What keeps you on Facebook? Would you miss it if you opted out? In the context of the Cambridge Analytica data sharing scandal, this video by Vox explains how the network effect is both Facebook’s biggest selling point as well as the root of many of its problems.
When a platform is an event calendar, a contact book, a photo album and a texting, video calling, money transferring social network, it becomes integral to daily life. And when this platform has more than 2 billion users, it becomes the “network effect on steroids”.
The video tells you how you probably stay on Facebook not because you like it, but because it may be an inconvenience to your peers if you opted out. For Facebook, this FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) helps turn the network effect into profit. Interestingly, research says that many users attribute using the social network to feeling lonely and depressed. But when a user becomes a product, all that matters is that you use it and not necessarily that you like it.
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Next time you wonder just about why you cannot bring yourself to quit Facebook, watch this video at