I think I would accept a job at Meta, but it would depend a lot on the role and whether I felt I could still work within my morals. I like many of Meta’s products, especially Instagram and WhatsApp, but I am uncomfortable with parts of the attention economy behind them. A lot of social media seems designed around getting as much of our attention as possible because more engagement means more opportunities to make money from advertising. Meta’s own reports show that the number of ads shown across its apps continues to grow.
This connects to the reading on ethically complicated organizations because I do not think working for a company means automatically supporting everything it does. What matters to me is what I am personally contributing to and whether I have some ability to improve the problem.
For example, Instagram once had a separate companion app called Threads that focused much more on messaging and close friends, without requiring users to spend all their time scrolling through the main Instagram experience. Meta eventually shut it down in 2021. I think options like that are valuable because people may want to stay connected to friends without constantly competing for their attention.
If I could work on changes like that, I would be comfortable staying. If I felt I was contributing to practices I strongly disagreed with and nobody was willing to listen or change, I would be more likely to leave.
Question for class: What kinds of topics can we choose for our project, and what will the project actually involve?
