David A. Banks and Britney Gil
07-22-2019
Facebook portrays itself as an antidote to FOMO: the cool hangout where all your friends are. The company makes itself necessary not just by highlighting what you gain access to in using it, but by what you miss out on if you do not: event invites, group chats, meme references, and so on. Its “community standards” sound like something a group of like-minded, invested people decided on together, not a document written by lawyers. Believing that something as big as a global brand, or a nation, is a community creates a mental bridge to believing — or selling the idea — that community is a service you can sign up for.