Facebook to Pay Users to Deactivate Accounts During the Election

It's funny to think that Facebook started out as a way for college to stay connected.  Then it evolved into a platform for everyone share different aspects of their lives.  Somewhere along the way we started sharing  EVERYTHING.  So much so, that Facebook has become a battleground of sorts.  The smallest post can spark a huge debate that everyone wants to jump in on.  It can get pretty ugly at times.  Well, it appears that Facebook is going to conduct a study of its own to see how the platform, or any social media for that matter, could potentially affect an election.

If you check out the Facebook corporate page you will see that they will be conducting this study.  They will use their own research team as well as "independent external academics."  That's a fancy way of saying they are recruiting college professors with expertise in this area.  Again, the reason behind this study is to analyze just how much the vast amount of information shared on the website could potentially persuade voters.  It's very interesting to say the least.

I'm all for getting off social media from time to time.  However, I am very curious to see who Facebook would choose as participants.  As long as they choose the same amount of people with differing opinions I'm cool with it.  I'd love to see the results.  Where things like this get sticky is if one group outweighs the other.  If this is done without any bias this study could be very beneficial.  So, my question to you us; would you take part in this study?