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In the aftermath of the coordinated terrorist attacks across Paris last Friday ( Nov. 13 ) , support start up in the fresh public sphere : Facebook . The societal web rolled out a puppet allow users to easily put a French flag overlayer on members ' profile pictures to express understanding with the victims .
Almost immediately , though , the pecker sparked backlash . " perplex a French flag on your Facebook profile pic ? congratulation on your corporate white supremacy , " learn the headline ofone op - erectile dysfunction in The Independent .
emotion are eminent , to say the least .
The French flag sheathing is n’t the first overlayFacebookhas developed in response to current effect , but it came at a fourth dimension when social mass medium users seem divided on what a retweet , profile picture change or share meme really imply . Is using a Facebook flag overlayer a simple human action of solidarity , or is it a political statement ? Are online expressions of emotion trivial exemplar of " slacktivism , " or are they substantial and meaningful to the political physical process ? [ 5 Ways Your Emotions Influence Your World ( and Vice Versa ) ]
societal media support
inquiry on these social medium expressions is still new , as are profile video overlays themselves . Facebook make a rainbow " Celebrate Pride " overlay in June that became extremely popular after theSupreme Court strike down state prohibitions against same - sex marriagein June . Before that , the Human Rights Campaign design a red equal mark promoting marriage par . In March 2013 , 3 million Facebook users changed their profile pictures to this logo ( which replace their photo or else of overlie it ) . Making a statement via a profile picture is not a phenomenon circumscribe to Facebook . During the 2009 objection in the Middle East experience as the " Arab Spring , " many Twitter users turn their visibility pictures green to endure protestors .
The urge to take part in global issue through social media is clearly unattackable . However , there has been little investigation into why some multitude utilize Facebook as a political platform while others see it as more of a venue for babe pictures and vacation snapshots . The site does seem to play a role in providing societal support , which might explain the urge to touch out and connect after a disaster . A 2014 study found that for college students , more Facebook manipulation wasassociated with get more social support . However , this societal media livelihood was not link with a greater horizontal surface of life satisfaction , so it ’s less exonerated whether societal media support is beneficial to genial health .
There ’s no consensus on how helpful societal sensitive really is to any given political cause , either . Many in the media trumpeted the value of Twitter to Tehran ’s " Green Revolution " of 2009 , calling it a " Twitter revolution . " However , journalist Evgeny Morozov , source of " To Save Everything , Click Here : The Folly of Technological Solutionism " ( Public Affairs , 2014 ) pointed out in an article forDissent magazinethat social media revolution can backfire , given that the government has access to public communication on Twitter . In fact , these " revolutions " can reveal a with child deal about the protestors and how they ’re connected to one another . And although demonstrate Facebook living for a cause may feel good , it ’s largely pointless , Morozov argued . [ 17 Developing Countries That enjoy Social Media More Than the US ]
" What do 100 million hoi polloi invited to join the Facebook group ' 100 Million Facebook members for Democracy in Iran ' expect to get out of their rank ? " he wrote . " Is it just a gigantic practice session in transcontinental wishful intellection ? "
How Facebook respond
Attempting to tumble a authorities is different from showing solidarity and understanding , which illustrates the take issue motivation behind various social media support effort . While light-green Twitter avatars did picayune to change Iran ’s political post after the Arab Spring , might French flag overlays solace those directly stirred or show unity against act of terrorism ? [ 10 slipway Terrorist Attacks Have sway America ]
There are no clear resolution to the questions , which are complicated by the speedy backlash to the overlayer . Many Facebook users protested that the social media net had n’t reacted as powerfully to death and destruction in other countries , let in to a suicide bombardment that killed 43 in Beirut the day before . Some user have made and apportion their own overlays , and are hale Facebook to expand its offering . Founder Mark Zuckerberg has not addressed the flag disputation but aver the company be after to propose its " Safety Check " lineament — which allows substance abuser to let their Facebook friends know they are good — for more human - made tragedy run forward . ( Prior to the Paris attacks , this check - in feature had been used only for innate catastrophe . )
" We handle about all mass as , and we will work hard to help people suffering in as many of these situations as we can , " Zuckerbergwrote on Facebook .
Facebook ’s influence
Facebook ’s build - in gizmo certainly influence how people select to express themselves on the site , and there is some grounds that the situation really can change the existent world . report in a 2014 study , researchers find thatemotions are contagious on Facebook . When users see more positive postal service in their News Feed , they post more positive content themselves , and frailty versa for negative posts . And afamous get - out - the - vote studyconducted on Facebook on Election Day 2010 incur that Facebook encouragement to vote resulted in 340,000 more multitude rifle to the polls than otherwise would have . And the effects spread through the web like falling Antoine Domino . For every one person who ascertain the message , four more were indirectly urge to go to the polls by seeing their friends vote . It was the first bailiwick to show that online information can shape a genuine - humans action , the source of the study told Live Science at the time .
But Facebook is mold not only by the situation ’s algorithmic rule and tools , but by how a somebody use the web site . A 2015 study write in the Proceedings of the eighteenth ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing find that people ’s societal milieu strongly influences whether they ’ll march support for a cause via their Facebook visibility photograph . The inquiry focused on theHuman Rights Campaign red equal signsupporting same - sex marriage . Though support for same - sex wedding had become a majority stance in America in the month before the adequate sign ’s appearance , putting it up on one ’s visibility still carried a academic degree of social risk of exposure , the field researchers wrote . supporter or family might disagree , creating dispute , the researchers said .
Perhaps this fear of putting one ’s neck out too far is why people generally did n’t change their profile picture until they ’d seen a few friends do so first . On fair , masses became more probable to interchange their visibility movie after they ’d see eight other supporter do so first . ( To be accurate , the median number was eight , and the mean was 14.4 . ) Any extra champion getting on the bandwagon after about eight did not further encourage mass to dramatize the adequate - preindication profile picture .
Because Facebook exploiter select their own Quaker , it can be difficult to learn how much the situation influences people ’s impression versus mesh them in an echo bedroom where their pre - existent prospect are amplify . Unsurprisingly , hoi polloi with more gay and sapphic friends on Facebook were quicker to change their profile picture to an equal signaling than those with few gay and lesbian friend .
Facebook ’s influence in changing the conversation about politics and insurance policy is potentially cut short by this self - take inclination . The site ’s algorithm tries to show users subject matter they ’re likely to betroth with . A 2015 report found that among 10 million users who ’d declared a political tie , the algorithm decrease the amount ofideologically dissimilar viewpointsthose people saw by 1 percentage . Users ' own choice of what to select cause a 4 percent decrease in information from unlike points of view . Facebook has changed its algorithm since that study , possibly exacerbating the effect .
In other words , one person ’s Facebook feed may be a sea of Gallic flag overlays , while another ’s might be flood with share op - ED on why Gallic flag overlays are incorrect . It ’s not light how well these messages cut across ideological lines — or whether the cacophony of opinions is capable of switch hearts and minds .
