Like many, I find myself browsing my Facebook feed on a regular basis, looking at friends’ posts, commenting on them and posting some of my own. I am amazed at the number of views that some of these posts and videos get, sometimes millions and millions, likely reaching to the far corners of the Earth.
Obviously the millions of us find value in browsing Facebook and in exchanging posts and comments. Here are my five reasons why I believe that Facebook is a force for good:
- Facebook helps expose and sensitize millions of people about issues and topics in a positive way. Animal videos, posts about folks dealing with difficult personal issues, for instance, can reach millions of people around the world. This helps us gain an appreciation and respect for the intelligence of animals or the plight of people less fortunate than us, for instance. That’s a force for good.
- Many of us feel lost in our lives, surrounded by a society that is increasingly impersonal. When we are tagged in someone else’s photo or when our posts or comments are liked, Friends on Facebook acknowledge us. In a simple way, we seem to matter just a little bit to someone. That’s a force for good.
- Facebook allows people to express themselves. It’s not a democracy with full freedom of speech, but Facebook provides an infrastructure that is easy and accessible. Folks typically stay away from divisive issues not to alienate friends but still, Facebook enables many of us to participate and share our views, and that’s a force for good.
- Facebook allows you to rekindle and maintain friendships around the World. Because it has so many users, a great search function and the ability to see who is connected to whom, I have been able to reconnect with many friends from my youth scattered all around the World. Keeping up with friends and making new ones is a force for good.
- Yes, Facebook, its sponsors and advertisers are collecting a lot of data on us. In the end, this “big data” is designed to help these companies better understand their potential customers (that’s us). This will in turn lead companies to design better products and services that will better meet our needs. To me, that’s a force for good.
Can you think of other ways? Leave your comments below 🙂
Bernard Markowicz 