One of the things that frustrate me is how people often talk about Facebook. I was reminded by this when I watched the latest This Week in Google: ... I generally agree with @jeffjarvis here

There are many things to complain about with Facebook, but the way many people in the media think about Facebook is not even close to reality.

Let me mention a few things.

First of all, I very often hear people say that social channels create a filter bubble. This is generally not true. In fact, we have seen plenty of studies that illustrate that digitally connected people have a wider view of the world than those who just read newspapers.

Secondly, we have also seen tons of studies illustrating that only a tiny part of people's newsfeed is news related. Normal people don't see the things that we see as media people on Facebook or YouTube.

Thirdly, persistence is what creates influence, not seeing some random post on Facebook. So having someone watch Fox News talk shows every night is way more damaging than seeing conspiracy posts on Facebook.

We also know from studies that misleading information is largely coming from 'the top', like from politicians that we report about in the news. It's not Facebook that caused people to drink disinfectants. It was Trump, then reported by us... and only then shared on Facebook.

Then there is the panic about scale. This is perhaps the biggest misconception of all. Scale in the digital world means something very different than scale in the old TV/print world.

Having 10 million people read a print news story would be a big thing. Having 10 million views on FB isn't. A view on Facebook is 3 secs for something that is auto-playing on your newsfeed as you scroll down. That has almost zero impact, and it will not 'impact the election'

But what annoys me the most about the 'Facebook panic' is that most conspiracy sites have way fewer views than many celebrities. But somehow, these celebrities have almost no impact, but a completely unknown Facebook page can apparently undermine the world.

Again, I'm not trying to defend Facebook. There ARE problems on Facebook. But, the media industry is generally misinformed about the real effect of social media.