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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

#71
post #3

I'm really ashamed to admit it, but I am addicted to Facebook. As much as I despise the lack of depth in the average content, I feel confident that Facebook has stumbled on something in our animal behavior that draws us closer to it. I've always explained the phenomenon of gossip rags as a surrogate for our innate need to be social. Rather than engaging in actual social scenarios (which can carry social risks), many…

I go through an experience about once a year: 1) Log in to Facebook to look at picture of friend's new baby. This is nice. 2) Start browsing around, seeing what other friends have been up to. Oh neato. ... an hour later 3) Looking up people I knew in high school but haven't kept up with. ... another hour later 4) Holy crap, where'd the morning go? I can't do this. Shut it down. 5) Wait ~12 months for next event that…

Yeah, Facebook is nice. I actually spend about 30 minutes in an entire day (open it in the morning, open it in the evening), catch up on what family & friends are postin', maybe venture into a shared post's comments (I like watching trainwrecks), and then I'm done.

And then once every few months, I decide to dig in to someone's FB page/photos since I haven't thought about them in a long time and what to see what they've been up to.

I get enjoyment out of it. I don't understand why the people who hate it, hate it so much.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#72
post #3

I'm really ashamed to admit it, but I am addicted to Facebook. As much as I despise the lack of depth in the average content, I feel confident that Facebook has stumbled on something in our animal behavior that draws us closer to it. I've always explained the phenomenon of gossip rags as a surrogate for our innate need to be social. Rather than engaging in actual social scenarios (which can carry social risks), many…

I got a chrome extension that blocks my newsfeed. Forces me to look at it on mobile only and only use FB for messenger.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#73
post #69

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…

Can you give a link of the style?

I started with this public style https://userstyles.org/styles/115084/red-facebook-gta-5-life... and added a bunch of things on top of it along with fixing up issues / new features as they come up.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#74
post #60
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I left FB (several times in fact), and I always end up returning. Firstly no-one cares you've gone - most of your 'friends' don't even notice you don't post or comment any more. Secondly, no-one contacts you directly either. You end up a social outcast, missing events that only get posted on Facebook. I didn't know some of my friends had had babies until several weeks after the fact, because they only announced on Fa…

I'm not convinced, correct me if I'm wrong, that you really missed anything by not knowing about your friends' baby until a few weeks after.

A quick explanation: immediate family, you would have known without FB's involvement. Closest friends, same. Wider friends you see less often, maybe might have been mentioned at some point during the pregnancy, you can mark it off on a calendar and guesstimate arrival of baby. Friends you never see who've had a baby? Your definition of friend is stretched very thinly at that point, even if you were once close friends. Knowing/not knowing at that point makes very little difference to your ongoing relationship, particularly if it wasn't mentioned once during the previous 9 months.

I agree that email has become a second class citizen to social media sites, despite it being completely open and able to conduct group chats (albeit slightly painfully) for events etc.

The only thing many people are waiting for at this point is a suitable replacement for private, widely-used social comms that encourages more human interaction, without the manipulation and monetisation of relationships.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#75
post #60
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I left FB (several times in fact), and I always end up returning. Firstly no-one cares you've gone - most of your 'friends' don't even notice you don't post or comment any more. Secondly, no-one contacts you directly either. You end up a social outcast, missing events that only get posted on Facebook. I didn't know some of my friends had had babies until several weeks after the fact, because they only announced on Fa…

[deleted]

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#76
As much as I dislike facebook, I've moved around a lot throughout my life, as have a lot of my friends, both from high school and university. So realistically, I just don't see any realistic alternative single platform which allows me to keep in touch with all these people.

If such a platform did exist, and I knew about it, I would switch immediately. Their entire business model revolves around getting users addicted, and their history of abusing user's data means I will never be able to even trust the platform.

That being said, I limit my facebook usage to messanger and wishing people happy birthday, so I guess it could be worse.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#77
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find following interesting people on twitter to be a better signal to noise ratio. That way I get exactly what they put out and nothing more, instead of some complicated algorithm designed to keep me "engaged".

I agree, i do like Twitter just a slight tad more...but I wonder: if a person is following someone on Twitter, do they see all of the actual output from that person? Or does Twitter do something similar to Facebook, and limit things a bit? If not now, then I wonder if it will happen eventually (Twitter's gotta monetize somehow, someday)? I should have began my comment with the disclaimer that I am becoming more and m…

frankly I wish twitter would do this for direct replies to other tweets (maybe just show the first reply, and to see the rest you should click on that thread)

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#78
post #68
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I left FB (several times in fact), and I always end up returning. Firstly no-one cares you've gone - most of your 'friends' don't even notice you don't post or comment any more. Secondly, no-one contacts you directly either. You end up a social outcast, missing events that only get posted on Facebook. I didn't know some of my friends had had babies until several weeks after the fact, because they only announced on Fa…

Your post sounds a bit like "all the kids are in the playground, but I don't like it, so I sit on my own in the library. The playground sucks and all the other kids are wrong"

It's not a matter of right and wrong, but of values and preferences.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#79
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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!

It's easy to dismiss little hacks like this because "you can always change it back". But what I've found is the simple little disruption of a lazy habit is enough. If I need to open the hosts file with sudo, that's enough of a block

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#80
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I very much doubt craigslist users desire to have their craigslist activity tied to their real life identity...

what was on craigslist, is now quite often taking place in facebook groups

have you ever looked up groups for your local neighborhood: garage sales and all kinds of random things i previously would have seen on craigslist

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