Re:Facebook Australia allowed advertisers to target teens’ e...
by sbarre on Wednesday May 03, 2017 @06:35AM
(#14254480)
I think part of this trap was due to how FB encouraged people to "friend" as many people as they could..
At the height of my Facebook usage, I had less than 100 connections, because even back then I only stayed connected with people I was trying to maintain meaningful connections with.
No co-workers I didn't see socially, no one I went to high school or university with but didn't still keep in touch otherwise, etc..
So I rarely saw "junk" on my feed that was totally irrelevant to me, but it still happened sometimes..
Wow. Back then it had already degenerated into two things: chainmail and the trap of portraying a life that you don't lead. I left when I realised that absolutely none of that "keeping in touch" was happening. If anything, Facebook estranged people.
To the point of the article, imagine all the good that could be done with this data: an alert system for vulnerable teenagers.