Let's Face It      
It's a Two-Edged Sword    

   You probably use Facebook, as do we and more than 2 billion others around the world. 

   We like photos by family and friends, and we gain a few more readers by posting some of our daily Views. There is more to Facebook than grandchildren and selfies, however.

   A former vice president for user growth has expressed "tremendous guilt" over his role in eroding "the core foundations of how people behave (with) each other." Speaking to the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Chamath Palihapitiya - let's refer to him as CP - said, "I think we created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works."

   CP is a venture capitalist and part owner of the Golden State Warriors of the NBA. He now sees "The short-term feedback loops that are destroying how society works: no civil discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth." 

   He adds, "...you don't realize it, but you are being programmed." 

   "Bad actors can manipulate people. We get rewarded - hearts, likes, thumbs-up - and we conflate that with value...and truth." "What it is," CP thinks, "is fake, brittle popularity." 

   Other former Facebook investors and employees are also expressing regret. Sean Parker became a "conscientious objector" to social media's exploitation of "a vulnerability in human psychology." 

   Facebook also has been criticized for how it regulates - or doesn't - the ads, especially thousands of Russian ads created to influence voters in 2016. 

   Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently apologized "for the ways my work was used to divide people rather than bring us together."

Washington Post

      Jimmy