A world beyond Facebook

The article discusses social media development and socio-economic mechanisms of social network transformation. The author specifies the term "social media", stresses the distinctive features of social networks as objects of study; shows the dual nature of social media involved in contradictory processes: facilitation of a free information exchange along with commercial exploitation of social relations. Through social self-reflection, the author shows contradictions and risks of the democratized Internet and provides a number of examples. Studies of social media revealed panic among young people because of the privacy threats. In exchange for a user-friendly interface, society got less complex communication and reduced user's freedom. Typical actions (adding new friends to a group, liking, sharing, updating social media) create new levels of interaction between people. As a result, complex social relations are placed in a position where there are only "friends". The article expresses the idea of personal refusal to be involved in popular social networks such as Facebook. The author describes a special network «Unlike Us» focused on the study of social media monopolies and their alternatives. The network is founded by the Institute of Network Cultures in collaboration with Korinna Patelis (Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol). “Unlike Us” is primarily interested in a broad arts and humanities angle also called web aesthetics and a possibility to transform the internet into a truly independent public infrastructure that can effectively defend itself against corporate domination and state control. The presented article will be interesting to researchers of social and economic, communication, information and education aspects of social media and modern internet culture. The article is translated into Russian and provided with the necessary translator’s comments with the author’s and publisher’s (Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam) permission under the Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0). Originally published: Geert Lovink. A World Beyond Facebook: Introduction to the Unlike Us Reader / Unlike Us Reader. Social Media Monopolies and Their Alternatives / Editors: Geert Lovink and Miriam Rasch.- Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, 2013, pp.9-16 English version of the text is open access, URL: http://networkcultures.org/publications/ The full text URL: http://www.networkcultures.org/_uploads/%238UnlikeUs.pdf