You Are Not a Customer of Facebook, But Their Cattle.
Every day billions of users make the same mistake.
People think they are the costumers of mass and social media.
This error is not only extended but renewed by the belief that social networks exist to serve us.
But we are not the customers of social media. We are, ultimately, their cattle.
I know this may sound painful for your ears. Below I will make my point with some data discovered by using Facebook ads.
To understand how you are being manipulated is painful, but also liberating. (If you read the most recent book from Cal Newport, you know that).
A cow is not the customer of a farmer
The rancher takes care of his cattle, so they provide him with milk (or fresh meat if they are part of the unlucky). To him, the utility of a cow is attached to her capacity to provide what he needs. The farmer gives food and shelter to his herd in exchange for the economic benefits he will reap from the animals.
That is exactly how Facebook and most social media platforms treat us.
Instead of providing Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey with butter, we give them our eyeballs. Hours and hours of attention in…
