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Essay / Facebook's War on Free Will
Traditionally, “hackers” are those who defy order to harm others. Facebook used this primitive connotation of “hacker” to challenge order, but for a different purpose. A goal that always rises against the restrictive order of society, but with the aim of creating a new frontier of programming and thinking. Mark Zuckerberg largely contributed to the connotation of the word “hacker”. He transformed the term using the power of his company from a malicious and threatening term to a progressive and beneficial one. Zuckerberg made hacking a desirable quality in his own employees, giving it productive value. Facebook itself is supposed to propagate individualism in the spirit of Zuckerberg, but it may be doing the opposite. With the enormous publicity that a person's information can have on a social media platform like Facebook, users may behave differently, even without realizing it. Users may be tempted to transform their expressions into societal norms. With the integration of algorithms created by “hackers”, Facebook users could lose their freedom of choice in favor of their own computer. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an Original Essay Non-Obvious Features of Facebook's 'Transparent' AlgorithmsAlthough Facebook Hackers' Progressive Vision Allows People to Speak Out and creating new and original ideas, it is slowly creating a platform that facilitates mass compliance through the nature of algorithms and publicity of their users' information. Defining the term "hacker" in Zuckerberg's mind reveals the intentions he intended to have with Facebook, to revolutionize the world, moving forward without the burden of rules and limitations. This new term he had created would be visible not only to his engineering team, but also to everyone in his company. In his chapter “Mark Zuckerberg's War on Free Will,” Foer notes: “Hacking is about being a good worker, a responsible citizen on Facebook, a microcosm of how the company has taken on the language of 'radical individualism and deployed it in the world'. service of conformism” (60). This “radical individualism” that Foer refers to suggests that a hacker, in Zuckerberg's terms, is supposed to be able to make his or her own decisions without influence from outside sources. This can allow the company to infuse its value into many of our daily lives because it gains massive information about all of its users and, to some extent, how they think. Facebook itself is beginning to transform this rebellious essence into one that promotes conformity between individuals. Having the ability to share opinions that can be seen by anyone can be off-putting and can paradoxically lead to a conformist mindset. Foer states, “With the imminent threat of our embarrassing information being released, we will behave better” (60). In this case, fear is the catalyst for those who stick to social norms. Fear that their personal or embarrassing information will be broadcast around the world restricts the information they publish, shaped by social pressures. Users can take advantage of this phenomenon by posting messages aimed at other people, perhaps incriminating ones, and can change the way those people behave after viewing them, not only online but also in real life. These.