CafeMom and Information Ownership
I joined CafeMom last week to see if it fills its purpose
as an online community where moms (or prospective moms) can go for support,
sharing their experiences, seeking information, and entertainment. I’ll admit,
my expectations were low as I had sought out some background information that highlighted
the major commercial aspects to this site. As the cliché goes, “If you’re not
paying you’re the product” and CafeMom is no exception.
On their Privacy Policy page they are clear that my zip/postal
code, age, and gender (all of which I provided when making my account) can and
will be shared with third parties for targeted marketing. CafeMom also states
in their Terms of Service that anything you post is fair game. I
probably could’ve paraphrased the following but their extended series of
adjectives and verbs really drives home the point:
By submitting content to the Site,
you grant to CafeMom and its successors in business an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive
license to reproduce, distribute, modify, edit, display, adapt, create derivative
works from and market and promote the content, for any commercial purposes, and
in any medium now existing or hereinafter developed, and may sublicense to a
third party the same, and to use, or allow such third party to use, your name,
likeness and any personal information you submit with the content without your
prior approval or the payment of any compensation (http://www.cafemom.com/about/tos.php).
I appreciate that they make this information clear and accessible
on their website, yet I wonder how many actually seek out and read these pages,
it’s essentially the social media version of “the fine print”. For me, this is a major deterrent in making
use of the site as intended. I wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing a photo of my
child, an anecdote, or even a question knowing the possibility that whatever I post
can be recycled in any capacity without me even knowing.
Exclusivity:
Although created and owned by two males, when signing up you are in effect
pinky promising, crossing your heart, and solemnly swearing to be a female. No
males allowed! I understand making use of the connection mothers often feel with
other mothers but this also feeds into the idea that women are always the
primary caretakers of children and explicitly rejects parents of other genders interested
in this information.
Ranking:
Popularity is a common theme which is unsurprising considering that more clicks
equals more $. Top groups and individual forum posts are displayed prominently
and ranked according to most “likes”, page views, and replies. When viewing a
forum topic, all users that posted within that topic are ranked in a conjoined
text box…unfittingly titled “Most Liked Moms in This Group”. I imagine this
system is a pretty powerful motivator for consistent use as it could validate a
user’s presence but generally an exaggerated sense of competition isn’t the
healthiest when trying to build relationships with people, online or otherwise.
Content: CaféMom
is like a social media conglomerate utilizing versions of many pre-existing
social networks. They offer the user profile, friend requests and “likes” of
Facebook. Other features follow suit as TheStirTv is formatted nearly
identical to YouTube, and TheStir itself is a Buzzfeed-esque blog/op-ed
article section.
The quantity and variety of content available was impressive
but is this “one-stop shop” website with access to millions of other moms and
their thoughts worth the risk that comes along with offering up your personal
information irrevocably, perpetually, and royalty-free?
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