So, turns out Facebook might be a shady company. I know. Who’da thunk? While private users have begun to jump ship or at the very least to post memes about Mark Zuckerberg’s peculiar way to drink water, public pages – like eMAG – are having to make a pretty tough decision.
Yet another Facebook scandal
Alright, let’s start with a very brief, by no means, complete summary. Facebook is collecting user data, and this goes quite a bit deeper than what some people like to admit. Call logs, contact lists, even where people live. Pretty useful stuff, one might say. Would come in handy if you were to – oh, I don’t know – create ads to sway people’s opinion on stuff like the 2016 Brexit vote or certain presidential candidates in the US. Well, Cambridge Analytica found a way to collect this data and sold it to customers who in turn used it for… You can do the math. Of course, Mark Zuckerberg distanced himself from these practices in the senate hearing last month, but whether his company will change its data-guzzling ways is more than doubtful.
The convenience of networks
And this is where we all come in, actively this time. The development of Facebook’s user base hasn’t really changed all that much following the latest scandal, but a number of influential personalities have openly encouraged people to delete their account, for example Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Space X. So there is at least a chance that the already sub-optimal public opinion about Facebook could lead to people leaving. The problem is, where to?
You see, people have been concerned about Facebook for a long time, but we’re all so invested in its ecosystem that moving on from it seems like a huge step. You’d have to find services that can do everything you’ve found in Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. And ideally, they should have a user base as all-encompassing as these apps, too. Facebook is all about being convenient. Looking for capable alternatives and convincing your family, friends and colleagues to actually use them is anything but that.
Ties that bind
For eMAG the issue is similar, but with a slight twist. For us Facebook’s massive reach means that we can use those existing networks to get word going when we have a promotion event, a new article ready, or our latest issue around the corner. People who are interested share it and all of a sudden 200 people most of our team members have never seen know our release date. That’s just neat! But doesn’t that also mean that we encourage people to stick around on a platform that has done enough shady stuff to deserve being shunned indefinitely?
We’re not pretending that we’re as big as Kanye, but this definitely is a problem that every influencer and page administrator on Facebook needs to be aware of. If you use Facebook for promotion, you bind people to that system and it’s gotten really tough to justify that now.
To leave or not to leave…
So, this is where we’re at. If we quit Facebook, we take the moral high ground. We also throw away most of the promotion work we’ve done since the magazine’s inception. If we stay, we are able to reach a modest, but ever-growing number of readers and can hope to reach people outside the campus on a regular basis.
If you know of any alternatives, please drop us a line, through Facebook, if need be. Every social network has to start with just a handful of users. Maybe you are one of them. We’re definitely open for a service that respects its users.
Text & Picture: Andreas Böhm
With the big splash Virtual Reality headsets have made over the last year, with the releases of consumer headsets like the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, the holodeck seems to be well on its way to our living rooms, but so far, VR also seems to remain a feature reserved for games. Augmented Reality (AR), the other side of the alternative reality coin, might prove more versatile. Interestingly enough, it was a game that finally introduced a larger audience to it: Pokémon Go. Instead of creating a virtual world for you to roam around in, AR adds things to the real world that you can then interact with in real time. In Pokémon Go this was still mostly a gimmick, but there’s a lot of potential in this technology. Here are some ideas.
Listen in or become a radio celebrity yourself!
Outlander
s. Niantic and Nintendo have long refused to offer games for anything but their own gaming devices. At the beginning of July this year, a dream for many Pokémon fans worldwide came true: being able to actually integrate your game into your life. The very handy side effect of having to walk around your area or even explore new parts of your city (namely exercise), has been accepted widely.
ts: that means you have to actually hurry to do your move. Otherwise your opponent might just win without you even having used one single move.) No Pokécenters, marts (you get Pokéballs at Pokéstops, as well as other goodies) or hometowns of players exist in this game. There are teams to choose from: red, blue or yellow (probably because of the three original games/legendary Pokémon?). After choosing one, you will take over gyms with this team – but you also have to defend that said gym against opponents of the other teams.
h all of them, so you don’t have to miss out on one! (Yay!) Pokéstops: You want to visit as many of these as possible, as they’re your immediate supplier of Pokéballs, which you need to “be the very best.” The main point of Pokéstops and gyms, though, is to level up the player. This time, it doesn’t matter that much, what level your Pokémon are, but rather what level you are. The higher the level you are, the higher level Pokémon you’ll find. All of the creatures can be found in their “natural surrounding”, meaning you’ll find a Squirtle close to water and a Rattata or Pidgey basically everywhere. You just have to explore new areas to catch different types.