Renowned investor, venture capitalist, and ex-advisor to Mark Zuckerberg, George McNamee has written a book entitled Zucked. Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe. that just hit the bookshelves today.
In it, McNamee describes how Facebook came to be, his involvement in its initial phases and why it flourished in ways that are unprecedented, economically and politically.
But he then goes on to describe Facebook as “terrible for America” and talks about how it manipulates our attention. He tells the story of how “bad actors have exploited the design of Facebook and other platforms to harm and even kill innocent people”.
Perhaps this one statement from the book sums it up: “Facebook has managed to connect 2.2 billion people and drive them apart at the same time.”
McNamee feels Facebook and Google have preyed on the weaknesses of human psychology to gather and exploit our private data and stresses that their selfish business models and internal cultures need to change.
He is not all gloom and doom, however, and cites various ways in which he believes people can take their destiny into their own hands as well as how technology can be leveraged to clean up the acts of Goliaths such as Facebook and Google. In this vein, he states he has written this book as a warning and is open to the idea (although not confident) that Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg will see the light and right the ship. He doesn’t feel that they intended for these bad consequences but that they have been careless in their handling of everything from private data to the company culture to business practices.
Ironically, McNamee still uses Facebook and Instagram (even to promote his book!) and says he loves the platforms. He also holds Facebook stock positions while he carries out his activism. He says he has no reason “to bite Facebook’s hand” but rather likens himself to “Jimmy Stewart in Hitchcock’s Rear Window who is minding his own business checking out the view from his living room when he sees what looks like a crime in progress, and then he has to ask himself what he should do.”
Still, I do find his stance rather hypocritical. I’m not sure if hedging his bets is the right approach here. Needless to say, I have purchased the book and will be reading it soon.
Let me know if you plan on reading it and what your thoughts are!
