Showing posts with label fb. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fb. Show all posts

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Why Facebook DP Change Only For France?

After terror attacks on France, Facebook gave an option to change our profile pictures in a way to show our support to France. If you noticed the pattern, initially people felt "good" when they were changing their profile pictures. Gradually I saw a trend - people were seen criticizing Facebook for being "selective" in its initiatives.

In order to prove their point, some people, pages, journalists etc started posting ghastly images of mass violence from African or Islamic countries and started asking - Why did not FB give an option to display support to "these" countries?

If you think about their reasoning, it appears "correct". Why did not Facebook do it right "every time"? Why "only now"? I think this is a classic case of seeing a glass as "half empty" instead of "half filled".

I think through the profile picture change option, Facebook was giving a harmless means to express grief and solidarity towards a victim nation. If it worked well, it would make sense for FB to do the same next time for other countries also. After all, such activities keep users engaged and it is good for business. But if FB gets mostly criticism and faces a negative campaign against it after this episode; it will not be encouraged to give such options in future all together!

In the event of a humanitarian crisis, if by changing display picture a user feels less burdened; it helps in 'healing'. It does something 'good' even if small or inconsequential in total impact. So I think our criticism for FB does more harm than benefit to this world. Instead of asking "Why only towards France" and in a way insulting French people, or "Why not towards Iraq" and in a way insulting Iraqi people, and spreading negativity at the time of a humanitarian crisis, we should choose constructive feedback like, "I like this feature and hope they give this option even in future."


- Rahul

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Unappy with Facebook's Lack of Privacy

Facebook has been known to be uncaring towards users' privacy. It has been a trouble for everyone who attempted, to successfully be in control of what we share and what don't want to; through mired privacy setting and policies. To add to the worry, a few days back when I tried to log into FB, it showed up these many pictures on the first page itself! Is this how Facebook wants to use our profile pictures and other stuff? Has it taken permission from these people before using their portraits? I am not sure. Even if it has taken permission, there seems to be no guarantee of what future awaits for all of us (well, those of us who use FB to be precise)!


I FB's new proposals to make privacy settings more less stringent is not only unethical but also unfair. Till a few weeks back whenever I opened up facebook.com and found it written something like "It is free and always will be so", I always give it a second thought. How many promises need to be broken in order to keep a promise? We know that change is the constant thing in this world, but in what direction? FB already makes money through ads, apps and in other ways from corporates. It should not cross the line to the extent that people would simply get fed up and won't see any benefit of wasting their time only to quite using it some day in the future.

On the other hand, Google+ looks better with its system of circles and more user friendly settings, but we have got used to using facebook for a while and the switch is not easy. But I see facebook's policies harming the general trust in the public about using social networking sites and gradually people may simply stop using it and go back to watch TV - something they are more used to do anyway...