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Global Village Idiot: Settings in the matter of individual versus social media
Amazon, Google, Apple, Orange, Mango, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, your news channels, the government, the school, the company you work … they all want you to spend more time with them. They already have all the info about you, much of it government mandated
Last week, a friend asked me what my opinion was on the WhatsApp privacy settings controversy, and if I knew anything about it.
“What’s your opinion about it?” I asked him.
“I think it’s unfair. It’s an intrusion and they are going to take my data and give it to people.”
“Are you sure? What data?”
“Everything, what I am browsing, who I am talking to, what I am reading, sharing.”
“Who are they going to give this data to?”
“Facebook and its business partners and advertisers.”
“Are you really sure about this?”
“That’s what I have heard.”
“And you don’t want them to do that?”
“No!”
“So stop using WhatsApp.”
“All my family and friends are on the platform. I have to stay connected.”
“Then stay on it.”
“You are not helping.”
“I am not here to help. I am just here to enjoy this ping-pong match you’re playing. Besides, I can’t tell you what to do.”
“Well can you tell me what you are planning to do - stay or leave the platform?”
“I am staying on it.”
I have had similar conversations with other friends and family. And it’s a classic conflict of the addict: torn between compulsive desire and the fear of the consequences of that desire.
Now there are two problems at hand. First, the addiction to WhatsApp. Second, the new privacy settings. The way I see it, the compulsion on account of the addiction clouds the judgment when it comes to the settings.
So first, I shall share my wealth of knowledge on the matter of Individual versus Social Media. During my years of grappling with the problem, I designed many devices to help me overcome the problem.
Like the One Tight Slap robot, whose job it was to slap me hard if I opened any social media during the day time.
And the Drag Me Away By My Hair robotic hand, whose job it was to drag me away from my phone if I had been on it for more than 30 minutes at a time.
Sadly, none of the devices worked, but they paved the way to the super top secret method I developed to deal with this problem. I was going to file patent on it but I have some time today, and so I will tell you, from the goodness of my heart, how you can have your social media and keep it too: The secret is to Not Share.
That’s right. You just have to stop sharing stuff. Let me explain how.
First of all, I do not exceed the 30-minutes-in-a-day restriction for platforms. Secondly, I access only through the laptop. The only exception is WhatsApp which is on the phone. Thirdly, I read what is of interest to me (and ignore everything else). I share almost nothing. I forward nothing. I re-share less than nothing. If I have to make up a statistic, 99% of what I receive/read, never leaves my device.
Since I don’t share, I do not look for reactions, and therefore, I have no reason to go to the platform obsessively. I have rules for sharing, and the rules are simple: share only my original work or works of people I know. I occasionally share jokes and funny videos, but only if they have no agendas or political overtones.
If I see a conversation going long, I pick up the phone and call the person.
This super top secret method has been very effective and as a result, over the past year, I have moved out of Facebook, Pinterest, phased out of Twitter, Instagram, Tumbler, and drastically reduced Wordpress and LinkedIn. I still use Wordpress and LinkedIn since they are somewhat productive applications, but I go to them when I have something to publish.
On the question of the new privacy settings on WhatsApp, well, I read all end-user agreements (Apple, Microsoft, FB, sundry software) and also read the additional terms, the links within each set of terms and all updates to terms; and they all want the same thing: more information and more rights to share your information, but related to their business goals, which of course is to become the centre of your attention, always.
Amazon, Google, Apple, Orange, Mango, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, your news channels, the government, the school, the company you work … they all want you to spend more time with them. They already have all the info about you, much of it government mandated.
Here’s a pop-quiz: You know all those telemarketers who call you selling insurance and loans? How do you think they get your number? There are regulations which require sharing of customer info, that’s how.
As far as WhatApp is concerned, there are a lot of settings to ensure your privacy. You just have to enable them. What WhatsApp has to change is to stop hiding the terms of use - I should be able to read the terms whenever I want (at the moment, you can’t because the terms of use are not available on the app).
As far as the legal stuff goes, the government and courts are looking into this, and when they come to a conclusion, we can consider our options afresh. Laws in such matters, in my humble opinion, have to be revisited to make agreements more balanced and fair from its current one-sided avatar where consumers’ options are really limited to one choice: accepting or not accepting terms of use.
Meanwhile, if you are worried about what Facebook is sharing with who, you should also start thinking about what information Google, Amazon, your grocery app, the payment banks, and UPI apps have on you. They make life convenient, but these are not critical to existence.
As far as the ethical, moral questions go … we should never have left the Garden of Eden.
Mukherjee, author, learning-tech designer and management consultant, is founder of Mountain Walker and chief strategy advisor, Peak Pacific. He can be reached @ thebengali@icloud.com
