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Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

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Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#41
post #29

Not sure if it's an Israeli thing, but Facebook groups are probably the biggest value I get out of Facebook (excluding messanger/whatsapp). We have very active programming groups (Israeli IOS/Android devs, Javascript Israel), neighborhood and city groups (Secret Tel Aviv), social groups (Burning man Israel) and even a large discussion group about politics and economics.

This. I spent 95% of my time on Facebook in groups. Its definitely not a Israeli thing. In Nepal too, we have groups of programming language, groups about all sort of stuffs.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#42
post #19
post #5

I've never used Facebook or LinkedIn and I'm someone who doesn't feel the urge to sign up. Should I be concerned?

Facebook: Not really. If you feel no peer pressure to sign up, great! For me, I was missing out on events when classmates and even teachers started communicating via Facebook. These days it has died down again in favor of Telegram so I could technically deactivate the account, but I'm keeping it for convenience. Recently saw someone's wedding being announced there, not something I want to be missing out on. I'd have…

Can you go into a little more detail about Telegram?

I find the whole tech platform very promising, and I have a group chat and a couple private chats going on it, but at least in my social circle, we haven't transitioned.

Do you do event invites with it? Do you do family group chats with it? Just wondering.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#43
post #5

I've never used Facebook or LinkedIn and I'm someone who doesn't feel the urge to sign up. Should I be concerned?

with facebook you can get in touch with people that might be othwerwise unreachable (it allowed us to do a proper high school reunion for example).

the key is to use it sparingly and not spend too much time, it has some addictive factor in constant news feed that make news sites look like static HTML pages. it can be a good tool but a bad master

linkedin is purely professional, basically your online CV + network of your colleagues. they tried to make it more FB-like but I don't know a single person who is not recruiter who actually ever checks that.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#44
post #30
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook has a large disincentive to connecting people in the real world. If you're at a watching movies, camping in the woods, or just hanging out then you're not online. Worse, the more you connect in the real world the less interesting passive browsing becomes. Sure, you can still use FB to IM, but that's far less profitable for them. ...

Another issue I've found since leaving the 'Facebook family' a few years back; there's a large disincentive for members you leave behind to contact you. You fall out of their habitual communication methods. The onus is on you to call them, which is already hard enough when both people could initiate the call. It becomes a much rarer event unless concerted effort is made. So until 'the next big social thing' comes alo…

A friend of mine returned to FB a few days ago, claiming that he had lost like 90% of his social contact. That sounds a bit much to me, bur one should definitely take this into consideration before leaving.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#45
post #29

Not sure if it's an Israeli thing, but Facebook groups are probably the biggest value I get out of Facebook (excluding messanger/whatsapp). We have very active programming groups (Israeli IOS/Android devs, Javascript Israel), neighborhood and city groups (Secret Tel Aviv), social groups (Burning man Israel) and even a large discussion group about politics and economics.

This, for me (in Canada). I now regularly throughout the day check several facebook groups related to my various hobbies. For example a group where serious cyclists from my area are buying/selling parts. Yes, I also check craigslist/kijiji, but the Facebook group is much more responsive, you can ask questions and comment, and I don't have to sift through a bunch of cheap parts I don't want. Also I trust it more because most people are somehow connected.

In fact I hardly ever check my facebook feed anymore, I mostly just go directly to the group I'm interested in.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#47
I deleted my Facebook sometime ago when I noticed an acute "icky" feeling every time I used it. Whether it was the posts complaining about whatever the latest outrage was (Supreme Court legalizing same sex marriage, etc) or the barrage of games, or whatever else, the signal to noise ratio was awful.

That was about a year ago. I don't miss it, and I don't feel that I'm missing anything. I think there are plenty of niche, high value aggregators of content, and ways to "connect" that are more useful to me. Such as where I am posting now. And I don't have to feel bad about myself when I use them.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#48
post #29

Not sure if it's an Israeli thing, but Facebook groups are probably the biggest value I get out of Facebook (excluding messanger/whatsapp). We have very active programming groups (Israeli IOS/Android devs, Javascript Israel), neighborhood and city groups (Secret Tel Aviv), social groups (Burning man Israel) and even a large discussion group about politics and economics.

Not just an Israeli thing. I firmly believe messenger and groups (+ group events) are the only parts of Facebook that actually consistently provide value to users. The rest of it exists for the purpose of turning those users into a sellable product.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#49
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I feel confident that Facebook has stumbled on something in our animal behavior that draws us closer to it. I strongly agree. I also believe that it is very easy to disturb their black magic. Ever since I started using Stylish to customize the interface, I find myself less compulsively drawn to it. My version of Facebook remplaces all the blue for red hues and adds a wallpaper. I find that this makes Facebook more…

> Ever since I started using Stylish to customize the interface, I find myself less compulsively drawn to it. Ever since I added the following entry in my /etc/hosts file, I find myself less compulsively drawn to it: 127.0.0.2 facebook.com www.facebook.com

I'm not sure if it's a joke or not, but using the hosts file to block websites is a big way to gain productivity. Even better if you ask your admin to do it while not giving you the rights to change it back!

Edit: Also, Hacker News has built-in features to do this. Look up "noprocrast" in your profile! You have "maxvisit" and "minaway" you can use to keep you from coming here too much!

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#50
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then the teenager grows up and becomes an "old person", at which point we'll see them on Facebook.

At the moment, the frequency of social app turnover is much higher than the rate at which people become old, even for definitions of "old" as low as "30". Facebook is bucking the trend, but it's still not possible to know whether that's a "permanent" situation or just a trend-bucker. There's no guarantee they'll "end up" on Facebook.

if all the webs content ends up migrated into facebook, they wont have a ton of choice.

imagine all of yelp and craigslist locked, oh and every small business web page, requiring an account to view. stuff kids might not be interested in, but adults probably are.

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