“Facebook doesn’t have a mind-control problem, it has a corruption problem. Cambridge Analytica didn’t convince decent people to become racists; they convinced racists to become voters” (Cory Doctorow).
Five-hundred-and-eighty-three million!!
Eight years have passed since I first wrote about trying to quit Facebook. Little has changed about my attitudes to the social network, but—like a perennial nicotine quitter—I am still on it. I am however closer to quitting than ever. My last post was six months ago, and I feel no urge jump back in. For birthdays and the odd Facebook group too damn practical not to follow, Facebook is, however, still useful. But I don’t read the feed anymore. It doesn’t make me happy. Instead it sometimes makes me angry and, at other times, … jealous? (Really? The analytical part of me find this proposition so silly that it cannot be the case. And still…) Occasionally I sneak a peek when someone has mentioned me, and I may even indulge in a “like” (and a birthdays wish or two, while there) but that is it. Check in again in another eight years to see how I’m doing.
“Twitter — and Facebook, and the power of tech companies — is not our only problem.
But I have no doubt that had Twitter not become a loving home for hate, Trump would not be President now. In that universe we’d still have big problems, yes, but not like this.“
This post is a good place to start for those searching for alternatives.
Thomas Carrington is a lecturer at Stockholm Business School at Stockholm University. His research examines auditing, financial reporting and accounting. Before taking the step over to academia Thomas spent three years at Arthur Andersen as an auditor. He took his PhD at Stockholm University on the thesis Framing Audit Failure: Four studies on audit quality discomforts. In between he spent eight years at Uppsala University during the period 2007-2015. Since 2005 Uppsala is his home.
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