I am always suspicious of people who want to offer me something for free.  As we all know, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.  Somebody’s paying somehow.  And it turns out that in exchange for Facebook’s “free” services all you have to do is surrrender your psyche.  VIA Popular Mechanics:

“A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed on the weekend that in January of 2012, Facebook manipulated the feeds of 689,003 English language users, making slight alterations to see if they could change the large scale mood of the populace. The answer was a resounding yes, a terrifying and appalling yes.” – Popular Mechanics 

Did you get that?  Through their manipulation of the news feeds of members, by featuring more positive or negative stories, Facebook was able to manipulate the feelings of those members – to make them either happier or angier based on the tenor of the members own postings.  The study referred to in the article proves that “social contagion”, or large scale manipulation of the moods of a society are possible – and Facebook is a proven tool for this end.  I have a lot to say about this, but not time to do it today  – but DO READ THE ARTICLE AT POPULAR MECHANICS.

“But the real scandal of the Facebook experiment was that the company was doing nothing illegal. You sign away your rights to be analyzed when you agree to Facebook’s terms of service.” – Popular Mechanics

So we have Google, vacuuming up all the information and data that exist, and Facebook manipulating your moods – what could possibly go wrong?  But hey…at least it’s free!

Cross Posted at Men Out of Work Blog