Facebook Has Basically Been Running Science Experiments On Us - Changing What We See In Our Newsfeeds To Effect Our Moods

Atlantic - Facebook’s News Feed—the main list of status updates, messages, and photos you see when you open Facebook on your computer or phone—is not a perfect mirror of the world. But few users expect that Facebook would change their News Feed in order to manipulate their emotional state. We now know that’s exactly what happened two years ago. For one week in January 2012, data scientists skewed what almost 700,000 Facebook users saw when they logged into its service. Some people were shown content with a preponderance of happy and positive words; some were shown content analyzed as sadder than average. And when the week was over, these manipulated users were more likely to post either especially positive or negative words themselves. This tinkering was just revealed as part of a new study, published in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Many previous studies have used Facebook data to examine “emotional contagion,” as this one did. This study is different because, while other studies have observed Facebook user data, this one set out to manipulate it. The experiment is almost certainly legal. In the company’s current terms of service, Facebook users relinquish the use of their data for “data analysis, testing, [and] research.” Is it ethical, though? Since news of the study first emerged, I’ve seen and heard both privacy advocates and casual users express surprise at the audacity of the experiment.
 

So I guess as it turns out we’re just little hamsters running in Facebook’s big wheel. Did anyone really expect anything different? Everyone’s all like “fuck you Zuckerberg!” and I don’t really get the outcry. Didn’t we already know Facebook and Google pretty much run our lives? Not so much Facebook anymore since Twitter and Instagram took over, but still Facebook is still pulling the puppet strings for tons of people.

And besides, let’s just be glad it was only on Facebook this was being done, and not Instagram. Can you imagine if they only showed you ugly people on Instagram? And they hid all the Instagram model sluts? That’d be reason to get pissed. Probably would drive some people to a toaster bath. But not this Facebook thing. You have to already be really into hating your life if you are reading people’s Facebook statuses as it is, and then writing your own. The people who still make Facebook statuses are the saddest people in the world.

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And besides, what are you gonna do- delete your Facebook? Nope. Miss out on those bikini pics? Nope. That’s pretty much all Facebook has going for it at this point. So boo hoo they changed a couple stories or whatever to do some bullshit study. As long as the smokes are still going on Spring Break, you’ll still have your Facebook and be in their little science experiments.