It works because its algorithms know what you like, who you pay attention to, who and what you're interested in, how you self-identify, and what groups or cliques you belong to. Moreover, the Facebook experience is designed to keep you on a hamster wheel, hence the endless-scroll feature.

Facebook is like a giant funnel

This isn't an exaggeration, from a behavioral standpoint, Facebook is primarily designed to do two things:

1.) Hook & maintain your interest.

2.) Facilitate passive or active engagement.

So that sucking sound could be your rapidly diminishing attention span, interest, brain cells? Right through the funnel.

By siphoning the energy of its users the company that is Facebook aims to put x amount of ads in front of your eyeballs in your news feed, in your messages. Someday they will crop up in a virtual reality space as FB harvests your data in multiple dimensions.. shudder It's business 2 business. It's kind of like the tech-based equivalent to timeshare schemes.

The platform is the broker you and your data is the product, third parties are the lifeblood for the broker. As such, the whole reason for the platform is to sell you on the idea of hanging out long enough to listen to a bunch of pitches from their business partners. In fact, the entire process is monetized. A certain percentage of users will buy products and services on the site, but even if you don't, they charge the businesses for advertising and they extract and resell your data regardless, which is then used to further target you with specific ads. And on and on, in a vicious cycle.

It works because its algorithms know what you like, who you pay attention to, who and what you're interested in, how you self-identify, and what groups or cliques you belong to. Moreover, the Facebook experience is designed to keep you on a hamster wheel, hence the endless-scroll feature.

Have you ever looked something up online only to see the same product in a FB ad immediately after? Advertisers call that (appropriately enough) targeting.

A piece of code is written to follow you around online and report back to FB what you're doing. But that's just the beginning. When you engage in any way with any ad on the site, or sometimes elsewhere, (even regular data can be tracked this way) when that product is being advertised on FB an advert will 'retarget' you at various times in the hopes that the ad campaign will stoke enough interest to coax you into making a purchase. Add to that the social component and there are a whole lot of other tactics being employed as well, but I digress.

Suffice to say, every day spent on FB is a day more energy and data is extracted from you all without getting anything back.

The negative effects have become so obvious that numerous studies have been conducted to test the impact of social engineering, err...media usage on FB and other similar platforms. Many ex-employees have already come out publicly against the site for what I call weaponized psychology.

Is social media use rewiring our brains?

Maybe we're being dumbed down and desensitized by algorithmic processes flipping switches in our biological wetware. Huh?? I'll explain.

If you're over 35 do you remember a time when you were able to engage in healthy discussion, even disagreements online? Or when through a sense of community, we gave others a wide berth and the benefit of the doubt? Remember when we treated each other with what we used to call 'common courtesy?'

In those days it was a small handful of heavy users that would troll others, engaging in flame wars on message boards. These were the outliers, those with no life outside of the internet. As the internet replaces television and now that our 'hyper-connected' if dissociated social lives revolve around technology, are we all becoming a bit more "troll-like?"

The makers of the movie The Cable Guy clearly got this over 20 years ago, so why don't we?

With the rise of social media, behavior involving superficial and artificial identity (personal branding), status/group identity (norm-based social conformity) and signaling through the use of information what group you belong to, what your beliefs are, etc has become all the rage. It's perfect for the advertisers, for politicians and political systems, et, al., as it unconsciously mirrors the very algorithms we use. But that brave new world is slowly dying out now.

Enter STEEMIT

Steemit is inherently decentralized (making it kind of an anarchic experiment.)
You can make money by posting on Steemit. Steemit doesn't run on advertising and won't give you up by selling your data. Steemit is built on the concept of mutual reward and reciprocity.

Did I mention Steemit pays you for your content, or rather, other Steemians vote and Steemit pays you per vote.
Steemit won't let you down.
It's a win-win.

Steemit is literally designed with You in mind.
It's the complete opposite of most social media networks, though now (largely thanks to steemit.com new platforms are popping up with similar principles and functionality in mind.)

So, rather than treat your consciousness like an ATM for others, you have another option.
Whether it lives up to the fulfillment of the mission to connect people whilst maximizing benefit for all is yet to be seen. One thing is for sure, you have the opportunity with steemit to utilize your unique knowledge, skill-sets, and personality to lift up yourself and others. You can make a REAL impact on people's lives simply through using Steemit.com
Of the top social media platforms right now in 2018 which of them can you say that about...any?

Here in the Steemit community, you're Not treated like a product.
But your uniqueness is an asset that can produce a wealth of benefit so this is a platform that rewards that.

Share this with your friends who don't understand why Facebook and other traditional social media platforms are a waste of time and energy. Bring them here to create a wider community based on the mutual support of common interests. Here, we rise together.

Viva 'la Steemit!

Thank you for your time and attention.
I put a fair amount of time creating this content (more than I'd like to admit) because I believe this community is worth it. Your upvotes are appreciated. Follow me @adamthor for more.

Oh and here's a brief Star Wars themed explainer video if you'd like more info. Peace!

Sources:
https://hbr.org/2017/04/a-new-more-rigorous-study-confirms-the-more-you-use-facebook-the-worse-you-feel
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/245251.php
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ethics-everyone/201202/facebook-addiction
https://news.avclub.com/facebook-tinkered-with-users-feeds-for-a-massive-psych-1798269841
https://nypost.com/2016/08/27/its-digital-heroin-how-screens-turn-kids-into-psychotic-junkies/
https://www.businessinsider.com/what-facebook-likes-say-about-you-2017-9
http://www.fenichel.com/facebook/
https://socialnewsdaily.com/16800/facebook-is-not-suitable-for-kids-under-13/
http://www.realclearlife.com/technology/former-google-product-philosopher-thinks-technology-is-purposely-addictive/
https://www.lifehack.org/233325/5-psychological-reasons-you-are-addicted-facebook-and-5-ways-break-the-habit

Photos:
https://www.vpnsrus.com/
Wikipedia
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gleonhard/29206761231
(Creative Commons Attribution)
Pixabay (CC License)
Pexels