Johanna Norrbacka

This blog post was produced as part of the course “Social Media, Ideologies, and Ethics in the United States” at the University of Turku.

I have not been active in social media since I deactivated my Facebook account at the end of 2016 or the beginning of 2017. The reason for my departure was that I very strongly felt Facebook was banking the profits of a media corporation without any regard for journalistic ethics – which I strongly felt, and feel, they should have taken into account in their operation.

Throughout the course of the lectures, both the reasons for staying out of social media and the impetus for returning were present, and I began to contemplate what would be the kind of social media platform that I would feel comfortable using. For the purpose of this blog I will henceforth refer to this imaginary entity as “Village.”

There would be no political advertisements from political parties or candidates on Village. I do not believe that someone who is running for office, on any level of the spectrum from local to national politics, can express their agenda or knowledge adequately and conclusively in a span of a few seconds or minutes. I believe the voter benefits from and has the responsibility to make an effort to familiarize themselves with the potential receivers of their vote, and there are plenty of channels for that without a social media platform selling its ethics for advertisement money.

Instead of advertisements aspiring to convince voters to vote for a certain candidate, there would be advertisements and public service announcements about voting and its role in democracy. I think it’s about time to make taking part in society compelling and even – I am writing about a utopia after all – chic.

Algorithms would be used as a force for good, harnessed for something benevolent and not merely for something commercially beneficial. People would be provided with positive news, accurate information about those whose opinions may not totally coincide with theirs, and stories about people from different backgrounds as a means for spreading compassion.

No trackers would be placed on other websites to survey what the users are doing, seeing, or watching online. Nor would any data be collected about their browsing histories because for no reason and for no price would Village users be sold out by Village. Neither would the photographs or personal information of its users be used for monetary gain.

Currently, I am not aware of any social media company that functions according to principles that would convince me to return to social media, but I am putting my hope in the future. I look forward to seeing ever-developing technology and the demand for more options in connecting and communicating with others bring alternatives and competition to the present duopoly.