As previously referenced, Social Media can be understodd as internet sites that are composed of

three basic elements: a profile, a friends list and a news feed. The research that focuses on the role
that Social Media plays in modern life, then, tends to analyse one or more of these elements. The
book published by Sustein focuses on the news feed, how it is designed, the reasons behind its
structure and the impact that it has on its users individually, as well as its overall consequences to
society.

According to the author, as Social Media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are run by profit
seeking companies which are tied to advertising revenue, these sites are designed not only to attract
the largest possible number of users to take part in that network, but they also attempt to optimize
and increase the amount of time each one of the

In order to popularize the use of internet through smartphones and also enable those who cannot
afford a data plan to be able to access social media, thus creating a larger network, Facebook, Inc.
has celebrated multiple long lasting agreements with all the major wireless providers in Brazil so that
smartphone users can access social media on the go even without a data plan or Wi-Fi (Freitas 2011;
Higa 2016; Vivo n.d.; Carneti 2015). This applies, nevertheless, only to the content inside of
Facebook, and this “free data” scheme does not allow the user to access links that take you to
websites outside of the social network under the same conditions