When I was reviewing old news, I couldn’t believe we have been suffering from social media networks for so long. Back in 2015, a new term was coined to describe the act of ignoring someone for your phone by James A. Roberts, a professor at Baylor University. The act, “phubbing,” which is the combination of the words “phone” and “snubbing.” “To be phubbed,” is to be snubbed by people who are in your company instead of putting their mobile phones away and talking to each other. You might wonder what does it have to do with Facebook, and you probably immediately would realize that Facebook is the world’s biggest social media networking. Specifically, more than one billion people are active on Facebook, and more than 100 million people use Facebook for every phone each month. Also, Facebook is one of biggest reasons people are phubbing. In fact, researchers are saying phone snubbing is killing relationships. Snubbing someone in the middle of a conversation to check our smartphones is on the rise as new research revealed we look at our handsets up to 150 times a day. It is suggested that nearly half of people have been phubbed by their partners and more than two-thirds of people believe phubbing hurts their ability to interact with their partners. That’s how serious it is.Journalist Sophia A.Nelson pointed out that such phenomenon is causing division in families, in churches, in marriages and friendships. Since Facebook is the world’s biggest social media networking, its responsibility exists automatically and inevitably as it has tremendous social effects.

Recently, Facebook announced its first big decision in 2018. “We feel a responsibility to make sure our services aren’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being,” Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page. The main idea is that Facebook is overhauling the news feed to prioritize posts from family and peers. Zuckerberg said his latest challenge for this new year is to fix some of the problems that have spread on Facebook, like hate and abuse. This move of Facebook is significant if you link back to the terrible situation I pointed out at the beginning. I bet Facebook is having a clear sense of what’s happening in the society, and it is amazing to see Facebook is willing to fix problems. It’s even better to know Facebook does feel a responsibility to make sure its service is good for people’s well-being. It is because the existence of popular smartphone apps and social networking like Facebook made phubbing increasingly serious, Facebook had to take its responsibility and fix the problem. In short, as I said earlier, responsibility exists when Facebook is capable of making enormous social effects.

I strongly believe that the relationship issues between people caused by phubbing would be eased and relieved after Facebook takes action, and I believe the method Facebook is going to apply to solve the problem works the same way as Facebook caused the problem, which both are tied to filter bubble. Facebook has been playing an important role in controlling the content of your Facebook pages. The content you are looking at is always customized based your likes, clicks, and other moves you made on Facebook. Facebook only promote things that are close to your interests after categorizing you. Also, your friends on Facebook are also essential in deciding what to show on your Facebook pages. People are easily persuaded and brainwashed by things their peers are into. Facebook users then get addicted to that preferred information and values; they just can’t get rid of this addictive feeling. Some scholars believe Facebook’s filter bubble was one of the main reasons “screwed up” the last US election. According to Pew Research Center, two-thirds of U.S. adults got news from social media in 2017, and 68% of Facebook users got news from Facebook. Facebook should again take its social responsibility since the content appears on Facebook would impact people’s thoughts to a great extent. At this point, it is great to rethink how meaningful it is for Facebook to take actions to make sure people’s well-being through Facebook’s services. When you have appropriate values to be enjoyed on your Facebook pages, it is very likely that your friends will also have chances to appreciate those good things on their Facebook pages.

Why did Zuckerbergsuddenly decide to make sure people’s well-being? What about those brands, and advertisements, and publishers? I doubt Facebook made such a decision after a comprehensive evaluation of the positive and negative impacts it occurred over the past years. It is said that many people feel regret to vote for Donald Trump, and they found out that they were brainwashed by the content on their Facebook pages before the election. Thus, some people are losing trust from Facebook. Not only the election that made people feel regret about decision making, but also the fact that people feel increasingly harder to have face-to-face conversations. Facebook then realized they need to take action to adjust the balance in the digital public sphere to maintain sustainable development. It’s like you have to pay for your credit cards so that the bank will trust you. Facebook’s development needs people’s trust and favorable comments. Believe it or not, DailyMail revealed in 2012 that a crime linked to Facebook was reported to police every 40 minutes. How could such a media giant simply ignore problems happened to its users? Certainly, Facebook can’t.

Isn’t it so ironic that we people are the ones who are inwardly impacted by Facebook since we are passively subscribing to the content that comforts us, but we can’t do anything about it? The only one who can control the content is Facebook, which is why the public’s awareness of how Facebook produces its content should be raised, so that people could prevent negative effects from its filter bubbles. My suggestion for Facebook users is that always rethink the content and never directly accept everything on your Facebooks pages, and my suggestion for Facebook is that never escape the burden of social responsibility.