Facebook’s scandals and outage test users’ frenemy relationship

How do you feel about Facebook? Enes Evren/E+ via Getty Images

Elizabeth Stoycheff, Wayne State University

When Facebook was down for most of the day on Oct. 4, 2021, did you miss it, were you relieved or some of both? Social scientists have compiled an expansive body of research that shows how people have come to develop a love-hate relationship with the social media giant with nearly 3 billion users.

Many users have felt their relationship with the platform devolve into a messy codependence, mired by ambiguity and mistrust. For others, reliance on the platform is taken for granted, if occasionally appreciated in moments of pandemic isolation.

And then there are the revelations that the company has been lying about applying its rules differently to important people, knowingly harming teen girls and having a big vaccine misinformation problem. Adding insult to injury, Facebook locked its keys in its car and didn’t show up for over five hours. In short, Facebook is a hot mess.

All this leads to an extremely high-maintenance relationship, leaving users to wonder whether they should just move on with healthier friends. But it wasn’t always like this.

Friendly beginnings

At its launch, Facebook was one of the most authentic social networking partners. Existing online networks, like MySpace, had influential parent companies that chaperoned their platforms, pestering users with ads and gimmicks. But Facebook promised something different: a genuine connection. It was an unexploited social space to live your best life – well before anyone hashbragged it.

Still today, a friendship with Facebook comes with plenty of perks. Most importantly, it is the friend who brings everyone together. Participating in this community is shown to strengthen relationships between close friends and casual acquaintances. Individuals can bond over community causes, shared identities and amusing videos. Facebook has been credited for helping organize coalitions that took down dictators and raised millions of dollars to fight disease.

Adding to Facebook’s popularity, it lets users carefully curate a public image, emphasizing the best parts of their lives. The site has become a central source not only for information about one another, but also the world. Over half of U.S. Facebook users report regularly consuming news on the platform.

Academics friended Facebook, too. I led a study revealing that it is the most researched subject in the field of information and communication technology since 2005. This focus has led to advances in understanding online interactions, digital activism and human psychology.

Undermining trust

Facebook vacuums up users’ data. Alexander Limbach/Shutterstock.com

But Facebook’s stunning success has come at the expense of the privacy of its virtual friends. Its “we sell ads” business model may sound benign, but the platform collects more data and information about users than they may consciously know about themselves.

By sharing users’ data, enabling disinformation campaigns and election interference, Facebook has revealed its allegiances – and they don’t involve protecting users. Carelessness, or what increasingly looks like intentional abuse, of user data has made it difficult to trust the platform with people’s most intimate relationships.

Meanwhile, the company continues to change what information people see on its platform, which has consequences. Research finds that users can be emotionally manipulated by changes to Facebook’s algorithm. This has made the public more politically polarized and less likely to share minority views – implications that may derail democracy.

Algorithms that foster day-to-day social comparison have also taken a toll on mental health. Recent research convincingly shows that Facebook use dampens individuals’ happiness – both immediately and over the long term. Using Facebook has been linked to depression and so many other negative psychological outcomes that it inspired a summary report of 56 studies on the topic.

Frenemies for now

Despite widespread calls to #DeleteFacebook, most users have maintained their profiles and found themselves disrupted by its most recent outage. Why? Because abstaining from Facebook means giving up a network that has social currency and value. The site boasted 2.8 billion active users at the end of 2020, more than a third of the global population. As members of Congress have pointed out, Facebook has few market competitors, meaning it serves as a primary, if not the only, way for large groups to connect. It holds users together (or sometimes hostage) by maintaining relationships with all their friends.

For those who prefer Instagram or WhatsApp, know that Facebook owns those too, and is working to consolidate the technology behind them. These platforms also went down yesterday. Even people with the willpower to de-friend Facebook will still find their data swept up in content that others add to the platform and its affiliates. It’s nearly impossible to escape Facebook’s orbit.

Nevertheless, recapturing the public’s trust will require significant changes. Options for unaltered news feeds, transparent advertising, and user control of data and metadata would be good places to start. But currently, it’s unclear whether Facebook will make these changes to salvage its billions of friendships.

In the meantime, most of Facebook’s friends are updating their privacy settings and just trying to coexist.

 

 

 

 

 

This is an update of an article originally published on Jan. 30, 2019.

Elizabeth Stoycheff, Associate Professor of Communication, Wayne State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Do You Know The 5 Uses For Ribbon Cables?

 

Serving a number of industries over the course of decades requires the need to be quick on one’s feet, provide only the highest quality, and be able to be diverse in the product/service one provides. As such, top-tier cable & wire manufacturers have had to fully embrace the variety of cables they’ve had to make to meet a vast array of applications.

High on the list of revolutionary products to come from this need to meet demand has been the development of ribbon cables. Unless you’ve looked inside of your home PC or television, you’ve likely never seen one of these cables. However, their development has been crucial to the skyrocketing ease of data transmission & communications in today’s technology. In fact, ribbon cables are found just about everywhere there is any kind of technology in an industry. For example:

Computers - Nearly a quarter into the 21st century, it’s hard to imagine any industry not using some form of computation. Whether it’s laptops in the field, desktops in the office, or even fax machines & printers, ribbon cables are at the heart of all computational technology.

Aerospace/Military - The primary use of ribbon cable over more traditional cable forms is to save space. When it comes to aerospace & military applications, there’s always a need to have astoundingly high performance without a lot of extra weight. Also, it has to be easy to repair, replace, and upgrade over time.

Medical Equipment - As modern medicine has taken healthcare into areas once thought impossible, ribbon cables have lead the way. Machines that can provide life-saving tasks are now mobile, accurate, and able to communicate across distances.

Industrial Electronics - Automation in factory settings has changed the way business is done across every industry in the world. Without the use of hi-tech ribbon cable technology, the speed & accuracy with which machinery operates would only be a pipe dream.

Consumer Electronics - Perhaps the most notable of industries that has radically changed the world, consumer electronics has, in essence, forced technology to keep up with the needs & wants of the consumer-at-large. Smaller, faster, easier to navigate tech that remains connected to the world via the internet is at its highest demand. Due to their flexible nature & powerful transmission capabilities, ribbon cables have been called upon to do some very heavy lifting.

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Checkout the Comparison of Solar Radiation Sensors

 

Various solar radiation sensors are available with the modular Capricorn FLX Weather Station and/or with the Weather MicroServer for all weather station models. Additionally, the Magellan MX and Pulsar Weather Stations offer all-in-one sensor modules with integrated solar radiation measurement.

ISO classifications “secondary standard,” “first class,” and “second class” correspond to the World Meteorological Organization categories “High quality,” “Good quality,” and “Moderate quality.”

Silicone-based Pyranometer This sensor is calibrated to measure the shortwave radiation reaching the Earth’s surface, measured in Watts per square meter. Silicon pyranometers are generally less expensive than thermopile sensors, yet often sufficient for many requirements.

Advantages:

– Low cost – Sensor head is potted solid to prevent internal condensation in humid environments – Self-cleaning dome-shaped head prevents water accumulation Applications: General purpose solar monitoring.

Specifications:

ISO classification: None Cosine Response: 45° zenith angle ± 1%, 75° zenith angle ± 5% Absolute Accuracy: ± 5% Uniformity: ± 3% Repeatability: ± 1% Output Responsivity: 0.200 mV per W/m² Linear Range: 0 - 350 mV (0 - 1,750 W/m²) Sensitivity: Custom calibrated to exactly 0.5 W/m² per mV Input Power: 5 volts DC Operating Environment: - 40 to 55 °C; 0 to 100% relative humidity. Designed for continuous outdoor use Materials: Anodized aluminum with acrylic lens Dimensions: 2.4 cm diameter, 2.75 cm high

Second Class Pyranometer

Thermopile-based Pyranometer: Second Class This thermopile sensor meets ISO 9060 Second Class requirements. It measures solar radiation received by a plane surface, in W/m², from a 180° field of view angle.

Advantages:

Easy mounting and installation Applications: Ideal for general solar radiation measurements in meteorological networks and photovoltaic monitoring.

Specifications:

ISO classification: ISO 9060 Second Class Spectral range: 280 to 3000 nm Calibration Uncertainty: < 1.8% (k=2) Operating Temperature Range: -40 to +80°C Output: 0 to 1VDC

First Class Pyranometer

Thermopile-based Pyranometer: First Class This thermopile sensor meets ISO 9060:1990 First Class requirements and features a sixty-four thermocouple junction (series connected) sensing element. The sensing element is coated with a highly stable carbon based non-organic coating, which delivers excellent spectral absorption and long term stability characteristics. It has improved performance due to the increased thermal mass and the double glass dome construction.

Advantages:

Accurate solar radiation measurements Durable Applications: Operations that require accurate data for photovoltaic power.

Specifications:

ISO classification: ISO 9060:1990 First Class Spectral range (20% point): 280 to 3000 nm Spectral range (50% point): 285 to 2800 nm Response time (63%): <1.5 s Response time (95%): <12 s Zero offset A: <10 W/m² Zero offset B: <4 W/m² Directional response (up to 80° with 1000 W/m² beam): <15 W/m² Temperature dependence of sensitivity (-40°C to +70°C): <3% Output: 0 to 1VDC

Secondary Standard Pyranometer

Thermopile-based Pyranometer: Secondary Standard This thermopile sensor meets ISO 9060:1990 Secondary Standard requirements (highest possible ISO pyranometer performance category). It extends this quality to applications where maintenance is difficult and/or forms a major part of the cost of ownership.

The sensor uses a temperature compensated detector and has better linearity and long-term stability, lower thermal offset and faster response than a first class pyranometer.

The faster response time meets the requirements for solar energy monitoring.

Advantages:

Accurate solar radiation measurements Internal drying cartridge that will last for at least 10 years if the housing is not opened Applications: Operations that require accurate data for photovoltaic power.

Specifications:

ISO classification: ISO 9060 Secondary Standard Spectral range (50% point): 285 to 2800 nm Response time (63%): <0.7 s Response time (95%): <2 s Zero offset A: <7 W/m² Zero offset B: <2 W/m² Directional response (up to 80° with 1000 W/m² beam): <10 W/m² Temperature dependence of sensitivity (-40°C to +70°C): <1% Output: 0 to 1VDC

Magellan MX 501 with solar radiation sensor

Magellan MX Weather Station model 501 incorporates a silicon photodiode radiation sensor in the all-in-one sensor configuration including wind speed/direction, air pressure, temperature, relative humidity, compass and GPS.

Wavelength Sensitivity: 300 to 3000 nm Output Range: 0 to 1600 W/m² Resolution: 1 W/m² DIN Standard: IS0 9060 Second Class Sampling Rate: 1 Hz Units: W/m²

Pulsar Weather Station model 501 integrates a second class thermopile solar radiation sensor in an all-in-one sensor housing with ultrasonic wind speed and direction, temperature, relative humidity, air pressure, and electronic compass.

Model 501 ISO classification: Second Class Response time (95%): <18s Non-stability (change/year): <1% Non-linearity (0 to 1,000 W/m²): <1% Directional error (at 80° with 1,000 W/m²): <20 W/m² Temperature dependence of sensitivity: ±5% (-10 to +40°C) Tilt error at 1,000 W/m²: <1% Spectral range (50% points): 300 to 2800 nm Maximum irradiance: 1400 W/m²

Pulsar Weather Station models 800, 700, and 502 incorporate a silicon photodiode radiation sensor in the all-in-one multi-parameter sensor configuration. Model 502 offers ultrasonic wind speed and direction, temperature, relative humidity, air pressure, electronic compass. Model 700 and 800 add Doppler Radar precipitation measurement. Model 800 also adds lightning detection.

Models 800, 700, 502 Response time (95%): <1 s Unit: W/m² Accuracy: 5% Spectral range (50%points): 300 to 1100 nm Measuring range: 1400 W/m²

See article with links to sensor options at : https://columbiaweather.com/resources/solar-radiation-sensors/

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