We all know Facebook as the dorm room idea that popped out of no where and changed the world. And recently bombed at the bourses. But then, there’s also the counter argument...
Before I explain how, let me first give you a quick background about why Facebook is in a position to threaten the internet.
The story behind the network
Till about the rise of online media as a means to access news, print, radio and television were the only options. But soon, Google came along and mainstream media was no longer the only gatekeeper of news, It was a great way to express oneself and anyone was free to post anything anywhere on the internet, My blog is an example of the same. Most of the online content was relevantly available through search giant Google. With the rise of social networks, the concept of sharing came into prominence. Twitter and Facebook bring news straight into our News Feeds and we do not have to go anywhere else searching for news.
If it is not shared on Facebook it does not exist! While Twitter still remains a niche network with a small percentage of active users who make all the noise, the dominance of Facebook has been so overwhelming that almost everyone we directly know is a member there, and quite active too. Apart from this, we have celebrities and brands who keep long for us to ‘LIKE’ their pages on Facebook at the expense of their own official websites. Facebook pages are far more attractive to them because that is where all the people are. In due course of time Facebook has become not just another website but the Internet for many
This places Facebook in a position of great power. As such, we expect Facebook to act with maturity as people depend on it to bring them the news. Instead, it is slowly turning out to be a very smart villain and with the IPO money, things can get really bad. Therefore, the focus of this piece is on Facebook, on how it treats ‘The Internet’ as its arch enemy, and why we should be concerned about it. When I say ‘The Internet’ I mean the internet that exists outside the walls of Facebook.
But isn’t it nice to use Facebook to access content from all across the web, shared by our friends and pages that we like, all in one News Feed? Why should we be bothered about the rest of the internet? Here’s why. Facebook hides more stuff than it shows! At any given time, the News Feed shows only a small percentage of all content that is shared by our friends and Pages that we like. If we try and change the settings to show Most Recent posts, we might find few more updates, but still, a huge percentage of updates are hidden from us. That also means, whenever we post status updates, they reach only a small percentage of our friends. Facebook itself has said that the reach is around 12% to 16% of total friends. Beat that, more than 84% of our friends don’t even see what we are sharing or talking about even when we are online at the same time! Isn’t this a violation of our fundamental right to speech? Shouldn’t we be deciding whose updates we need to see in our news feeds and shouldn’t our voice be heard by our friends?
Facebook says that it does it to control noise in the News Feed. Too many updates can inundate the users feed, so Facebook devised an ultra sophisticated mechanism that reads our minds (It always asks “What’s on your mind”, so that it knows) and shows us what it thinks is appropriate and relevant to us.
Before I explain how, let me first give you a quick background about why Facebook is in a position to threaten the internet.
The story behind the network
Till about the rise of online media as a means to access news, print, radio and television were the only options. But soon, Google came along and mainstream media was no longer the only gatekeeper of news, It was a great way to express oneself and anyone was free to post anything anywhere on the internet, My blog is an example of the same. Most of the online content was relevantly available through search giant Google. With the rise of social networks, the concept of sharing came into prominence. Twitter and Facebook bring news straight into our News Feeds and we do not have to go anywhere else searching for news.
If it is not shared on Facebook it does not exist! While Twitter still remains a niche network with a small percentage of active users who make all the noise, the dominance of Facebook has been so overwhelming that almost everyone we directly know is a member there, and quite active too. Apart from this, we have celebrities and brands who keep long for us to ‘LIKE’ their pages on Facebook at the expense of their own official websites. Facebook pages are far more attractive to them because that is where all the people are. In due course of time Facebook has become not just another website but the Internet for many
This places Facebook in a position of great power. As such, we expect Facebook to act with maturity as people depend on it to bring them the news. Instead, it is slowly turning out to be a very smart villain and with the IPO money, things can get really bad. Therefore, the focus of this piece is on Facebook, on how it treats ‘The Internet’ as its arch enemy, and why we should be concerned about it. When I say ‘The Internet’ I mean the internet that exists outside the walls of Facebook.
But isn’t it nice to use Facebook to access content from all across the web, shared by our friends and pages that we like, all in one News Feed? Why should we be bothered about the rest of the internet? Here’s why. Facebook hides more stuff than it shows! At any given time, the News Feed shows only a small percentage of all content that is shared by our friends and Pages that we like. If we try and change the settings to show Most Recent posts, we might find few more updates, but still, a huge percentage of updates are hidden from us. That also means, whenever we post status updates, they reach only a small percentage of our friends. Facebook itself has said that the reach is around 12% to 16% of total friends. Beat that, more than 84% of our friends don’t even see what we are sharing or talking about even when we are online at the same time! Isn’t this a violation of our fundamental right to speech? Shouldn’t we be deciding whose updates we need to see in our news feeds and shouldn’t our voice be heard by our friends?
Facebook says that it does it to control noise in the News Feed. Too many updates can inundate the users feed, so Facebook devised an ultra sophisticated mechanism that reads our minds (It always asks “What’s on your mind”, so that it knows) and shows us what it thinks is appropriate and relevant to us.
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Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
