In “Are We Lab Rats?” we wrote:

Perhaps Facebook will be able to tamper with our newsfeeds to mollify these negative feelings.

There is a saying in Silicon Valley, “If you are not paying for the product, you are the product.”

Please remember: The first principle in selling product is to disturb the potential client. People who are happy and content do not feel the urgent need to buy your products in order to be satisfied.

Some might wonder why, as libertarians, we are not in favor of Facebook doing whatever it wants since it is a private company. This stems from the media’s portrayal of libertarians as anarchists. It is the equivalent of thinking Christians are cannibals. Libertarians believe that “any person who violates the rights of others by initiating coercion, violence, or fraud against them forfeits his right to be left alone by government and may be arrested, charged, tried, and imprisoned, deported or executed if convicted (depending on the nature of his or her crimes).”

Facebook’s deception of experimenting on its users without informed consent constitutes fraud. And while many company salesmen also engage in forms of fraud, Facebook’s cover of an academic study should be held to the standards of informed consent set up by the American Psychological Association’s Code of Ethics.

In truth, the best way to mollify any negative feelings about Facebook might be to give up our Facebook accounts entirely. Here are some of the recent Facebook research news:

1. Facebook is bad for you. Get a life! Using the social network seems to make people more miserable.
2. Facebook, Divorce Linked In New Study New research suggests that Facebook could be detrimental to your relationship status.
3. Facebook Causes Depression New Study Says Today, yet another study emerged that proves Facebook causes depression, and the more someone uses it, the more depressed he or she becomes.
4. Does Facebook break up marriages? A growing body of research links increased use of Facebook to marital discord.
5. How Facebook Makes Us Unhappy No one joins Facebook to be sad and lonely. But a new study argues that that’s exactly how it makes us feel.
6. 38% of kids on Facebook are under the minimum age of 13 Millions of children are illegally using the social network.
7. ‘Facebook’ named in a third of divorce filings Facebook, as you may know, is great for finding old friends and maybe trying to have sex with some of them.
8. More than half of children use social media by the age of 10: Facebook is most popular site that youngsters join 52 per cent of eight to 16-year-olds ignored Facebook’s age limit.
9. Study: Facebook Users Who Share Too Much Information More Lonely, Depressed Over-sharing of personal information and increased general activity on Facebook often displays someone dealing with “loneliness” or possible depression away from their computer.
10. Facebook twists reality again and risks ruining your children Is no one concerned that Mark Zuckerberg’s zeal for completely immersing people in alternate realities might be toxic for them?
11. Why parents help their children lie to Facebook about age: Unintended consequences of the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act’ In this paper, we provide survey data that show that many parents know that their underage children are on Facebook in violation of the site’s restrictions and that they are often complicit in helping their children join the site.
12. This Campaign Will Help You Quit Facebook for 99 Days “99 Days of Freedom,” a non-profit initiative from Dutch creative agency Just, wants participants to abstain from the social network for more than three months and participate in “happiness surveys” to see if their mood improves as a result.