Known for their major influence on the Internet, Google and Facebook have only become more popular as time goes on, leading their fields with 1.15 billion monthly active users for Facebook and Google Search having 1.2 trillion searches per year. With such a wide audience, one can begin to question whether the companies have begun to monopolize their respective social media fields. The Bloomberg article, “Soros Says Google, Facebook Are Near-Monopolies That Spur Addiction”, written January 25, 2018 by Katia Porzecanski, exposes the companies and shows statistics that prove that they not only are very near monopolies, but can also potentially be harmful to users. A monopoly is an industry that has one major supplier, and it is also illegal in most places, due to the consequences of not having competition. There are less products being sold, for higher prices, at worse qualities, all because there is no need to execute top performance because there is no competition. This article is targeting the companies of Facebook and Google and criticizing their practices, declaring them monopolies. They both are the top suppliers by far in their respective fields, effectively eliminating any other competitors. The article begins with George Soros, one of the world’s most successful investors, bashing Facebook Inc. and Google by declaring them monopolies that …show more content…
Children and teenagers worldwide suffer from the dependence of social media every day, rarely being able to go a few hours without needing to look at their phones for updates. New studies have shown that it is more difficult for the current generation to hold a face-to-face conversation than previous generations, since most communication is done online. Social media has taken over the lives of adolescents, affecting their self-esteem and real-life