Paper Example. Facebook Technological Challenges and Solutions

There is no doubt that Facebook is the leading social networking site today, with close to 2.3 billion subscribers (Statista, 2020). Social networking plays a central role in how people interact with each other, making it easier for some to explore their interests and hobbies. This milestone could not have been achieved if Facebook had not incorporated software technology and hardware technology into its system. In this paper, the author examines and analyses the misgivings of software and hardware technology on Facebook, the solutions to the problems imposed by the said technologies, and lastly, the evaluation of the strategies adopted by Facebook.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

A large percentage of Facebook users are not aware that there is hard and soft technology installed by Facebook in its operating system, thus rendering them gullible and prone to manipulation. Hard technology, in essence, refers to the physical components that can be purchased and assembled into assistive technology Examples include mouth sticks. In contrast, soft technology incorporates the core and central areas of human decision-making, such as teachers, written words, and computers( Jin,2005). It is established that hard technology cannot be effective without the input of soft technology. There are numerous hard technologies installed by Facebook in its operating system. For instance, in some of these hard technologies, the memchaded whose primary function is to act as a caching layer between the webservers and MySQL, functions by itself. The Scribe used to be Facebook's central internal logging system before it was eventually replaced. Another hard technology is thrift, which was developed to reconcile the language barriers due to the different languages Facebook users speak. This hard technology requires human input to change the style or opt to translate to their preferred language. Since its inception, thrift has become a global sensation, for it has enabled many users more so non-English speakers to be able to use Facebook without discrimination.

Like any other social site that depends on technology, it is bound to experience some problems; thus, Facebook is no exception. First, most of the hard technologies often experience constant breakdowns, thereby inconveniencing Facebook users who rely on Facebook for business purposes. Secondly, the security features of the apps instilled usually are at the mercy of hackers who, therefore, the possibility of a loss of data, cyberbullying and lack of privacy, and lastly, loss of money and other valuables to scammers who take advantage of Facebook users naivety. Facebook faces stiff competition from its rivals who have invested much inefficient hard and soft technology, making Facebook lose some of its potential and active users.

In order to address these challenges, the top management came up with some solutions. Facebook is mulling to develop its operating system, and eventually ditch Android (Constine, 2019) should this become a reality, Facebook subscribers will be able to enjoy uninterrupted service. To increase its efficiency and speed, Facebook did away with redundant software applications, such as Scribe. Stringent measures have been put into action to protect privacy. ( Facebook,2019). Several accounts have and prohibited apps have been suspended and deactivated. Lastly, Facebook embarked on a mission to develop its own hard and soft technologies to rival its competitors. (Jones, 2018).

Suffice to say, the strategies adopted by Facebook has been successful to some extent. Facebook has reclaimed its pole position at the top by a wide margin. There have been minimum cases of cyberbullying and online scamming of people. In summary, soft and hard technology has positively and negatively affected not only Facebook but also other social media sites. However, Facebook remains at the top of the Silicon Valley.

References

Cellan-Jones, R. (2018, October 12). Tech tent: Hard truths for tech firms. BBC News. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-45836086

Clement, J. (2020, April 30). Number of monthly active Facebook Users. Statista, 4. https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/

Constine, J. (2019, December 19). Facebook is building an operating system so it can ditch Android – TechCrunch. TechCrunch. Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/19/facebook-operating-system/

Facebook. (2019, November 11). What is Facebook doing to address the challenges it faces? Retrieved June 24, 2020, from https://about.fb.com/news/2019/02/addressing-challenges/

Jin, Z. (2005). Global technological change : From hard technology to soft technology (K. W. Willoughby, & Y. Bai, Trans.) (2nd ed.). Intellect.