Slowly but surely, you lose more and more control.Then, you must start paying Facebook (which owns Instagram) money to access your fans by “boosting” your posts. Eventually Facebook/Instagram/social media changes their algorithms, making it more difficult for you to reach or connect with your followers/fans.For example, if you have several thousands of followers, your hand is forced– it would be unwise for you to suddenly stop using Facebook/Instagram (considering you already have a lot of followers). Eventually you build up a following on Facebook/Instagram, and you become stuck on the platform.In exchange, you give up personal data, information, and allow these platforms to advertise around your content.Facebook/Instagram/social media gives you the platform to publish your photos and content (for ‘free’).Why can Facebook/Instagram/other forms of social media be likened to sharecropping? Well - think about it this way: On paper it sounds great, but in reality– sharecropping with another form of “indentured servitude” (you essentially become a slave just to repay your debts). Historically, sharecropping was a system in which wealthy land-owners would allow a tenant to work a piece of their land, in return for a share of the crops. I once heard social media being likened to ‘digital sharecropping’. In lieu of the whole #DeleteFacebook movement, let’s do a thought experiment: How would you share your photos if you didn’t have Facebook, Instagram, or other forms of social media?ĭigital Sharecropping A FSA photo of a cropper family chopping the weeds from cotton near White Plains, in Georgia, US (1941).
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