Letter to Mark Zuckerberg

Letter to Mark Zuckerberg

To Mr. Mark Zuckerberg

There comes a point when every successful company changes because its founders have trouble taking in all the things coming along with elevating their social status. This is the case with Facebook, taking into account how it was inevitable for you, Mr. Zuckerberg, to keep attitudes you've had in the past given the fact that your current position brought along a series of privileges. Facebook was initially designed as a tool to bring people together and to make it easier for individuals with similar interests to cooperate. Throughout the social network's existence, it has enabled numerous persons to strengthen relationships and it was most commonly used because of its simplicity -- it provided a clear set of options and emphasized the fact that this was not just another environment focused on increasing its creator's profits.

Even though Facebook stands as a symbol for ingenuity and progress, it would also be important for its management to concentrate on the company's status in the contemporary society. There is a history of users feeling unease as a consequence of diverse changes that have occurred on the social network during recent years. Moving fast and being obsessed with progress in particular can sometimes be detrimental for the company and this is reflected by how many users criticize certain elements on the social network.

Privacy is a significant concept in the present, especially considering how the chain of issues concerning Edward Snowden, the NSA, and others have influenced people to be hesitant about getting involved in activities that they feel would make them vulnerable. As a consequence, it would be important for Facebook to provide the world with privacy settings that favor users and that make it possible for them to feel safer while using the social network. People need to be able to know exactly who sees what they are doing and need to control their privacy settings in order to be able to hide particular things from others.

While you provide people using your system with the ability to control what they share with the world and with particular groups, many might be inclined to believe that some settings are confusing. This leads to cases of individuals being unable to hide things they want to hide because they are unsure what security settings to use. It is surely laudable that Facebook has struggled to present users with the ability to access the exact piece of information they are interested in and to change its privacy settings in accordance with their thinking.

Like most companies, Facebook seems to have trouble understanding that its users need to have access to clear information regarding their privacy and that they would prefer it to be as short as possible. Reading privacy settings can often be especially time-consuming and many users thus skip this stage.

The Facebook spirit seems to slowly go away as the company is becoming stronger. I'm not trying to say that you've lost interests in its users, Mr. Zuckerberg, but I want you to understand that you need to acknowledge that while things have changed people still come to Facebook in order to do what they did when they first interacted with the social network. The fact that it now provides many more options is good, but its privacy settings make some people feel that this is too much to take in. As a consequence, these respective individuals either limit the time they spend with the program or they quit it altogether.

It is very probable that things like fame and the fact that the whole world wants to have something to do with you have somewhat changed your perspective on life. I actually agree that money is an important concept in the contemporary society and by gaining access to as much as possible someone can make wonders. The numerous areas lacking basic needs raise public awareness regarding the way that people need to think in order to make the world a better place. Even with this, lacking the funds to help people there means that one is powerless in the face of suffering.

Despite the significance of money today, one should also acknowledge the importance of being human. This is exactly what the initial Facebook involved -- people knew that this was a social network built on the need to bring people together rather than to simply increase someone's profits. Individuals would use it as a place to escape society and to get involved in a community where things other than money were important. Appreciation for simple things was possible there and people no longer need to subject to many of society's traditional rules.

I am very well-acquainted with the fact that as Facebook, you've experienced much progress during recent years. I'm not trying to say that you should abandon all the knowledge you've accumulated during these years. Instead, I'm simply trying to make you understand that some ideas are not outdated just because they happened to emerge in the past. The initial thinking behind Facebook was among the main reasons why it got its present status. Taking things further involves the risk of falling into a trap of problems associated with money becoming more and more important.

Sometimes things just need to be kept simple and I know you know this better than most people. This is why I turn to you to revive the Facebook spirit and to play a more active role in making its users feel that the social networks is designed to do exactly what they are looking for. I agree that progress is good, but it also needs to be addressed while considering a series of limitations set with the purpose to preserve the best things about the system.