Facebook is about to launch a new ad feature called "Sponsored Stories," in which users who check into Facebook while, say, visiting Starbucks, will simultaneously become potential spokespersons for Starbucks. (It also applies to products you "like" on Facebook.) Corporations interested in this form of "organic advertising" will have the option of paying Facebook for users' profile images and product comments, to use as an ad that's seen on their friends' pages. Facebook users, however, won't have the option of opting out. Here's a friendly video explaining your new unpaid gig as a brand ambassador.
Kashmir Hill at Forbes asked Facebook whether there's any way for users to opt out, and was told, "Facebook’s privacy controls give people the power to decide what and how much they want to share, and Sponsored Stories respect people’s privacy settings. For example, if your privacy settings exclude certain friends from seeing content you post, those friends will not see Sponsored Stories created from these posts." FOR NOW, at least.
In previous generations, this may have been seen as "selling out" or "being a tool"—not many people remember, but there was a time when ads were just something to roll your eyes at while waiting forBensonto come back on. In the 60s, we would have burned our Facebooks. But for social network savvy millennials, advertising seems to be just an innocuous form of information sharing. Reached for comment, one young intern at Gothamist HQ told us, "Facebook privacy settings are already messed up. For example, I don't think you can ever hide the pages you like, no matter how secret your profile is. I think if your interaction with a brand only shows up to your friends that isn't so bad."
So why not turn your life into an ad? Being down on the Man is so retrograde, and besides, what's the difference between "Sponsored Stories" and the "organic" word-of-mouth that bounces among friends—that is, besides the fact that somebody's getting paid, and it's not you? Poor struggling Facebook gives us so much for free, it would be churlish to deny the company the right to market our existences. And there's no stopping them anyway! So be sure to like Gothamist on Facebook!
