© 2013-2020 by Zack Smith. All rights reserved.
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Surveillance is not normal
It is well understood that Google uses your personal data to maximize its profit, and that it owns your data and that you are at its mercy.
It has also recently been discovered that Facebook is listening into conversations that occur whenever the app is running. It performs eavesdropping not of your telephone calls but of whatever you say when the phone is nearby.
BGR article about Facebook eavesdropping.
What does science tell us about social network users?
Scientists have been looking at what Facebook and other social networks do for people and what they don't do. A coherent image is beginning to form.
In Australia, researchers Ryan and Xenos determined that narcissistic, exhibitionist, and extroverted
personalities are drawn to social networking.
Who uses Facebook? An investigation into the relationship between the Big Five, shyness, narcissism, loneliness, and Facebook usage
, Tracii Ryan, Sophia Xenos at RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Researchers Kirschner and Karpinski, in the Netherlands and the USA respectively,
found that social network users who are students have lower GPAs and they study less.
Too much face and not enough books: The relationship between multiple indices of Facebook use and academic performance
, Reynol Junco; Computers in Human Behavior Volume 28, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages 187-198.
Boston researchers Nadkarni and Hoffman found that the need to belong
and the need for exhibitionism drive social network use.
Why do people use Facebook?
Ashwini Nadkarni, Stefan G. Hofmann.
Study from Denmark says quitting Facebook makes people happier.
Facebook is Linked to Body Dissatisfaction: Comparing Users and Non-Users.
Sex Roles September 2015, Volume 73, Issue 5, pp 200-213.
Opinions from non-scientists
You don't have to be a scientist to uncover the perils of social networking. You need only to observe and think, as these folks have:
Is Facebook being abandoned?
Facebook is seeing a decline in young users while their parents remain enthusiastic users. Kids are escaping the claustrophobic, surveillance-friendly Facebook and embracing messaging apps and YouTube, according to the Telegraph newspaper.
Documentaries