Taking the red pill

The Matrix just seems too apt a metaphor during this all-Facebook, all-the-time week. (And I'm not even a huge fan of The Matrix.) But, see in the clip below, how Morpheus is giving Neo the choice: take the red pill and see the truth...or take the blue pill and wake up in your happy bed again.

(For those who have not seen this movie, it's kinda complicated; but just know it centers on the majority of people being manipulated, with all but a small team of them that know the real deal.)

See, because Facebook opted to go full-tilt with Beacon--not just ad banners--it turned from a "social utility"--which is how they position themselves on their homepage---into a marketing channel. Overnight. And they went from a customer-centric player, to a company. Sure, they can say they're a social utility--but that will never be true again. The utility is truly for advertisers.

That's cool, a company needs to make money. And I've chosen not to use that company anymore. Plus, I don't even have that much data over there (and none of it is particularly interesting ;-).

But--for my readers and me--I'll be the first to admit both my brilliance and my ignorance on this blog and, I have to say: I don't know why it didn't hit me before that they'd use our data to make us selling agents to one another. Banner advertising, sure. But to invade privacy and manufacture WOM? Nope. I admit to feeling very ignorant on this front. I'm a marketer for cryin' aloud and I should have seen it.

So I guess at the time I was still taking the blue pill.

(or maybe I just didn't think a company would go so far, silly me.)

Enjoy the clip (under 1 minute, RSS/email readers: click thru to blog).

Comments

[Mike Sigers]

You had to know there's no free lunch in this world ;-)

I may be a cynic, but I knew that all of the sites that start as free and bill themselves as "Come in, we love you and you can connect with your friends..." will eventually be sold to someone who wants to sell or sell to that captive audience.

If you think WordPress will always be free, I've got some swamp land in Kansas for sell - Free !

If you wanna talk to your friends, meet 'em at Applebee's or call 'em on a phone !

If you wanna get sold or sold to, FREE is the place it will happen.

Pay your way thru life - it's cheaper !

CafePress here I come - Hell no, free must go !

Okay, rant over - Back to regular programming:-)

[CK]

@Mike: Absolutely. Actually, I pay for email and blogging software to ensure no ads and that the co's will stay in biz (going belly up is always my concern).

But I didn't see the manufactured WOM ad angle. Saw banner ads, sure, but not Beacon's level of data violation. Lesson learned fo' sho' ;-).

[melissa]

I really liked your take on the Facebook issue. The Matrix reference rings true!

[Ike]

Look out, CK. The Facebook Mafia might find out that you're not touting the party line, and they'll swarm your site.

Sadly, the majority of Facebook users are so far into Zuckerberg's anatomy that they interpret criticism of the platform as a personal attack. "Talkin' 'bout my geeeeeeeneration!"

[NW Guy]

CK,

I'm not familiar with the details of the Facebook saga. Were they foolish enough to broadcast specifically who bought what? If so...OOPS!

Would you have found it more acceptable to broadcast a general..."in the last week your friends have bought the following items"? That would provide a little of the WOM without the complete invasion of privacy.

Either way; too personal for me.

[CK]

I want to answer you completely but a saga, it's been. Please see the link in the post above to the article and then see my other two posts before this one to understand why I think they 1) went to far, 2) tried to manufacture WOM and 3) lost my trust.

I'm not longer with FB. But I'm still here, at twitter and doing other fun stuff with the community (like the social). So I'm still active. I just can't contribute content to FB anymore.

Sorry to ask you to read several posts, but I want to give you a clear picture. Also, two posts before this one sends you to a great piece by Valeria. Bye for now ;-).

[Red]

Didn't the Red/Blue Pill decision originally come from "ALICE IN WONDERLAND"? . . . you know, like falling down the bunny hole or is it rabbit hole?
;)
Red