Facebook HACK

Facebook Head Quarters: Picture is posted on the wall in the new building on the Facebook Campus.

The definition of a computer HACK, according to dictionary.com, is…”to modify or write in a skillful or clever way.” At the Facebook headquarters, there are signs all over that say “HACK”. I asked one of the employees what these signs mean to them. He said, “To Hack is to break through something, to find a new and more innovative solution, to break ground where no one has done so prior.” I learned that one of the main goals of Facebook is to break ground and constantly find new and creative ways to meet the desires and needs of their users. They are constantly studying their users to understand how to adapt their site and make to make it more appealing to their audience. The challenge with this concept is that what our young people want, is many times not what they need or should have. They may want to sent and look at inappropriate images without anyone knowing it’s them, but that is not something teenagers should be able to do. 

I believe that “Hack” is important in answering my guiding questions because teenagers and youths are users of Facebook and other social media sites. As these different networks study their users, many of them youths, new apps and programs are arising to make communication faster, to enable kids to send pictures that disappear and to provide platforms to discuss different topics. Currently, Facebook is modifying it’s tools to allow users to respond to things they see by adding like, love, tears and other buttons you can press in response to what you see. This can be both a pro and a con in terms of youthful users. Sites can improve the ability for teens to communicate, but can also create apps that prevent kids form having accountability and to  take responsibility for inappropriate pictures of comments posted.

The business side of social media

Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page (2015, April 15). Mark posted a picture of himself at Facebook’s F8 event. Retrieved picture on June 27, 2016 from https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=mark%20zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg posted a number of pictures of Facebook’s F8 event. This particular image caught my attention, as did a number of the other photographs from the event. What I learned, that has seemed to remain hidden for so long, is that Facebook is a business. They are all looking at a map that is showing all the places where people are using Facebook. Their goal is not just social networking, connections and a platform where you can be yourself, their goal is money. As I flipped through Mark’s Facebook page, advertisements flooded the sides of the page. What was interesting to me, was the the ads were tailored to me. There was a advertisement for Pottery Barn, which I’d looked up the day prior and several items for babies, which I had also researched. Looking at the advertisements, combined with this picture, I am reminded that Facebook and the other social media sites makes millions and billions of dollars off of their users.

Understanding this concepts helps my guiding questions because, while there may be a number of pros to using social media, the fact that each social media network is a business is important to remember. When new sites or tools are coming out, they are coming out to make money, not to better their user.