Over the last decade, few platforms have declined quite as rapidly and visibly as Facebook and Instagram. What used to be apps for catching up with your friends and family are now algorithmic nightmares that constantly interrupt you with suggested content and advertisements that consistently outweigh the content of people
inhales deeply YOU ARE NOT THE CUSTOMER!!! YOU ARE THE PRODUCT!!!
It astounds me how many people STILL don’t understand this
Many people understand this, but understanding helps them in nothing at all. What they want is social media where they aren’t the product, and that’s not an option, not even when paying.
it doesn’t make sense, just say they’re exploiting customers. Saying “you are product” just make people take it literally and think Facebook is wrapping people up and selling them whole package, organ and brain included, which is nonsense
Only if you don’t think about it.
First you should stop and think: What is a customer?
A customer is someone that a company makes money from.
Then you think: What money have I given Facebook?
None (or extremely little)
Then you think: But Facebook makes billions. How do they do this?
They have loads of very targeted adverts.
So we who are Facebook’s customers?
Advertising companies.
What makes ad space on Facebook valuable?
Their ability to target those ads to the right people based off of the data they have about them and to get you (the product) to see those ads.
Only if you are insanely literal. You are most definitely the product.
Facebook is a cookbook! It was there in the name the whole time!!!
Facebook is made from people!
They should take it literally, because it is meant literally!
They’re not exploiting customers, they are exploiting people. Those people are NOT their customers.
Facebook is literally selling people in data form. Everything you post, everyone you interact with, everything you look at across most of the web (not just facebook.com) is all catalogued and used to create a fingerprint that is a digital representation of you, and that is their product! “Essence of /u/Melt for sale here”
Their customers are advertisers.
ETA: Link
You’re the only person I’ve ever seen who has taken this expression literally.
Seems like I’ve been seeing more and more comments on Lemmy that are dumb takes like the one above. Makes me wonder if Lemmy is on the radar of more of the bad faith posters sowing division but having no idea how to get through to the demographic here.
Sounds like you’ve been having a lot conversations with 7 year olds, weird.
Damn metaphors must scare the shit out of you, huh.
And no I don’t mean you literally defecate at the thought.