Miskatonic University · Special Collections · MS-200

Misc No. 200 · 30 July 2027 · 1 min

The Cult That Gathers Where the Feed Never Sleeps

"Meet your customers where they are" is great advice. While generally attributed as a paraphrase by Jack Dorsey in 2013, I really feel I've heard it my whole life in some way or form. I find it hard to believe no one came up with this until then. Anyway, it certainly seems like a solid plan. If your prospective customers are subway riders - advertise on subway trains. If your customers are on Facebook, then advertise there.

But don't mistake that everyone who wants to be your customer is on, or want's to be on Facebook. Facebook harvests data, tracks the websites you go to, and in turn sells your information to third parties. Some of us are not crazy about the private sector being able to look at everything we do. Let's say I get big into Whiskey and look at a lot of forums... should my car insurance rates go up? That's rhetorical... they should not.

But I keep finding organizations that demand that you use Facebook to get schedules, and sometimes create accounts to interact with them. I'm picking on Facebook because they are a good example, but this stands to reason for any service that views it's users as "the product".

I do not feel entitled. It makes sense that a business can decide to force Facebook on people, just as much as a customer can opt not to use that business. Over the years this has been the case with a few business we really otherwise liked. I know my data is already out there, but sometimes you just need to say nope.

If enough people do, things may change.

Cross-filed under society

Correspondence regarding this file is welcome, though replies may be slow to arrive.

Send word
Professional Philosophy Projects Exposures Family Fiction Misc