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How Facebook empowers rural businesses

Admit it. We love to hate Facebook. It gives us an opportunity to show off the best parts of our lives while concealing the sad moments, the everyday blah that is our lives. We can connect to friends all over the world, people we may never meet in person but have so much in common with. It's also ubiquitous, and not necessarily in a good way. Used as a login for various websites so that we don't have to create new usernames and passwords...the way we converse has even changed. Do people keep asking them to 'like' you too? Why should our affection for each other have to be so publicly on display? On the flip side, Facebook allows for ultra-stalking, like we've never seen before. It has ruined relationships, made people overly analytical about their own relationship status...is it 'Facebook official' yet?

Yet there is another angle that's talked about less, which is worth discussing. For example, how have rural businesses harnessed the power of Facebook for their own benefit? And what are the implications for losing that connection? Just six weeks of living in North Central Kansas and I have a whole new appreciation for the marketing potential that it allows small business owners, community organizers, and the like. Nearly every county fair advertises through a Facebook page, with far fewer having a stand alone webpage. Some cafes use it to share daily specials, the menu, and changes in hours. If you're looking for information about what to do on the weekend, you'll find it on Facebook.

At this point I can't imagine not having an account and knowing what's going on in the community other than through word of mouth. What did hermits ever do before Facebook, I wonder? Of course, I'm probably behind in discovering the buy-sell-trade pages, but that was a new discovery for me this week as well. For places that aren't big enough to have their own Craigslist site, Facebook functions just as well. And it's much cheaper (as in $0 expended) than posting in the local newspapers, which amazingly are one of the main sources of news and information for people around here.

So what's the point? Should we condemn Facebook forever because they sold our information to influence political campaigns? Maybe. Should we demand greater transparency and control of our data? Absolutely. But what about getting rid of Facebook forever? Would we be at a disadvantage if we lost the ability to advertise local events to a global audience? Probably.

At the beginning of the summer I'll admit I was pissed to learn about what was being done with my information. We should all be a little more conscious of what is being shared on our behalf, and voice our concerns regularly to ensure that shenanigans like the Facebook leak don't ever happen again. But having seen the way it forges stronger relationships among community members in Kansas, I can't imagine the repercussions of its absence.

Hunter, KS Population: 56

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