Facebook: Architecture of Control

Facebook: Architecture of Control

Every city, organisation and system has architecture and all architecture has a blueprint. We’re not used to thinking about it, but virtual social networks also have architecture (Kuttainen, 2016). They have been very carefully planned, and this affects our behaviour in them.

Most of us know the history of Facebook due to the hit movie The Social Network ; a networking site for Harvard students back in 2004, its popularity has exploded to having millions of users across the world. Such masses of people present both an opportunity and a threat. People seem to denigrate so easily to making abusive comments and arguing when behind the safety of their screen (Travis, 2014). But we love how the website connects with friends, provides news sources and entertainment, and profitably for Facebook, links to advertisements and games. So how does Facebook harness these ‘good’ behaviours and deter bad ones?

This problem would have seemed very familiar to the government of nineteenth century Paris. A recent influx of rural migrants had meant huge crowds on the streets, allowing theft, prostitution and other illegal activities to occur, while the culprits slipped away unseen (Prouty, A Turtle on a Leash, 2009). Their answer was to change the very space the people were walking through. Many of the wide streets were converted into narrow, glass-roofed alleyways: The Paris Arcades. In these places the chaotic crowds were directed into small, manageable (and watchable) flows. Within them, shops also attracted passers-by (Prouty, On the Arcades Project, 2009).

In a similar way, Facebook directs our movement through it. When I log on to my account, I am immediately alerted to notifications of what my friends have been doing, Groups or Event pages. Virtual places such as these are the equivalent of the Arcades, “safe places” where there are no challenging comments or people I don’t like. My newsfeed is also filled with public pages I have ‘liked’, and those I didn’t, I have ‘unfollowed’. The news we see is from websites we pick. The bustling crowd of real-life views has been hidden. We don’t see the racist, abusive things on the web; but this also means those who have objectionable views can stay in their own feedback bubble, never confronting those who could change them.

Perhaps such control is good for us, but I mourn the loss of a chaotic crowd of views, as maybe some Parisians missed their bustling marketplaces.

Bibliography

Kuttainen, V. (2016). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives and the Making of Place. Retrieved from Lecture 4: Maps [Powerpoint Slides]: https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_76323_1&content_id=_2298402_1

Prouty, R. (2009, October 28). A Turtle on a Leash. Retrieved from One Way Street: http://www.onewaystreet.typepad.com/one_way_street/2009/10/a-turtle-on-a-leash.html

Prouty, R. (2009, April 2). On the Arcades Project. Retrieved from One Way Street: http://onewaystreet.typepad.com/one_way_street/2009/04/on-the-arcades-project.html

Travis, A. (2014, June 24). Online antisocial behaviour complaints 'becoming a real problem for police'. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/24/online-antisocial-behaviour-police-daily-complaints

Wikipedia. (2016, August 16). Retrieved from The Social Network: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Network

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