I was thinking of deleting Facebook after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. But I didn’t. After all, my Facebook page Endocrine Witch has been there since 2012 and it now has 150k followers. I still think that we can find ways of using Facebook to change health behaviors. My dissertation topic is on the utility of Facebook for self-managing type 2 diabetes.
I always said though, that if a rule were to be made that one could only keep one social network, I would keep Twitter and not Facebook.
I read this journal article on PLoS One with much interest – How much is social media worth? Estimating the value of Facebook by paying users to stop using it.
Facebook, the online social network, has more than 2 billion global users. Because those users do not pay for the service, its benefits are hard to measure. We report the results of a series of three non-hypothetical auction experiments where winners are paid to deactivate their Facebook accounts for up to one year.
Corrigan, J. R., Alhabash, S., Rousu, M., & Cash, S. B. (2018). How much is social media worth? Estimating the value of Facebook by paying users to stop using it. PloS one, 13(12), e0207101. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207101
So what did they find? The average Facebook user wanted more than $1000 to deactivate their account for a year. Wow! I wonder what that figure would be for the #HealthXPH community? Let’s talk about this at the #HealthXPH tweet chat 22 Feb 2020, 9 pm Manila time.
T1. If you were to be paid to deactivate your Facebook account for one year, how much would you ask for?
Why would you remain and why would you leave Facebook? Mike Murphy and Hanna Kozlowska ask, Should you delete Facebook? In their post, they enumerate reasons to remain and reasons to leave. I will use these reasons as poll choices during the #HealthXPH tweet chat.
T2. Why do you stay on Facebook? Explain your choice.
- Facebook is the emotional LinkedIn.
- Facebook is an online memory lane.
- Facebook is your digital identity.
- There are no other options.
T3. Why would you leave (or have left) Facebook? Explain your choice.
- Facebook hasn’t addressed privacy concerns.
- Facebook is manipulating its users.
- Facebook is addicting.
An additional poll choice comes from Matt Binder’s Mashable post, Here’s why you should finally #DeleteFacebook in 2020.
- Facebook is a threat to democracy.
Ironically, Matt ends his article thus –
Well, I wouldn’t worry about missing Facebook too much ā especially if you’re under the age of 55. Most of your friends are probably on Twitter, YouTube, or TikTok anyway.