Sponsored stories as an invasion of the lifeworld. A focus group approach to the attitudes and awareness of Facebook users

Facebook evolved from a dorm room project to a ubiquitous platform visited daily by 829 million users (Facebook, 2014) who generate a global advertising revenue of 2,676 million dollar for the second quarter of 2014 only. This surplus can only be realised through connectivity (van Dijck, 2012), engineered and steered connectedness that draws people to the platform to create and consume UGC and advertising.
The goal of this paper is to frame Facebook from a science and technology studies perspective as a technology that has never left the stage of interpretive flexibility (Bijker, Hughes, & Pinch, 1987). It has colonised the lifeworld through an overextension of the logic of capital and efficiency (Feenberg, 1996). Although internet technology is contingent, it appears irreversible rendering critical reflection obsolete.
This theoretical paper starts with Feenberg's (1996) reinterpretation of Habermas' (1987) colonisation thesis to include technology as a steering medium next to money and power. Next we explain how connectivity and profitability (van Dijck, 2013) fit in this framework. Connectedness is not only stimulated and misused to create an incentive to participate, profitability and connectivity become delinguistified (Habermas, 1987). For a technology this implies that their contingent attributes appear irreversible (Callon, 1991) and invisible, which renders them difficult to criticise. We illustrate the relevance of this framework by providing an overview of the contingent evolution of Facebook's innovations that first prioritised connectivity to grow a user base of frequent visitors. Secondly, we elaborate how the OSN changed to increase profitability by innovating and increasing their advertising means since 2007.
The relevance of this paper is in the application of Feenberg's critical theory of technology which extends the critique of Facebook's revenue model beyond exploitation of the prosumer (Fuchs, 2012) to include the manner connectivity changes lifeworld connectedness of Facebook users and non-users. On a societal level this paper illustrates the need for de-deliniguistification so we can start criticising these changes.