How Much Would You Pay For Facebook?

An op-ed writer in the Times today pleads for the opportunity to pay for supposedly free social media, noting that “ad-financed Internet platforms aren’t free, and the price they extract in terms of privacy and control is getting only costlier.”

Ad-based businesses distort our online interactions. People flock to Internet platforms because they help us connect with one another or the world’s bounty of information — a crucial, valuable function. Yet ad-based financing means that the companies have an interest in manipulating our attention on behalf of advertisers, instead of letting us connect as we wish. Many users think their feed shows everything that their friends post. It doesn’t. Facebook runs its billion-plus users’ newsfeed by a proprietary, ever-changing algorithm that decides what we see. If Facebook didn’t have to control the feed to keep us on the site longer and to inject ads into our stream, it could instead offer us control over this algorithm.

Many nonprofits and civic groups that were initially thrilled about their success in using Facebook to reach people are now despondent as their entries are less and less likely to reach people who “liked” their posts unless they pay Facebook to help boost their updates.

Would Facebook allow us more straightforward, unfettered access to the content we want, in exchange for something as simple as money? And if you could pay to customize your user experience, beyond the degree to which you already can, would you?

Bear in mind that Science says FB makes us unhappy — or rather, it exacerbates our most natural yet self-defeating human tendencies:

In a recent study in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, a team led by Mai-Ly N. Steers of the University of Houston attempted to better understand the connections between Facebook, happiness, and social comparison. In two studies, they tracked the depressive symptoms and Facebook usage habits of a group of students at a Southwestern university.

Overall, they found that the more time a given student spent on Facebook, the stronger the depressive symptoms they experienced. That connection, though, was influenced by how frequently the student in question compared themselves to others on Facebook — so things aren’t quite as simple as “Facebook causes depression.”

Rather, the authors write, “Both studies provide evidence that people feel depressed after spending a great deal of time on Facebook because they feel badly when comparing themselves to others.” The researchers also tested the reverse idea — that depressed people spend more time on Facebook, are more likely to make social comparisons, and therefore see worse outcomes — but didn’t find much statistical support for this idea. So overall, it seems to be the case that Facebook generates a stream of endless opportunities to compare ourselves to our peers — via their vacation and spouse pictures, their employment updates, and so on — and these comparisons stress us out and depress us.

We are notoriously terrible at doing the things that make us happy, though: for example, we know that giving away money makes us happier, and yet we don’t do it.

giving 10 percent of one’s income is a good marker associated with enjoying better health, happiness, and purpose in life. Viewed this way, the vast majority of Americans (97 percent) are forfeiting the chance to enhance their well-being by practicing real generosity with their money. … Findings from the Science of Generosity Survey show that at least 85 percent give away less than 2 percent of their income.

Instead, we follow the Amazing New Thing gospel, no matter how many times it disappoints us. Likewise with comments. I know, I know, not to seek greater understanding or wisdom from comments — with the occasional exception, such as this site, Ta-Nehisi Coates’, the Toast or a Jezebel thread about the Toast — but I cannot help myself. Again and again, I hope to walk into an Algonquin roundtable and end up knee-deep in a swamp.

Which is why I was happy to read that Tablet’s “troll toll,” its new policy of charging people to comment, has been working out well for the magazine: as many readers as ever, and yet fewer swamps. If only the Internet would figure out a way to charge me a small fine every time I succumb to reading the comments when I shouldn’t. Like a swear jar!

Maybe having to pay to use Facebook, even a token, swear-jar-ish amount like the Times columnist’s suggested charge of “more than 20 cents per month,” would encourage us to use the site slightly less, enable us to use it better, and make us that much happier, all at the same time.

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