Facebook’s experiment is commonplace in companies

The news that Facebook researchers played with its users’ News Feeds within an experiment aimed to analyze people’s emotional reactions had angered many.

But, even though the reaction may have been justifiable, the fact that Facebook is conducting experiments on its users should not come as a surprise since many other companies do exactly the same thing.

Their aim is to maximize the company’s users and profits.

For example, Amazon might decide to put a banner on the right side of the screen for some users and on the left side for other just to determine which of these sides will generate more clicks.

What was so disturbing about the Facebook experiment is that it toyed with users emotions, without them even knowing it. However, our feeds are already based on specific algorithms and on ‘what works for Facebook, Inc., and only secondarily based on what works for us as individuals and as a society,’ said CNN’s David Weinberger.

People should just learn to live with the thought that their giving information to ‘commercial entities that have as their primary interest not the health of our society and culture, but their bottom line.’

One alternative would be for filters to be more user-controlled. However, the idea that a user is in complete control of his/her online social activity is a mirage.