Friends Vs Subscription/Subscriber Model in Facebook

Date: 08-Oct-2011 / RYP

Friends Vs Subscription/Subscriber Model in Facebook

Difference between the two:

A friend request is bidirectional and has to be approved at both ends to create a link between two ppl (nodes in a graph)

Subscription/Subscribers are unidirectional and don’t require explicit permissions (every time)

Now before we proceed ahead the following points must be kept in mind and the discussion to be seen in their perspective-

1/ One is not the center of the facebook universe.

2/ One is a tiny node in the huge network. Imagine a small dendrite in the huge nervous system.

3/ FB is interested to know your interests to target ads based on the digital content you consume. Think of it as a smart salesman trying to know your interest to offer products which you will like. (Salesmen aren't bad!)

4/ Applications are the same and can be visualized as extensions of FB.. In others words, brother salesmen who sell other products (specialized ones though).

5/ As soon as your interests and inclinations are revealed, your whole information environment around you starts to move and evolve in those areas only. This creates an information bubble which serves your request. But also hides other POTENTIALLY useful information which you might be interested in at that TIME (its very important to note the timings)

6/ Once ANY data is uploaded on the web, it can be safely assumed that its going to reside somewhere forever.

Friend Model Analysis:

When ppl friend each other, they BOTH create links in the huge social graph (ppl, pages, images, videos, etc) and as a result every node connected to them is affected. This effect is not immediately realized as its not in the first degree of freedom, this causes increased complexity and a continuous feedback of the same on BOTH  their nodes. With increase in the no of friends, this becomes a hierarchical graph with 4 distinct set of classes in which every node can be classified -

1/ Consumer

2/ Producer

3/ Pseudo Consumer

4/ pseudo Producer

The highly sophisticated proprietary network analysis tools of FB, imo,  do nothing different than to identify the links and the different routes to access nodes in the link.. if the strength of a link is high, its a very high probability to sell a product through that chain through recommendation and "SOCIAL PEER PRESSURE/FORCE - This works silently and isn’t in the picture." or it is easy to target and control the leaf node as the person is hopelessly dependent on the social system to survive. (Hashable is such a network which determines the strength of the links between the nodes). This is the reality and fact which however hard anyone tries to cover with beautiful wrappers, still cannot remove its existence. FB ensures this exists by its most powerful tool.. using the friends of friends option. (this is a recursive condition which seems silly at the first glance, actually is the whole power behind the FB system) while suggesting friends and sending requests. This works exactly like a virus, once you infect one user with it, it is a high probability the other linked user will be.

This kind of supply chain searching is not very friendly to ppl (who act as pseudo advertisers for the product on sale. selling converts them to consumers and it is not good for them personally.), the environment as it increases the ppl towards consumer side of the classes and consumers act nothing differently than slaves (more like guinea pigs). Thus it can be seen that the whole game plan is to get more control on ppl. This is favorable to politicians and they encourage it. This keeps away useful time of ppl and reduces efficiency. Thus making them even more dependable on resources. "We donot have to use all the parts of a system. We have the choice of using only those parts which are symbiotically useful to both"

Why the subscription/subscriber model is better :

This model is similar to the twitter model. It gives more freedom. It is healthy on the network. Also encourages precise communications. The complete graph of friends  model is hierarchical (like tree) and once the node path(s) links are known one can be easily targeted for ads/surveillance/activities. This kills freedom. Subscription model gives one the freedom to add random noise...(at your will). Also  one gets refined 'public' posts of your choice on the feed which keeps you away from invading privacy of others. (Respect privacy of others and they respect yours, hopefully)

What happens if you do this:

The various graph links established in the graph breakdown (but this could be only theoretical as companies dont part with data. Their survival depend on it. assume safely that your data which is on the web, once uploaded, will never be deleted) and if done in cascade by all nodes, this will lead to the complete failure to the path chain finding system of FB.. This is how FB turns into Twitter, but ofc with longer tweets.

Finally, getting things done automatically is fine and convenient, but at what cost? At the end of the day you dont want to be spoonfed.. Think over it again with different perspectives.

PS : I am not delusional. Nor I drink/smoke/do drugs or was drinking/smoking while writing this.Thanks