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Early FB users demanded privacy but _actually_ wanted an information asymmetry over their friends. Each user wants both…
🔐 Control over how they specifically are perceived. "Who can see what?"
🕵️ Power to internet stalk their friends way more than they'd ever admit
🔐 Control over how they specifically are perceived. "Who can see what?"
🕵️ Power to internet stalk their friends way more than they'd ever admit
Facebook's user need doublethink (privacy, but also voyeurism) translates into a similar product subtext: feel private, but actually minimize user-on-user privacy while providing plausible deniability. Quell outrage with opt-in privacy tools, but default everyone into no privacy
2006 Facebook employees could view anyone's profile + see stats like who viewed their profile
Q. How do you create a company culture that embraces FB's privacy-voyeurism user doublethink?
A. Let employees be God-tier voyeurs. Indulge their desires. Let em see user's true nature
Q. How do you create a company culture that embraces FB's privacy-voyeurism user doublethink?
A. Let employees be God-tier voyeurs. Indulge their desires. Let em see user's true nature
2009 HBR case study: 70% social networks = viewing pics / profiles. Breakdown (largest % first):
• Men looking at women they don't know
• Men → women they do
• Women → women they know
"Overall, women receive two-thirds of all page views." 😳 hbswk.hbs.edu/item/understan…
• Men looking at women they don't know
• Men → women they do
• Women → women they know
"Overall, women receive two-thirds of all page views." 😳 hbswk.hbs.edu/item/understan…
Hypothetical: Imagine an alt universe where FB's founder took privacy seriously. All else is equal.
Product decision: By default, can users view pics of friends-of-friends? Effectively, can dudes stalk pics of women they don't know?
Choose wisely. Huge impact on engagement!
Product decision: By default, can users view pics of friends-of-friends? Effectively, can dudes stalk pics of women they don't know?
Choose wisely. Huge impact on engagement!
Hypothetical #2: Imagine a world w/ a less arrogant Zuck who viewed FaceMash (viral Harvard student hot-or-not, publicly denounced) as crossing the line.
FB knew people were freaked out by the news feed. Tons of outrage post-launch. What would well-adjusted Zuck have done?
FB knew people were freaked out by the news feed. Tons of outrage post-launch. What would well-adjusted Zuck have done?
Many success stories have uncomfortable truths buried in their origin. We reduce them to factoids. Haters use them as weapons. Our _serious_ mental models forget them.
Forgetting taboo makes us all less effective. I'll be writing about this, starting with Facebook. Stay tuned!
Forgetting taboo makes us all less effective. I'll be writing about this, starting with Facebook. Stay tuned!
