Falling into Facebook’s Network Trap
CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg recently announced facebooks goal to “connect every person in the world.” This is quite the statement and one that’s fulfilling itself this very minute.
This does not occur out of the blue; however, it is affected by you and each and every one of us. The more individuals that participate (in this case joining Facebook), others will exponentially participate in facebooks webwork. This is known as the network effect. Once you join, you will tell your friends to join. Once they join, they will tell their friends to join because the more friends on the network, the more enjoyment you and everyone else will receive. If you are the only one on Facebook, there would be no feed and nothing new to see. Once the network gets started, this domino effect begins and leads to everyone’s friends joining the network.
Having a network for “everyone” also has drawbacks. People are spending more time than ever in solitary. People are spending more time connecting online and less time in person. If people are connected to everyone they ever knew and have no time with friends in person are they really “connected?”
The scary part is understanding the complexities of the equilibrium of the network effect. There are equilibriums where patterns between population and “price”–which in this case time can be used–occur to determine the pattern of use. For example, once a certain percentage of the population uses the “product,” the network effect is exponential, and is very difficult for that growth to slow down. This happens at Z’ also known as the tipping point. Once a percentage of the population uses Facebook (with enough people downloading the app), they tell their friends and their friends tell their friends and facebook’s growth is continuous. This reaches z’’ (a large percent of the population). When this happens, even if the population is between z’ and above z’’, z’’ will continue to be stable as equilibrium and growth can remain for many decades to come. Once over the “tipping point,” the point of return to Z’ and to 0 is low.
Understanding that Facebook will be around as the Facebook network is so established requires awareness and action. People must be aware that being caught in a “Network Trap” Facebook is addicting. People must fight the need to be on it. Yes, connection is a good thing. But, real connection means getting off Facebook too.
https://hbr.org/2021/10/the-facebook-trap