The article aims to unravel the implicit soft-control of users by Facebook through the framework of choice architecture as proposed by Thaler and Sunstein (2008) in their well-known work Nudge. It explores the dichotomous foundation of Facebook’s choice architecture in which users are given an apparent sense of autonomy while the platform implicitly soft-controls them. This paradoxical power plays functions through two broad types of nudges—activity-inducing nudges and passivity-inducing nudges. The mechanism of functioning of these nudges on Facebook is explored while noting the behavioural patterns they induce among users. Facebook’s transition from information architecture to choice architecture is also explored. Thus, the article aims to contribute to the growing body of work, which has underscored the importance of assessing web 2.0 as the ‘technological unconscious’ which has penetrated everyday life.
BechmannA. (2014). Non-informed consent cultures: Privacy policies and app contracts on Facebook. Journal of Media Business Studies, 11(1), 21–38. doi: 10.1080/16522354.2014.11073574.
2.
BeerD. (2009). Power through the algorithm? Participatory web cultures and the technological unconscious. New Media & Society, 11(6), 985–1002.
3.
BeerD. (2017a). The data analytics industry and the promises of real-time knowing: Perpetuating and deploying a rationality of speed. Journal of Cultural Economy, 10(1), 21–33.
4.
BeerD. (2017b). The Social Power of Algorithms. Information, Communication & Society, 20(1), 1–13. doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2016.1216147.
5.
Berkeley School of Information (Producer) (2014, September09). Career talk: Data analytics at Facebook. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI9JiG-Ow9g (Accessed on 21January2017).
6.
BöhmeR., & KöpsellS. (2010). Trained to accept? A field experiment on consent dialogs. In BuieE. A. (Eds.), In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 2403–2406). CHI ’10. New York, NY: ACM. doi: 10.1145/1753326.1753689.
7.
BoothR. (2014, June30). Facebook reveals news feed experiment to control emotions. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/29/facebook-users-emotions-news-feeds
8.
BoydD., & HargittaiE. (2010). Facebook privacy settings: Who cares?First Monday, 15(8). Retrieved from http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3086
9.
BrüggerN. (2015). A brief history of Facebook as a media text: The development of an empty structure. First Monday, 20(5). doi: 10.5210/fm.v20i5.5423.
10.
BucherT. (2012). Want to be on the top? Algorithmic power and the threat of invisibility on Facebook. New Media & Society, 14(7), 1164–1180. doi: 10.1177/1461444812440159.
11.
BucherT. (2013). The friendship assemblage: Investigating programmed sociality on Facebook. Television & New Media, 14(6), 479–493. doi: 10.1177/1527476412452800.
12.
CerteauM. (1988). The practice of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
13.
CGD. (2013). Big impact from big data—Ken Rudin of Facebook—YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FnlygE2sSo
14.
ChenJ., WernerG., DuganC., MullerM., & GuyI. (2009). Make new friends, but keep the old: Recommending people on social networking sites. In ThomasJ. (Eds.), In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 201–210). CHI ’09. New York, NY: ACM. doi: 10.1145/1518701.1518735.
15.
DelosC. G. (2013, November27). Big impact from big data—Ken Rudin of Facebook. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FnlygE2sSo
16.
D’OnfroJ., & DickeyM. R. (2015, February4). Facebook looked completely different 11 years ago—Here’s what’s changed over the years. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.in/Facebook-looked-completely-different-11-years-ago-heres-whats-changed-over-the-years/articleshow/46123341.cms
17.
DuncanG. (2010, June17). Open letter urges Facebook to strengthen privacy. Digital Trends. Retrieved from https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/open-letter-urges-facebook-to-strengthen-privacy/
18.
FoucaultM. (1977). Discipline & punish: The birth of the prison (SheridanA., Trans.). New York: Vintage Books.
19.
Fox-BrewsterT. (2016, June29). Facebook is playing games with your privacy and there’s nothing you can do about it. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/06/29/facebook-location-tracking-friend-games/
20.
FuchsC. (2012). The political economy of privacy on Facebook. Television & New Media, 13(2), 139–159. doi: 10.1177/1527476411415699.
21.
GehlR. W. (2011). The archive and the processor: The internal logic of web 2.0. New Media & Society, 13(8), 1228–1244.
22.
HelmondA. (2014). The new Facebook data policy: Like or dislike?Internet Policy Review. Retrieved from https://policyreview.info/articles/news/new-facebook-data-policy-or-dislike/341
23.
HicksM. (2010, May26). Making control simple [Facebook notes]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook/making-control-simple/391922327130/
24.
KahnemanD. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow (Reprint edition). New Delhi: Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd.
25.
KennedyH., & MossG. (2015). Known or knowing publics? Social media data mining and the question of public agency. Big Data & Society, 2(2). doi: 10.1177/2053951715611145.
26.
KincaidJ. (2009, December9). The Facebook privacy fiasco begins. TechCrunch. Retrieved from http://social.techcrunch.com/2009/12/09/facebook-privacy/
27.
KitchinR. (2017). Thinking critically about and researching algorithms. Information, Communication & Society, 20(1), 14–29.
28.
KramerA. D. I., GuilloryJ. E., & HancockJ. T. (2014). Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(24), 8788–8790.
29.
LashS. (2007). Power after hegemony: Cultural studies in mutation. Theory, Culture & Society, 24(3), 55–78.
30.
ListerM., DoveyJ., GiddingsS., GrantI., & KellyK. (2008). New media: A critical introduction (2nd ed.). Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge.
31.
LynchP. J., & HortonS. (2016). Web style guide. (4th Edition). Foundations of User Experience Design. Yale University Press.
32.
MorvilleP., & RosenfieldL. (2006). Information architecture for the World Wide Web 3e (3rd ed.). Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly.
33.
PapsdorfC. (2015). How the internet automates communication. Information, Communication & Society, 18(9), 991–1005.
34.
PaulI. (2010, June17). Advocacy groups ask Facebook for more privacy changes. PCWorld. Retrieved from http://www.pcworld.com/article/199099/facebook_privacy_fixes.html
35.
Raynes-GoldieK. (2010). Aliases, creeping, and wall cleaning: Understanding privacy in the age of Facebook. First Monday, 15(1). Retrieved from http://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2775
36.
ShoreJ., & SteinmanJ. (2015). Did you really agree to that? The evolution of Facebook’s privacy policy. Technology Science. Retrieved from https://techscience.org/a/2015081102/
37.
ThalerR. H., & SunsteinC. R. (2012). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness. London: Penguin Books.
38.
TabakA. J. (2004, February9). Hundreds register for new Facebook website. Zuckerberg Transcripts, p. 106. Retrieved from http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/2/9/hundreds-register-for-new-facebook-website/
39.
TerranovaT. (2000). Free labor: Producing culture for the digital economy. Social Text, 18(2), 33–58.
40.
TverskyA. and KahnemanD. (1974). Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Science185, 1124–1130.
41.
van DijckJ. (2014). Datafication, dataism and dataveillance: Big data between scientific paradigm and ideology. Surveillance and Society, 12(2), 197–208.
42.
VenturesK. (2015, June22). Growth | Alex Schultz [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qwVsAHsG8
