Part of a series on the effects of some of the biggest U.S. companies on the app economy.
The way that humans have interacted with one another has evolved over millennia. Yet, as we’ve entered the Information Age, we can track a sharp trend toward greater simplicity in how we connect. We are of course referring to the advent and mass popularity of social networking sites. Limited by word count or media type, social media provides an extraordinarily efficient way to connect. Social networks allow for one voice to reach millions in a more personal and accessible way than ever before. In this edition of the blog, we’ll be discussing the giant among these social networks: the social network, Facebook.
Founded in 2004 at Harvard, the story of Facebook’s creation is well-known and documented in pop culture, immortalized through the film “The Social Network.” Facebook has come under fire in the past few years, suffering scandals surrounding its protection of user data—most recently agreeing to a 20-year settlement with and paying a $5 billion fine to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for violating a 2012 FTC order—as well as talks to break up the tech behemoth. With nearly 30 percent of the world’s population on Facebook, its influence and reach are unquestionable.
Yet, Facebook’s effects on the developer community are less conspicuous, and the work the company has done in fields ranging from augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to gaming has shaped those markets. Facebook acquired Oculus VR in 2014 for $2 billion, and the company recently released the newest iteration of its virtual reality headset—the Oculus Quest. Marketed as a standalone device, the Quest can run most current-generation VR games on its own, without the need for a computer to actually run software like Valve’s Index, the biggest competitor to the Quest. Because the device is completely portable, consumers are hailing it as the spark of the VR revolution. The personal computer and the smartphone both changed the world in dramatic ways, and with the advancements in VR/AR, it looks like that could be the “next big thing.” Perhaps soon we’ll see more and more people enjoying time in VR while traveling.
Facebook is also the owner of three of the most popular social networking platforms in the world—Instagram, WhatsApp, and of course Facebook itself. The three platforms have a combined 2.7 billion monthly users, and through them, the company obtains over 500 terabytes of data a day from its users, and much like Google, it uses that to personalize advertising content. It used to be that the products advertised to us were the products advertised to everyone—perhaps differentiated based on geography, but not individualized. This individualization extends beyond selling products and allows for targeted political messages, allowing for companies, organizations, and individuals alike the ability to reach specific audiences.
This trend towards personal content has had direct effects on the American public and political climate. President Obama was known as the first social media president, having been the first presidential candidate to utilize social media platforms in a meaningful and effective way to reach core audiences. President Trump has famously utilized another social media site, Twitter, to address his constituents directly, the first time in American history that a President’s thoughts could so easily be sent to and read by the masses. In the time since he took office, he has tweeted more than 11,000 times.
While Facebook has recently weathered some scandals, the platform and its subsidiaries have had and will undeniably have a vast impact on the world. An analysis of all the ways it’s transformed global culture and expression is likely already the subject of multiple Ph.D. theses, but one certainly doesn’t need to be an academic to appreciate the change.