"I think a lot of people feel... - The New York Times | Facebook
Not so easy - and maybe it's not up to us individuals:
YOU CAN’T JUST TELL EVERYONE TO LEAVE FACEBOOK
Tech is not a problem of individual consumption.
Steph Mitesser
APR—03—2018
#DeleteFacebook is one example of a larger trend in which people seek to cut back on or completely stop using certain technologies, and they encourage others to do the same. The trend picked up steam in the past two years, with The Guardian predicting 2018 would be the “year of the Neo-Luddite,” and organizations like the Slow-Tech Movement and Time Well Spent building large audiences.
Like the larger slow-living movement, slow-tech encourages people to re-adopt behaviors that used to be ordinary and unavoidable. But, like shopping at a farmers market or growing food in an urban garden, these behaviors are now less convenient and more expensive than newer options; thus, the people likely to adopt them have at least some extra time and cash to burn.
These movements also emphasize personal choice and discipline as solutions to systemic problems caused by the profit motivations of large corporations. This may be because it’s is an easier framework for the average person to think about; writing a list about how to use less plastic feels more tangible and immediate than reckoning with the sweeping regulations and incentives needed to really decrease a country’s waste, like Taiwan has.
Similarly, slow tech doesn’t wrestle with this complexity or consider the real impact of technology on different types of users. How admirable is it for Will Ferrell to leave Facebook when he has teams of people managing his career, a net worth of $100 million, and all forms of communication at his disposal, when the average user lacks the same ability to replace Facebook’s services elsewhere?
Keeping up with family and friends is only one small part Facebook activity: Facebook Pages have become a necessity for small businesses, with 80% of small businesses in the US using them in 2016; for many small businesses, it may be their only digital presence.
You can’t just tell everyone to leave Facebook - The Outline
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Like the larger slow-living movement, slow-tech encourages people to re-adopt behaviors that used to be ordinary and unavoidable. But, like shopping at a farmers market or growing food in an urban garden, these behaviors are now less convenient and more expensive than newer options; thus, the people likely to adopt them have at least some extra time and cash to burn.
These movements also emphasize personal choice and discipline as solutions to systemic problems caused by the profit motivations of large corporations. This may be because it’s is an easier framework for the average person to think about; writing a list about how to use less plastic feels more tangible and immediate than reckoning with the sweeping regulations and incentives needed to really decrease a country’s waste, like Taiwan has.
Similarly, slow tech doesn’t wrestle with this complexity or consider the real impact of technology on different types of users. How admirable is it for Will Ferrell to leave Facebook when he has teams of people managing his career, a net worth of $100 million, and all forms of communication at his disposal, when the average user lacks the same ability to replace Facebook’s services elsewhere?
Keeping up with family and friends is only one small part Facebook activity: Facebook Pages have become a necessity for small businesses, with 80% of small businesses in the US using them in 2016; for many small businesses, it may be their only digital presence.
You can’t just tell everyone to leave Facebook - The Outline
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