebook is an important marketing tool to reach target audience.

From a marketer’s point of view, Facebook can be seen as a bridge between the organization and individual people. Due to Facebook’s rapid growth, 3 years after its introduction Facebook has launched “Facebook Ads” with business purpose to advertise content (Facebook, 2018). Businesses can create their ‘own Facebook page’ in order to promote themselves and at the same time send out messages towards their audience (Facebook, 2018).

Additionally, marketers can display content in forms of banners (photos or video) on the ‘newsfeed’ of targeted audience (Facebook, 2018)

The first advertising on Facebook has started in 2004, through the possibility of purchasing ‘Flyers’. Those could be purchased by local small businesses or students in order to target selectively between campuses. Such ‘Flyers’ – adverts were featured on the ‘Facebook’s homepage’ and managed by Facebook team itself.

Following the increasing demand and growth in user numbers, Facebook introduced ‘Flyers Pro’ on a CPC basis. With enhancing the ability to select targeted audience more precisely and giving the option to set a maximum bidding price, businesses quickly discovered the great potential of ‘Flyers Pro’ as advertising tool.

In 2005 Facebook starts selling ads on a CPA – cost per acquisition basis, with its major client Apple, whom is willing to sponsor growing number of Facebook ‘Apple group’ members. Progressively in 2006, Facebook has made a strategic alliance with Microsoft, in which Microsoft digital solutions is the ultimate provider of banner ads and sponsored links.

In 2007 Facebook introduces its mobile version at the same time as its own Advertising platform – Facebook Ads, which lets businesses to create their own business presence (Facebook, 2018) on social media. Furthermore, Facebook improves the possibilities for companies to target better their audience based on geographical location and language. Additionally, in 2009 Facebook launched ‘connection targeting’, ‘like button’ and ‘self-served Ads’ in order to enhance its scope in online advertising. This gave business owners and marketers the opportunity to create, set up and manage their ads on their own and watch the engagement This led to a global expansion of advertised content displayed on the Facebook.

In 2010 Facebook introduced its mobile app, that contributed towards users spending more time using the Facebook platform. With people spending more time on the platform, there is more information accumulated for marketers in order target their audience more accurately. Similarly, more metrics regarding social contexts are available in order to track the performance of advertised content. During this time several lawsuits have been filed against Facebook for violating the privacy of Facebook users, and certain changes had to be implemented in order to protect its users and their data.

Since 2010, Facebook and its users have been growing at rapid rate improving the scope of marketers with every new feature. For instance, ‘Facebook places’ and ‘connection marketing’ enables marketers to determine the location of their potential customer. Following the expansion, Facebook has launched its ‘sponsored stories’ where marketers can point out and highlight a certain user action, for example when engaging with a specific brand. Once Facebook presented ‘mobile ads’ in 2011 the ROI was increased exponentially.

Similarly, marketers’ scope has been rising in 2012 with ‘Social graph’ and ‘Facebook exchange’. The ‘Social graph’ is containing connections between users, their likes, hobbies, preferences and activities related to their shopping habits. With ‘Facebook Exchange’ businesses are able to target people that have already visited their website, with more personalized and accurate messages. Through the use of first-party and third-party data, marketers can easily assess to whom they want to display their ads. Another enhancement of Facebook’s advertising was the introduction of ‘unpublished posts and dark posts’ suggesting that marketers can specifically choose who will / will not see their advertising posts. With the acquisition of Instagram, Facebook reveals advertising potential to a whole new audience.

In 2013 Facebook has launched a revolutionary ‘Lookalike audiences’, which enables marketers to reach new potential customers that are sharing similar characteristics either demographic or psychographic as their current audience. This feature has majorly improved the scope of Facebook advertising as businesses were able to grow their potential target audience based on given parameters. Facebook also released a brand-new tool ‘Conversion Pixel’ and ‘Website Custom Audience Pixel’ that immensely improved the marketing scope of the platform. The Facebook’s ‘Conversion Pixel’ gave businesses’ ability to track the audiences’ interaction with website and consequently direct the marketing actions to pursue specific marketing goals. At the same time, this tool allows marketers to measure the effectiveness of their advertised content and calculate the return on investment from their ads. This can show ads that are attracting most of website traffic, engagement and interest, but also shows ads that are not performing well and need to be adapted or replaced. With the introduction of ‘Website Custom Audience Pixel’ Facebook has enabled marketers to build custom audience parameters based on people, whom either visited the website or took another action using ‘Facebook Pixel. Such tool can help marketers tailor their advertising content specifically according to the previous actions of their customers. Another enhancement of Facebook’s advertising was the introduction of video ads. Video ads are very engaging and attract more attention than display of pictures or text. Through video ads, marketers can build an emotional connection with the ‘viewer’ / potential customer and build a strong relationship.

In 2014 Facebook acquires a big social network platform called ‘WhatsApp’, showing Facebook’s growing power and ability to lead the online advertising. On Facebook’s platform marketers can benefit from many new improvements such as ‘Premium Video Ads’, ‘Three levels campaign structure’, ‘Audience Network’ and ‘Carousel Ads’. Within the ‘Premium Video Ads’ the video ad is played as soon as it appears on the screen without sound and stops if its scrolled past. Once viewer clicks on the video ad, sound starts playing and video appears on full screen. This type of advertised content shows how viewers interact with the ad and is easy to measure. The ‘Three level Campaign structure’ contains three elements (campaign, ad set and ad) that make up the Facebook advertising campaign. Within this structure marketers are able to specifically target audience and create an ad that will be attractive for such audience.

It also allows marketers to set parameters for its audience such as location, interests, age, gender but also the budget for the ad, timing and placement. Similarly, the introduction of ‘Audience Network’ greatly improved Facebooks marketing scope as it allows marketers to run campaigns not only on Facebook’s platform but also within mobile apps. This tool is aiming to drive app engagement and increase app install. Those campaigns can be displayed in three different shapes, banner, interstitial and native.

Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, since then Facebook hasn’t stopped growing. Facebooks model relies on user’s personal information; what pages users shares and likes. Facebook believes that everything you upload become their property, like images, videos, posts, music and so on. When you use the Facebook page, then you already have agreed on their terms that says every content you publish they can use it, without paying you. So, everything you share that is public its free, but if you share the content only with your friends is not free. Facebook have also a very strict policy about the content you share with other users, if it has an abusive or bullying message, nudity and other disturbing content, then Facebook will remove it (Laverty).

Facebook is a free social platform and do not have a premium membership option. Ads are everywhere on the Facebook page. Some of the apps are sponsored and some of them are based on users clicks and geographic data. For example, if you do a search on Google for products, travel etc. then you will probably see the adds for similar product or travels on your Facebook home page. This happens because the browser saves your searches and shares it with other apps and shows you similar adds. In 2018 Facebooks revenue was about 25million dollar, and that is four million dollar every month in 2018. In 2012 Facebook earned around 84% of their revenue from adverts and selling virtual games like FarmVille and Candy Crush. Facebooks highest earned was from the virtual game named Zynga, which was a poker game. They were also the maker of FarmVille. In 2017 the numbers dropped down, because they were mostly relied on advertisement to make money. Over 98% of Facebook revenue comes from advertising (Rose, 2018).

Facebooks business model’s strategy is based on generating data, which means more people shares and click on “Like” button, the more people socialize and connect. We share pages we like, where we are in the world and so on. All these shares we do, will companies pay a lot of money for these data. Facebook is the biggest and most dominant social platform, and they know every move we make on the page. For instance, like they know our likes, political views, which food & cinema we like and our location. All these details are helpful for companies, because they know who they should target with them adds. Since our data is very valuable to companies, this is the reason why Facebook adds cost more than TV and radio advertisement (Rose, 2018).

Facebook is known for killing their competitions, with their money power they have ability to acquire any platform. They tried to buy Snapchat, but they failed, then Facebook added Snapchats feature “Stories” to all their platforms. For example, they added “Stories” feature on Facebook and Instagram, so people don’t use another social media platform (Rose, 2018).

Facebook has $50 million annual revenue and it grows about 50% every year. Facebook’s motto is always been “build a community and bring the world closer together.” So how build a service that connects people without people paying? That’s why they use adds to support Facebooks business model. According to a survey done by record.net around 40% said that’s they will not pay more than five dollars, and that is way lower than YouTube and Netflix subscription fee. (Rose, 2018).

Facebook business model is about sharing user’s information. All data that we publish every day and shares on Facebook like political views, pictures etc. will be used as long Facebook can make money on the information you publish (Marketwatch, 2018).

Resources

1. MarketWatch. (2018). Opinion: Facebook has to change its business model because it’s using us as unpaid laborers. From:
2. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-has-to-change-its-business-model-because-its-using-us-as-unpaid-laborers-2018-04-12 (08.02.19)
3. Rose, Arrista. (2018). Facebook Business Model Analysis – How does Facebook Work & Make Money?
4. https://www.ncrypted.net/blog/facebook-business-model-how-does-facebook-work-make-money/
5. Laverty, Shea (2019). Do You Need Someone’s Permission to Take Their Pictures from Facebook? From: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/need-someones-permission-pictures-facebook-66026.html (08.02.19)