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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

#101

Post by Diederich »

steego wrote: 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 am not addicted to facebook or any other social media. In fact, the only reason I use them with any regularity is to take part in social interactions with my immediate family.

However, I still think you're onto something. Social media has figured out how to really, at a deep level, grab our attention and keep it.

But it doesn't work on me because I'm not a very social person. I'm pretty far on the 'recluse' spectrum.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#103

Post by golemotron »

steego wrote: 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…

Facebook is the social equivalent of fast food. They've tuned the menu to make it addictive.

> I wish I had a clever idea for a solution to this because I really think the world deserves an open social platform that not only engages people socially, but provides the social lubricant to enable people to form online/offline clubs and interact with each other in a high-bandwidth so we can use the internet to teach each other and create fun things with each other.

It's called a coffee shop.

We need to get off the curated online experiences and back to interacting with people physically. It's vital. A therapist friend of mine says that most of the clients he sees that are teens or in their 20s have poor interaction skills in person and social phobia. Those lead to incredible rejection anxiety. I know from my own experience that some of the best conversations I've had with strangers have been people in their 50s and above who know how to engage in casual conversation and find joy in it rather than angst.

Go to a coffee shop and talk to a stranger. We should all do more of that. It's healthy.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#104

Post by rustynails »

orbitur wrote: post #71
Tenhundfeld wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'm one of those anti-Facebook people you're talking about. I have several issues with Facebook.

It's principally designed to profile people. This makes it extremely dangerous and a powerful weapon against you. Got nothing to hide? It doesn't matter if someone has something to gain. In the future, someone could easily generate a list based on your political party of preference. I can think of many scenarios how I could aggregate and abuse such information.

Facebook is also one of the least sincere communications I can think of. Many comments here reflect it .. "friends didn't know I was gone". They're not true friends. My friends all speak in person or on the phone. We catch up for coffee, lunch, dinner or as a social outing. I can't even imagine how people equate the synthetic "had a baby" tag (or whatever FB uses) even constitutes worthy communication. You didn't know a friend had a baby? Not a friend. They don't want to send you photos if you're not on FB? Not a friend.

It's fascinating to watch FB users chat online or see them in real life. It looks synthetic and there is a significant emphasis on minutia "[chuckle] my brother just had KFC for lunch".. To which I reply "aaannnnddd??" "Oh, he normally eats Subway".. "Aaannnnddd?" "Oh, you just don't get it!". That's true, I don't.

It is odd that we make so much noise about secret courts and encryption impacting privacy, yet, we give our privacy away freely on FB. To quote OMC, "how bizarre". I don't think I'll ever get it.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#105

Post by drinknderive »

steego wrote: 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…

If you are trying to fix this. I started muting everything that came across my feeds, that why I can use it for my groups and only the friends I want to see how things are going.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#106

Post by cognivore »

golemotron wrote: post #103
steego wrote: 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…

Facebook is the social equivalent of fast food. They've tuned the menu to make it addictive. > I wish I had a clever idea for a solution to this because I really think the world deserves an open social platform that not only engages people socially, but provides the social lubricant to enable people to form online/offline clubs and interact with each other in a high-bandwidth so we can use the internet to teach each…

I have nothing to add but what a great post.

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#107

Post by adrianwaj »

I think on FB, celebs can follow normal people without them appearing as their followers (can anyone confirm this??) This means that power moves up the chain, but not necessarily down it (you lose the bragging rights.) What sort of company culture would do that?

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#108

Post by fosco »

dkopi wrote: post #21
Gratsby wrote: post #7

Until you talk to a teenager. "Facebook is for old people..."

... which is why I use Whatsapp and Instagram, which are totally not Facebook.

aren't both of those owned by facebook? [0][1] or did I miss the tag

[0]http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-02-20/whatsapp-s... [1]http://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-heres-why-we-just-s...

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#109

Post by petra »

golemotron wrote: post #103
steego wrote: 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…

Facebook is the social equivalent of fast food. They've tuned the menu to make it addictive. > I wish I had a clever idea for a solution to this because I really think the world deserves an open social platform that not only engages people socially, but provides the social lubricant to enable people to form online/offline clubs and interact with each other in a high-bandwidth so we can use the internet to teach each…

It's not just you or your therapist friend. According to a study[1]: Empathy Dropped 40% in College Students between 2000 to 2010.

And now everything is much more addictive, and mobile wasn't even that common in 2010. And now we have virtual reality, which when you read the research some scary side effects surface - stuff like "derealization" - basically having a consistent feeling that real life isn't real. Or stuff about ads having deep brainwashing like power.

And almost nobody is working to solve those issues.

[1]https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/born-love/201005/shocke...

Re: Facebook is slowly eating the rest of the Internet

#110

Post by sk8ingdom »

steego wrote: 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…

> 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.

For me the beginning of the end was when Facebook created the Newsfeed and started "optimizing" it based on your behavior. Suddenly, content was no longer chronological (including photos in a single post!), all articles were click-bait, and most posts were "on behalf of the user". For example, "So-and-so has liked Pepsi!", "So-and-so has expressed interest in this local event!", etc. All content seems designed to provide the illusion that everyone is always on Facebook. And you should be too!

Luckily, I've found a workaround that fits my workflow well. I'm still a pretty avid RSS (GNU Emacs / Gnus) user, so I added the people I care about to my "Close Friends" group, subscribed to the RSS feed, and read it on my own time. Posts maintain chronological order and are 100% text (unless I choose to click on them). Most importantly, when I'm done sifting through the notifications, I'm done. Since I'm not on the website, Facebook can't manipulate me into wasting my time.

With my luck, they're shut down this feature in the near future.

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