Facebook is in the news again, for all the wrong reasons.
An article on The Verge shares the story of one of Facebook’s content moderation sites, and how having to watch horrific videos all day is taking its toll on the mental health of the contractors working there.
This article comes out the same week as Facebook announcing their new cryptocurrency platform.
So will this impact what is undoubtedly an important addition to the platform, or can Facebook ride the bad PR around the network once again?
In this week’s show, we discuss the damage The Verge article could do, and whether businesses should be rethinking their relationship with Facebook while news articles like this exist.
We also talk about Facebook’s new cryptocurrency and the partners they’re working with to bring it to market, and how that changes our use of the network, and what it could mean for the future of e-commerce.
Settle back and enjoy this week’s topic, brought to you in the usual unscripted manner that you’ve come to expect when Sam and Danny take the mic.
Prefer audio? Listen to the podcast below
Mentioned on this week’s show:
- Paddle On Session Ale from Lake of Bays Brewing
- Bodies in Seats – The Verge
- The Trauma Floor – The Verge
- The Friendship Bench
- Mental health and social media – the stats
- Facebook’s new cryptocurrency platform
- Liverpool FC Champion’s League victory
- Toronto Raptors NBA Champions
- Dark social
- Facebook encrypted one-to-one messaging
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Transcription:
Intro: Join marketers, authors, and craft beer enthusiasts, Sam Fiorella and Danny Brown, for a hobby discussion on all things digital over a cheeky point or two. Topics on the menu include influence marketing, social media, brand advocacy, and a taste testing of real world, digital marketing campaigns. Some are smooth. Others don’t sit so well. Don’t forget to stick around for last call, where the boys will serve you up one final marketing takeaway, that you can go out and apply in the real world. It’s a great primer before the weekend.
Sam Fiorella: Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of Marketing on Tap. So, today, we are talking about Facebook again. I know, I know, Facebook, and our grumble, grumble, grumble. Everybody’s favourite topic to hate to talk about. But, they’ve been making a lot of news lately, Danny. And, I feel that we have to address this in this podcast, because it’s going to affect how we, as a business, not just as users of Facebook, but we as a business, engage with the platform. And, are we going to continue to use it? And not, how are we going to play with it?
Sam Fiorella: So, we’ve been recommending over the last little while to stay away from Facebook, but this may change the game for marketers.
Danny Brown: Yeah.
Sam Fiorella: We may not have a choice. So, there’s a couple of things going on right now. First of all, the big news this week is that Facebook is, in fact, launching it’s own crypto currency. And, this could potentially be a game changer for it, and it’s going to really hit at Amazon, if nobody else, just from what I’m reading and understanding. So, I want to talk a little bit about that.
Sam Fiorella: And the other thing that just came out Facebook-related again, today, is the idea of sweatshops in America. And specifically, Facebook has been hiring moderation companies, the way that Google does for YouTube and others, they don’t moderate these videos themselves. They typically, will outsource to third party companies that then, moderate the content against its policies.
Danny Brown: Right.
Sam Fiorella: But on the Verge Website today, there was an incredible story that was just broken about three people who broke their confidentiality agreement with one of these subcontractors. And, some of the stories that they’re telling about not only the lack of moderation that’s being done, or the inefficiency of it, but the incredibly horrible working condition that they have to go on, and the mental health that is being … their mental health that’s being messed up is really going to, I believe, sends shock waves around the community. For people that are already crapping on Facebook, this is going to be yet another thing that we’re all going to have to deal with.
Danny Brown: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sam Fiorella: So, those are the two things I want to talk about today. Facebook and crypto currency, and Facebook and the mental health and effectiveness of the moderation that they’re contracting out to companies across the United States. So, that’s today’s topic.
Danny Brown: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sam Fiorella: But, we are drinking, like we typically do in these things. Luckily, today is not a morning session, so we’re not drinking the morning.
Danny Brown: No, and we’ve also got a lot of new digs today. We’re trying out various rooms to get the best experience for you guys, and hopefully, and easier experience for us, us techno [crosstalk 00:03:15].
Sam Fiorella: My tushy appreciates a more comfortable couch to sit on.
Danny Brown: Oh, all right, that’s nice to sit on. So, we’ll see. Yeah, so this is Paddle on Session Ale from Lake of Bays Brewing, up in somewhere in Ontario.
Sam Fiorella: Yeah.
Danny Brown: I think [inaudible 00:03:29], actually.
Sam Fiorella: How much have you been drinking already?
Danny Brown: Yeah, I know, right? I think these guys are in Huntsville. It’s a little session ale, so it’s a little ABV, four and a half percent. It’s got a little bitty lemon and citrus coming through, and this might be a refreshing beer, and it’s [crosstalk 00:03:40].
Sam Fiorella: It’s summer today, so it’s really hot outside, so we’ll see.
Danny Brown: Yeah, so, we’ll see. There you go.
Sam Fiorella: All right guys, cheers. Cheers, everyone. Cheers, Danny.
Danny Brown: Cheers, guys. Cheers.
Sam Fiorella: All right, ooh, very IPA-ish.
Danny Brown: The pale? Nope, not a good one? Yep.
Sam Fiorella: Again, it won’t stop me from drinking it. No, no, don’t drink this one.
Danny Brown: Okay.
Sam Fiorella: Sorry, guys. Nothing against your brewery, but I really don’t like this beer. Okay, so why don’t we start? I want to start with the crypto currency, and then I want to end up … actually, no. Let’s go the other way around. Let’s talk about this Verge article.
Danny Brown: Okay, Verge.
Sam Fiorella: Or, Verge, excuse me, Verge article. So, why don’t you give us the breakdown?
Danny Brown: Yes, so basically, [Casey Newton 00:04:22] who’s a journalist for The Verge, he’s already written about Facebook’s contract or companies before in a previous article. And, we’ll leave all the links in the show notes for the podcast. But basically, Casey Newton’s done an expose on Facebook contractors. In this case, I think it’s called [Nissin 00:04:41] who he’s exposing. They do the moderation of Facebook.
Sam Fiorella: Cognizant.
Danny Brown: Cognizant.
Sam Fiorella: Cognizant in Florida.
Danny Brown: Right, yeah. What did I say? Cognizant?
Sam Fiorella: I don’t know what you said, but it wasn’t that.
Danny Brown: What’s the difference? Ignore this guy.
Sam Fiorella: All right, it wasn’t that.
Danny Brown: Anyhoo, so, the big C in Florida, whatever they’re pronounced, right? Cognizant, they’re working … So, they’re a contractor that does the moderation for Facebook’s worst uploads. So, hate speech, violent crime, child molestation, all that stuff, all that horrible stuff. They do the moderation for it. And this piece breaks it down. It’s a long piece, but it’s well worth the read. Really breaks it down, the working editions like Sam said. The pressure these guys are under, what happens to the mental health, what the boss is, what the management at Cognizant is doing or not doing to help this, and Facebook’s bigger role in the bigger picture when it comes to contractors and responsibility.
Sam Fiorella: Yeah, so I just finished reading the article just before we started this. And, I’m still trying to process all of this.
Danny Brown: No.
Sam Fiorella: You know, one of the things that really caught my attention, as you can see for those of you watching the video, I guess, I’m wearing my Yellow is For Hello shirt today, because I was doing some work at a school. Some mental health conversations that I was having with faculty and students as part of the not for profit that Danny and I and Robert run.
Sam Fiorella: And so, mental health, as you … Again, for people who don’t know me, is very near and dear to our hearts. And, one of the things that really came out to me is, the affects of this. Not just the fact that they’re moderating. Because again, if you go to YouTube … this is not a Facebook thing. YouTube has moderators that can only last on the job for so long. First responders are having mental health concerns because of everything they have to see. This happens in every type of industry like this. Especially now, where social media content moderation comes around.
Danny Brown: Yeah.
Sam Fiorella: But, in this particular case, not only are the employees of these contractors that Facebook hires to moderate the content and take down things that break its policies, what they’re doing is, they’re giving these employees nine minutes of wellness a day.
Danny Brown: A day, yeah.
Sam Fiorella: Right, so they have to watch about 400 videos.
Danny Brown: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sam Fiorella: The videos are according to what’s being flagged and put in the moderator’s we for them to watch, are things like dog’s being tortured, babies being choked and dropped.
Danny Brown: Yep.
Sam Fiorella: Cyber bullying, sexual attacks on women and young children.
Danny Brown: Yep.
Sam Fiorella: These are videos that are being posted on Facebook.
Danny Brown: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sam Fiorella: And, in all countries, not just in North America. These are across all different languages.
Danny Brown: No.
Sam Fiorella: And so, these moderators, without any training. There’s no psychological test, right, to determine are you qualified.
Danny Brown: Right.
Sam Fiorella: You just have to be willing to do this job, and it pays well. It’s 50 thousand dollars a year. And, in Florida, 50 thousand dollars a year for people without an education, is fantastic.
Danny Brown: Well, that’s Canadian. It’s like, it’s 28 thousand, I think, in U.S. dollars.
Sam Fiorella: Is that what it is?
Danny Brown: Yeah, it’s 15, 16 bucks an hour. But, the minimum wage in Florida is about eight bucks or nine bucks.
Sam Fiorella: Oh, okay, so anyway, it’s a good paying job.
Danny Brown: It’s double that the [inaudible 00:08:00].
Sam Fiorella: What most people get, so everybody’s going to apply for it. But, there are no requirements that you have the psychological makeup, or the training, to watch and interpret, and not only be able to do the job, but to protect yourself.
Danny Brown: Right.
Sam Fiorella: So, what they do is, they give you wellness, nine minutes of wellness. They provide counselors. So, what they say is that, you have to watch about 400 of these horrific videos a day, number one.
Danny Brown: Yeah.
Sam Fiorella: You can’t leave your desk. You can’t talk. There’s 800 people in this room with one bathroom that they say is often smeared with feces, people urinating on the floor.
Danny Brown: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sam Fiorella: So, it’s horrible working conditions. And then, they get nine minutes. How could you deal with … How could a counselor effectively deal with you in nine minutes?
Danny Brown: Yeah, yep.
Sam Fiorella: When you’re watching 400 of these horrific videos a day? So yeah, so there are people that have taken their lives. Employees that just couldn’t take it anymore, that have just gotten to them so bad. People are quitting. There’s sexual harassment going on. So, they’re really not taking any care of the employees.
Sam Fiorella: So, once this story blows up, which is … There’s a couple of stories here that I guess, we can pursue, but given that this is Marketing on Tap …
Danny Brown: Yeah.
Sam Fiorella: … we want to talk about the marketing aspect of this, and the PR nightmare, yet, another PR nightmare that this is going to be for Facebook.
Danny Brown: Yeah.
Sam Fiorella: And, you know, we’ve been telling people, get off of Facebook. Build your own communities. Own your own community. You know, and treat your people better, as opposed to going to Facebook, where you can build a community and they own it. They’re making money. Clearly, they’re not taking care of their contractors. And, the other thing is, most of them are part-time, so they’re not even getting benefits.
Danny Brown: Yep, no, exactly.
Sam Fiorella: So, they’re really, it’s like outsourcing prisons now in the United States. It’s just becoming a sweat shop. And, people are actually dying, let alone having horrible experiences. So, can we, in good conscious … and, I guess, that’s really the thing is that, even our business as marketers to think about our conscious when we’re deciding, are we going to go and use Facebook for advertising or Facebook for community building.
Danny Brown: Yeah, yep.
Sam Fiorella: Is that too altruistic of me to …
Danny Brown: I don’t know. I think it has to get to the stage where we start to think about, do we give dollars to this business. I mean, a lot of it will depend on Facebook’s response once again, to another PR nightmare, and what steps.
Sam Fiorella: Yeah.
Danny Brown: I know they hired someone from, I think it was HP in the HR department, to actually deal and with the moderators and the contractors that Facebook hires, and to try and better the situation. So, they’re taking steps. But, again, the steps are too little. On one of the quotes from the piece, I think, was we’re certainly going to look at how we can look after the contractors, and how the managers are treating the contractors.
Sam Fiorella: Yeah.
Danny Brown: And I’m thinking, well, should you have done that as a due diligence before …
Sam Fiorella: Well, yeah. And, this is one office. They have these factories … I’m calling them factories … all over the United States.
Danny Brown: Right, mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sam Fiorella: This is just the one in Tampa.
Danny Brown: Exactly, yep. So, no, I mean, it comes down to, we always talk about getting a better business, right?
Sam Fiorella: Right.
Danny Brown: And doing things ethically. We talk about when you work with influencers, make sure your influencers are ethical and they follow the FTC rules and all that kind of stuff. But then, we have to take it back and say, “Well, what are we doing as business, as advertising agencies, or whatever, when it comes to stuff like this?” Do we advise our clients to look elsewhere and put dollars elsewhere?
Sam Fiorella: Yeah, I don’t know. We’re going to be … Well, no, I’ll be called the snowflake by a lot of the people who are listening to us, and it’s not our business to care about how they treat their employees. We’re marketers. Our job is to get the message out to where people are. I know, Robert has said this to me, and a few people have said this to me here internally, which is, it’s our job to put our client’s message where their customers are. If their customers are on Facebook, and Facebook has so much gamification built into it that keeps people hooked to it, you know, then it is what it is.
Danny Brown: Uh-huh.
Sam Fiorella: That’s their problem. If consumers don’t like it, then consumers can get off. That’s what the free economy’s all about, right?
Danny Brown: Yeah, sure.
Sam Fiorella: Consumers can get off, and if the consumers can get off, then it’s a smart business decision not to advertise on it or to use it as a platform for your marketing campaigns. But, just given my concern, my personal concern that, just as a human being, around the mental health epidemic, the mental illness epidemic that’s happening in this country, not just to students, but to adult seniors, all of us.
Danny Brown: Yeah.
Sam Fiorella: I’m really having a hard time trying to give Facebook any benefit of the doubt. And, I think at some point, we have to take responsibility as individual citizens, as business owners, as marketers, to say, “We are not going to continue to support these types of businesses unless they do something.” As you said, like, see what their response is.
Danny Brown: No.
Sam Fiorella: But let’s be honest, do you have any faith in them?
Danny Brown: No, no.
Sam Fiorella: Of all the companies that are not trustworthy, I think Facebook ranks right up there, if not number one, they are certainly in the top three.
Danny Brown: Oh, for sure.
Sam Fiorella: Of companies that I absolutely don’t trust.
Danny Brown: No.
Sam Fiorella: And, Mark Zuckerberg, right up there. His fake, scripted apologies, which have all been proven to be basically, lies. I mean, he’s got some manifesto in his head of where he wants to be, and that is the biggest social network, the biggest business in the world. And soon, if he’s not already there, he’s going to …
Danny Brown: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sam Fiorella: I think he’s going to give Amazon a run for their money, given what’s coming down the pike with this crypto currency.
Danny Brown: Yeah, right.
Sam Fiorella: So, why don’t we switch here.
Danny Brown: Okay.
Sam Fiorella: Let’s switch here and … Oh, by the way, one more point, actually, I want to make before we switch, because I think that was a good segue. One of the things that we said is, according to the contract that these third party moderators like Cognizant have to sign, they have to comply with a standard, which is 90 …
Danny Brown: Ninety eight percent.
Sam Fiorella: Ninety six to 98 percent execution of their moderation quota, which means, 98 percent of the videos or content that the moderators see, they have to apply to the policies and then, either allow or take down. There has to be a definitive decision, one way or the other.
Danny Brown: Right.
Sam Fiorella: And, that’s how they get to keep their contract. And, if an employee doesn’t hit 98 percent every day of moderating, 98 percent of the stuff that comes to them, they will, they can get fired.
Danny Brown: They get fired, yeah.
Sam Fiorella: Well, as it turns out, they’re not even close to that. Of the 400 that each of these 800 employees in the one office alone are seeing, they’re saying they’re not even getting close to 80 percent. And, part of the problem is that, Facebook is changing its policies every day.
Danny Brown: Yeah.
Sam Fiorella: That the staff just can’t keep up. A lot of them are ambiguous. Like, if there’s no, if it’s a different language, but there’s no title or alt tag in the video, then they can’t moderate it. They have to put it in another queue. And apparently, there are these videos of babies being tortured that can’t be taken down.
Danny Brown: Right.
Sam Fiorella: Like, if the image alone … I don’t care if it’s in Swahili or Martian, if you’ve got a video of babies being tortured, then you take it down.
Danny Brown: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sam Fiorella: I don’t care if it doesn’t have a title and if it doesn’t meet all these criteria that it it has to go to a tier two. Something like that, you get down. That’s why these people are all, you know …
Danny Brown: Well, Facebook’s answer to that was, we can either blur the face or gray scale the video. You’re thinking, “Really? That’s your answer?”
Sam Fiorella: No, no, they’re … I mean, like, so I understand this whole thing like free speech, and I’m all for that. And I do believe that.
Danny Brown: Yeah.
Sam Fiorella: But, there’s a line that we, as a society, have to take. And businesses have to step up. Facebook is getting too goddamned cocky and arrogant in terms of what it thinks it is the purveyor of what is and what isn’t our societal norms.
Danny Brown: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sam Fiorella: Babies being tortured is not something that is acceptable, free speech or not.
Danny Brown: Yep.
Sam Fiorella: And you know, they’re hiding behind these rules just because they don’t want to enforce this. And what really bothers me about this is that, Facebook knows that those types of videos are going to drive more people to the platform.
Danny Brown: Yeah.
Sam Fiorella: This is why the doctored videos of Nancy Pelosi …
Danny Brown: Pelosi when she was drunk, or supposedly drunk.
Sam Fiorella: And when … Yeah, supposedly drunk, and they slurred her speech. They wouldn’t take them down. I mean, if it’s fake, it’s fake. Take it down.
Danny Brown: Yeah.
Sam Fiorella: That should just be a policy that isn’t, is … So anyway, the point is that I really don’t trust them, of all people, to be the purveyors of what’s right and what’s wrong. So, I think they are resisting regulation, but I don’t see any other way. If they’re not going to self regulate as a business or as an industry, something else is going to come in.
Danny Brown: Yes.
Sam Fiorella: So, I think as marketers, we need to be aware that this is going to be collapsing in a big way, soon. But making the transition, maybe, it’s not.
Danny Brown: Worst transition ever.
Sam Fiorella: I know. Maybe it’s not, because with crypto currency … So, here’s the thing. They’re launching a new crypto currency that’s actually not just them. They’ve partnered with MasterCard, Visa, PayPal. It’s a Geneva-based company called Libra, or a not for profit called Libra, and the crypto currency is called Libra. They are basically going to launch this. It is to be, and this I actually believe, to be one of the most stable crypto currencies on the market, just given who’s backing it.
Danny Brown: Right.
Sam Fiorella: And, the whole purpose behind it for Facebook is that, by the beginning of 2020, we could all buy and sell from each other, using crypto currency instead of having to put our credit cards into the system, or pay by cash, which nobody pays by cash any more. Now, you can just use this crypto currency.
Sam Fiorella: So, if you think about the power of that, if it’s done well, and it is as successful as they claim it’s going to be, given who it’s backers are …
Danny Brown: Right.
Sam Fiorella: … and now, all of a sudden, Facebook becomes a solid e-Commerce platform and ideally, a preferred e-Commerce platform. Because not only are you there engaging with tee shirts, like, Liverpool, the greatest soccer team in the world, just won the Champions League. It was a tournament that Arsenal was not even part of. Just putting that out there. You know, the first thing that I saw after they won the Champions League, because I’m a big Liverpool fan, is all of a sudden, I started seeing all of these articles about people …
Danny Brown: Yeah.
Sam Fiorella: … or here locally, let’s talk about something more local. The Raptors just won the NBA Championship. So of course, everything across our Facebook feeds is tee shirts and hats.
Danny Brown: Just all [crosstalk 00:18:14].
Sam Fiorella: And videos, and music, and all kinds of stuff about the Raptors. Imagine now, you can start buying products within those. If I’m posting a video of myself, and I’m wearing a product, and there’s a little, a thing that hovers over my shirt. If I’m wearing, like, a Kauai jersey, you know what I mean, buy here.
Danny Brown: Yep, buy here.
Sam Fiorella: And it’s tied into their crypto currency, think about the run that that’s going to give e-Commerce sites.
Danny Brown: Oh, yeah, yeah.
Sam Fiorella: You know what I mean? And, especially a place like Amazon.
Danny Brown: Yep, no, exactly.
Sam Fiorella: So, maybe my calls for people to walk away as businesses and individual from Facebook may not be so smart. Because as a business, I’m thinking, “Wow, that’s an incredibly powerful platform.”
Danny Brown: Yeah. Well, I’m wondering, because I know Facebook’s been talking about going to encrypted messaging, right? Peer to peer, one to one messaging.
Sam Fiorella: Yeah.
Danny Brown: Or, end to end encryption anyway. And, I almost wonder if that’s going to be their out from this particular example that we just spoke about, because now, it’s all private messaging. That’s where the crypto currency comes in and the payments, etcetera.
Sam Fiorella: Yeah.
Danny Brown: So, you don’t see any public feeds. And, the only people you allow into your message box are people you know and trust. So, now you can’t accidentally see a horrible video that’s been posted and not been picked up by the moderators. Maybe this is a way out, without Facebook having to do anything from a PR point of view. They’ll come up with the normal crap that, you know, we’re doing X, Y, Zed to fix it.
Sam Fiorella: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Danny Brown: And in the meantime, they’re pushing ahead, like you say, with this new addition that again, will change the game. So, maybe that’s the way out.
Sam Fiorella: Well, I definitely think that dark social is going to be a growing topic, and growing popularity.
Danny Brown: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sam Fiorella: I think more because of all of this, because of all of the direct ties between negative mental health and time spent on social media, because of the fake news, because of all of these problems, all the bad PR, if nothing else.
Danny Brown: Yeah.
Sam Fiorella: Social media is going to lose. Now, these platforms, the way that they’re running right now, will lose people. So, if they don’t move to dark social where people feel that they’re protected, they can avoid the negativity. They can avoid the trolling. They can avoid the fake news. That that is going to be a bigger story for us to follow, and maybe, the future for Facebook. So yeah, it’s a good point.
Sam Fiorella: I guess, what it all boils down to is, you know, love them or hate them, they’re not going away.
Danny Brown: Yeah.
Sam Fiorella: They may evolve. And he might be smart enough at this point to realize that, this is a losing battle, that he’s going to have to evolve in order so it doesn’t go the way of MySpace.
Danny Brown: Right, yeah.
Sam Fiorella: You know, for example, and they eventually die. So, I don’t know. I don’t know, what do you guys think? Is Facebook the devil of modern society? Are they out just to make a buck, which is good, I guess, for any business to want to do? But, given the power that they have over the mental health of the people that are on this platform, which is the majority of us, should there be some additional oversight, maybe third party oversight, on them?
Danny Brown: Well, just to that point, actually, and hopping back to the Verge article, one of the guys that came out and broke the NDA and went public with the story, one of the former contractors, was hired. And some of the stuff he saw was horrendous. But, nobody asked him … And, this is another topic for discussion somewhere down the line, how far we’d go from an HR point of view, asking do you suffer from mental health issues?
Sam Fiorella: Yeah, mm.
Danny Brown: But, this guy suffered from anxiety and depression. You do not put someone like that on the front line of the worst videos you’ll ever see. But, because there’s no due diligence or background checks, or whatever …
Sam Fiorella: Yeah, there’s no psychological testing for these people.
Danny Brown: Exactly.
Sam Fiorella: Because they’re trying to get people that’ll work for little …
Danny Brown: Bodies in seats, as the article said, [inaudible 00:21:58].
Sam Fiorella: Yeah.
Danny Brown: So yeah, I think we need to get to that stage, as well. But, from an HR legal point of view, that’s another topic. But yeah, I mean, to the point, you know, we have to have some oversight.
Sam Fiorella: I agree. And you know, this … I’m going to call last call. The time is up.
Danny Brown: Yep, thanks for the bell, Steven.
Sam Fiorella: Thank you, Steven. But, instead of doing a roundup, I just … because I feel that we’re verging on personal opinions here in this particular conversation.
Danny Brown: Yep.
Sam Fiorella: As opposed to official marketing advice that we’re supposed to be giving. But, I think this is what it comes down to. My final thought, it isn’t necessarily, here’s my takeaway from this conversation. It’s just a personal thought. There is a direct correlation between the amount of time people spend on social media, and the negativity that they experience in their daily life. Even passive scrolling has, without actual engagement, just flipping up and down or scrolling up and down, or side to side, however you navigate the web, has been proven to increase your social anxiety disorders. Has been proven to give you a negative outlook on your future and on your current life. Even just passive scrolling.
Sam Fiorella: The number of people attempting suicide is on the rise. And among teenagers, which is what I’m focused on, but it’s across all cohorts, not just teenagers. And so, I think we, as businesses, forget what we, as marketers, and where we spend our money, we as businesses need to determine, we will or won’t spend our money in these platforms. We need to take a step up. Otherwise, these large organizations have gotten so big, right? And, there’s a lot of talking in political circles right now about how big Facebook and Google and Amazon have gotten, that maybe there’s like, maybe some regulation coming down the line that’s going to break them up in some capacity, or potentially, have some oversight on them.
Sam Fiorella: Something needs to happen, but I think, if it doesn’t happen from us as individual users stepping away from these platforms, or businesses stopping, stop supporting these platforms, this is going to keep going. And unfortunately, it’s been to the detriment. So, that’s a bit of a personal statement. I’m sorry. That isn’t necessarily what this podcast is about.
Danny Brown: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sam Fiorella: But, I think this is something that affects us seriously. And, I think we need to step up and start doing something about it.
Danny Brown: I agree, yep.
Sam Fiorella: All right guys, so thank you very much for listening in to a, I guess, a special edition of Marketing on Tap. Do not buy this beer. I don’t know if … Can you see what’s, the sediment at the bottom of this?
Danny Brown: Oh, yeah, the sediment. Yeah, nice.
Sam Fiorella: I don’t know what this is, but that’s disgusting, yeah. Sorry, this is … I’ve never said don’t drink a beer, but whatever this Paddle On Session, do not drink this beer. Guys, thank you very much. Please, follow us.
Danny Brown: Yeah, if you’re watching on YouTube, make sure you hit the little notification bell up here to get notified of the new video, and subscribe to, you know, hopefully subscribe in watching the videos. If you are listening to the podcast, you can listen on your favorite podcast app, or go to our podcast channel, which is digitalmarketingpodcast.ca. And you can read all the different ways there to listen.
Sam Fiorella: Yeah, that’s awesome. And, thank you for all the people who are downloading our podcast. You know, we’re one of the number one searched and listened to podcasts on Spotify, I think, was one of the last ones that we saw, for under marketing.
Danny Brown: For marketing, yep, pretty cool.
Sam Fiorella: So, we really appreciate everybody who’s listening, and all the feedback that you guys are giving us. Until next time, everybody, cheers.
Danny Brown: Cheers, guys.
Outro: You’ve been listening to Marketing on Tap with Sam Fiorella and Danny Brown. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next one. And please, feel free to leave a show review. That’s always worth a cheers.