Bees? Pot? Going behind velvet ropes at FB

RECENTLY, I’ve gotten to know beekeepers in Rhode Island, dental hygienists in New Jersey and Wiccans in Tennessee. I’ve seen gardeners swapping fertiliser advice, flight attendants complaining about annoying passengers and fishermen arguing about which lures are best for catching muskies. I now know that there are hundreds of people who love creating memes about The Sopranos, and thousands who believe, with total conviction, that the Earth is flat.

All of this has been revealed to me because, for the better part of a month, I have immersed myself in the fascinat- ing, enlightening and sometimes scary world of private Facebook groups. I’ve gotten access to scores of private groups – more than 100 in all – ranging in size from a handful of members to millions. I’ve joined Facebook groups that represent my real-life interests (Home Cooks, Pitbull Fans) and groups that have nothing to do with me (Lyme Disease Group, Quilting for Beginners, Cannabis Growers Helping Cannabis Growers).

I lurked in these forums and, when possible, tried to interview their moderators and members.

This wasn’t just a stunt. Facebook recently changed its corporate mission to emphasise the role of private groups, and I wanted to see what diving headfirst into the new Facebook could tell me about the company’s future.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, who sits atop a $450 billion for-profit enterprise, clearly sees a business opportunity as well as a community-building exercise. According to the company, only 100 million of Facebook’s 2 billion users belong to what it calls “meaningful” groups. That leaves 1.9 billion users who could be brought closer together on Facebook (and who, presumably, would spend more time on the platform as a result).

Of course, Facebook can be abused. I also saw private groups that spread misinformation, harassed people and encouraged harmful behaviour.

Facebook’s product manager for groups, Alex Deve, said he believed private groups could still produce a diverse spectrum of opinions. “In groups, people have one thing in common,” he said. “It doesn’t always mean they have everything in common.”

During my weeks of immersion, I saw intimate conversations that wouldn’t have happened out in the open, and I grew to appreciate the need for these smaller, cordoned-off areas – especially if they can be patrolled for signs of bad behaviour.

Whether it’s Self-Taught Programmers (25,809 members) or Kayak Newbies (9,910), perhaps the marketplace of ideas could be improved with a few more walls.