Facebook, The Danger Of Algorithms

Facebook, one of the only places in the modern world, where you can freely speak your mind and share your thoughts with, seems like such a great idea doesn’t it? Facebook, ever since its invention in 2004 has increasingly been controlling peoples’ lives, but little do we know how dangerous the innocent company may be. Through Frank Foer’s piece, “Mark Zuckerberg’s War on Free Will”, one can see the destructive aspect of Facebook and how it has tainted humans’ ability to think freely as individuals. Foer goes into detail about how Facebook uses algorithms to contract the human mind and indirectly coerce individuals to think in a certain way. By Facebook using such algorithms, it is endangering our social and democratic institutions as a society and overall, limiting the beauty of the human mind and ability to think freely. Zuckerberg created his powerful algorithm in which he automated the way people think. “From the moment of the algorithm’s invention, it was possible to see its power, its revolutionary potential. The algorithm was developed in order to automate thinking, to remove difficult decisions from the hands of humans, to settle contentious debates”. This shows how strong of an impact social media has on society. This is just one example of how algorithms, such as the one used by Facebook, influences our lives.

Creators such as Zuckerberg can easily trick our minds based on what they want us to believe. Their interest only lies in themselves rather than caring about society. In comparison to Leibniz’s algorithmic “calculus of thought” Facebook uses a much more omnipotent algorithm. Due to technology becoming such a huge sector of 2018, algorithms have been come across more often. This is why Facebook’s algorithm is more successful. “An algorithm is a system, like plumbing or a military chain of command. It takes know- how calculation, and creativity to make a system work properly. But some systems, like some armies, are much more reliable than others”.

In like manner, Facebook categorizes people based on our profiles and postings. The website unwittingly guides us to believe what they think is the better option. In other words, Facebook is stealing our free will. Without even knowing, one can be persuaded into believing something without even realizing. “Algorithms fuel a sense of omnipotence, the condescending belief that our behavior can be altered, without our even being aware of the hand guiding us, in a superior direction”. In other words, creating an algorithmic code allows one to present what they want us to see. “Zuckerberg has boasted that the News Feed turned Facebook into a “personalized newspaper”.

Facebook's algorithm gives the figment that the thoughts that you create because of your chance perusing through the site are altogether yours, when in actuality they are the thoughts of the general population and pages you connect with. This could turn out to be hazardous on the grounds that the algorithm that gives you things that it trusts you might want to see can be controlled for the gain of the organization, or if users start to act based off of the false data that has been flowing on their News Feed. Facebook is currently thought to be a trustworthy wellspring of data to a great many people. The peril in that will be that the thoughts that individuals create because of their chance on the site are not their own and they were worked off of data that was pushed on them by this omniscient calculation.

Rather than individuals doing their own particular research and thinking of their own suppositions, Zuckerberg's calculation gives them data that it accepts is reasonable for the client, which really is a wound type of oversight. History has appeared, how perilous restriction in the news that individuals read is, and Mark Zuckerberg has made a program that does only that. It pushes "alluring" data that has been decided about satisfactory by a one-sided calculation upon powerless peruses, causing cracks in all types of society including the majority rule government in charge of running this nation.

Mark Zuckerberg indicates that radical transparency will improve society, however, it may be corrupting it. This is shown to represent a new kind of threat to individual free thinking, and to our social and democratic institutions. Radical transparency is how individuals share intimate details that will improve society. To disrupt something in this case means to alter it. In Zuckerberg’s point of view, he believed radical transparency to be the norm and set a positive outlook on society. Zuckerberg admired the concept of disruption. “The theory holds that the sunshine of sharing our intimate details will disinfect the moral mess of our lives. Even if we don’t intend for our secrets to become public knowledge, their exposure will improve society”.

Zuckerberg strongly believes that Facebook has a strong, paternalistic view on what’s best for you, and it’s trying to transport you there. Democracy is built on the fact that as individuals we have the right to make our own decisions. However, Facebook’s algorithm is making the choices for us in which is corrupting our democracy. Although Facebook will speak upon the transparency of governments and corporations, what it truly wants is too see through individuals. Facebook has emerged into this strong empire which continues to grow and influence lives daily. As one can see based on the information provided, algorithms reflect the biases of their creators. In other words, what they present to you is what they are training you to believe.

Due to many people today using social media, the age of progress and anxiety due to algorithms is more radical. Becoming such an immense empire, Facebook’s powers are amazing. “These powers are so great that Zuckerberg doesn’t bother denying the fact. The News Feed on Facebook provides information such as status updates, articles, and photos your friends post. Strictly speaking, certain things popping up on our news feed is going to persuade us to believe what we read and see. One of the major issues with Facebook's calculation is the way that it manages the pursuer to data that it feels the user might most want to be presented to. It does this by watching the data that your loved ones on the site ordinarily take a gander at, and afterward it gives you comparative data. For instance, if the general population you connect with on the program commonly take a gander at pages that underwrite a specific political conviction, you will have data that backings that political conviction push at you. The site does this since individuals share comparative perspectives as the general population that they connect with concerning certain subjects.

The overall public is normally uninformed of this reality and along these lines trust that it is a fortuitous event that they just so happen to unearth things that they concur with as a society we feel more comfortable doing the same thing we see our friends doing. This is a way creator can compose us into believing certain effects just because it comes up on our newsfeed that our friend interacted with it. Facebook’s algorithm sorts many things on the news feed based on what we may like to read first. “In lots of ways Facebook is more like a government than a traditional company. We have this large community of people, and more than other technology companies we’re really setting policies”. Facebook often talks about the transparency of governments and corporations, what it is really trying to array is the transparency of individuals at several moments. “With the looming threat that our embarrassing information will be broadcast, well behave better. And the ubiquity of incriminating photos and damning revelations will prod us to become more tolerant of one another’s sins.

As a society we try so hard to fit in with the norm that the algorithms are indeed taking over without our notice. In spite of the fact that Zuckerberg undoubtedly didn't mean for his program to hold this much control over individual idea and most if not every single societal develop, Facebook is presently thought to be a trustworthy wellspring of data to a great many people. The threat in that will be that the thoughts that individuals create because of their opportunity on the site are not their own and they were worked off of data that was pushed on them by this omniscient calculation. Rather than individuals doing their own exploration and concocting their own particular feelings, Zuckerberg's calculation gives them data that it accepts is reasonable for the client, which genuinely is a turned type of oversight. In a way Facebook is its own democracy with set rules and regulations.

As can be seen, Marks Zuckerberg’s views on Facebooks influence towards our individual freethinking and our social and democratic institutions present a massive type of danger in our lives. This danger may lead to a decline in the usage of Facebook, and Facebook may not continue to see the profit that it always used to see. This can be through the use of algorithms and radical transparency. These algorithms can do human activities, and they might lead to humans losing their jobs in the future. According to the piece by Foer “algorithms have retired many of the bureaucratic, clerical duties once per formed by humans – and they will soon begin to replace more creative tasks. In all, the algorithm used by Facebook is slowly corrupting the human mind and social democracy one day at a time as we see throughout the piece.