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Facebook bends the rules of audience engagement to its advantage

nytimes.com

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Re: Facebook bends the rules of audience engagement to its advantage

#71

Post by wallacoloo »

cryptoz wrote: post #49
Aelinsaar wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that's a little ominous, but yeah absolutely. It also fits with the "consumer as product" viewpoint.

Isn't the only logical endpoint for Facebook to become a VR world where we all spend 100% of our time? That's what a forever-continuing revenue increase would create, right? And that's exactly how the incentive structures exist right now. I don't really like that society places such high emphasis on structures that create dystopias.

Interestingly, I think there may be a point beyond which Facebook begins to lose revenue as users spend more time on their site.

Think about it - their revenue comes from turn-over. They don't make money because you spend time on facebook - they make money because you spend time/money elsewhere, and they know enough about you to encourage you to spend more money on other people's products or otherwise sell their knowledge of you to people who can make those sales.

At some point wherein Facebook occupies an exceptional amount of a user's time - when it becomes the only product a user wants - Facebook won't be able to sell you anything. At this point, the company would probably need to find other ways to profit besides advertising. But I don't think we'll ever get anywhere near the point at which an increase in FB use time corresponds to a decrease in advertiser value anyway.

Re: Facebook bends the rules of audience engagement to its advantage

#73

Post by spicyj »

ruffrey wrote: post #34
scoot wrote: post #30

"Facebook Has 50 Minutes of Your Time Each Day" FaceBook has none of my time ever. (Unless we're talking about their contributions to OSS.)

Considering the widespread use of their open source projects like react, I'd say we have 50 minutes of THEIR time each day

Certainly 50 minutes of mine! More than half of my days go to open-source React.

Re: Facebook bends the rules of audience engagement to its advantage

#74

Post by natrius »

tn13 wrote: post #17
arcticfox wrote: post #3

> As a company spokeswoman, Jessie Baker, told me: “The time people spend on our site is a good measure of whether we’re delivering value to them.” Eh, the same argument could be made by Philip Morris or a casino: "The time people spend using our products is a good measure of whether we're delivering value to them."

I think Philip Morris would not be wrong here. The problem here is the difference in values that individuals have. A lot of us might think of wasting time of Facebook or Casino is a bad idea but for many people it would not be the case. Facebook is essentially competing with Snapchat, Youtube, TV for time and if Facebook wins it means they are offering more value than others. People aren't going to read more books or…

Yes, there are lots of satisfying addictions competing for our time. That doesn't absolve any of them for the harm they cause.

Anyone selling ads is trying to addict you to get you to see more ads. It's immoral.

Re: Facebook bends the rules of audience engagement to its advantage

#75

Post by intrasight »

wallacoloo wrote: post #71
cryptoz wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the only logical endpoint for Facebook to become a VR world where we all spend 100% of our time? That's what a forever-continuing revenue increase would create, right? And that's exactly how the incentive structures exist right now. I don't really like that society places such high emphasis on structures that create dystopias.

Interestingly, I think there may be a point beyond which Facebook begins to lose revenue as users spend more time on their site. Think about it - their revenue comes from turn-over. They don't make money because you spend time on facebook - they make money because you spend time/money elsewhere, and they know enough about you to encourage you to spend more money on other people's products or otherwise sell their know…

you are neglecting in-app purchases

Re: Facebook bends the rules of audience engagement to its advantage

#76

Post by notliketherest »

elliotec wrote: post #45
notliketherest wrote: post #38

Kill your Facebook. Seriously. You'll feel so liberated. And showing people pictures of your recent life when you meet them or email them is so fun and you get so much more attention and conversation out of it. Best decision of my life!

I mean, it sounds okay to be liberated, but what if you just don't spend 50 minutes on it per day? Also, what about the argument of keeping in touch with all your high school friends and distant relatives? What about all the things I would've found out on facebook that I'm now missing out on?

I only keep in contact with 3 high school friends and generally call them once and awhile. And spend weekends with each other once or twice a year. Relatives send me cards and call on birthdays. See then about the same amount. Don't see a need to be constantly engaged with their lives.

Re: Facebook bends the rules of audience engagement to its advantage

#77

Post by notliketherest »

darkclarity wrote: post #69
elliotec wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it sounds okay to be liberated, but what if you just don't spend 50 minutes on it per day? Also, what about the argument of keeping in touch with all your high school friends and distant relatives? What about all the things I would've found out on facebook that I'm now missing out on?

Facebook doesn't just keep you in contact with old friends, it encourages you to stalk their public facing persona. There's none of the mystery and personal discovery that creates the bonds of friendship. It's not real friendship. It's like being a super fan to an amateur musician - a one way street with occasional responses. The fear of missing out? That's just one of the many addictive strings that Facebook tugs to…

> The things that happen on Facebook don't matter

Makes me think Facebook is like Reddit but with people you know.

Re: Facebook bends the rules of audience engagement to its advantage

#78

Post by intrasight »

zappo2938 wrote: post #7
electic wrote: post #6

This should be a wake up call. This site really doesn't deliver anything of value. It doesn't really make you more social and it doesn't really connect you to people in the real world. So basically you spend 16,800 minutes a year on Facebook. That is 11 days of your life lost a year.

I spend 50 minutes a day on Hacker News.

Hacker News is for me a news and discussion portal. Reddit is something that might show up from a Google search. I block most of the distracting internet during the day - except FB and HN - so of course those two get the majority of my allocated distracted time. I should measure it, but I'd not be at all surprised if they each got an hour a day.

Re: Facebook bends the rules of audience engagement to its advantage

#79

Post by sthatipamala »

zerotimer wrote: post #39

I don't think we should expect Facebook to change. We need better tools that allow people to stay away from it (and other such distractions in future). We need tools that help people understand how to manage their internet time better. They need to understand what kind of emotional costs (which will vary a lot) are associated with extended FB usage. And such tools will ideally be browser addons. Imagine a browser tha…

RescueTime does exactly this.

Re: Facebook bends the rules of audience engagement to its advantage

#80

Post by davidwparker »

Last year, I was spending roughly ~25 minutes / day on Facebook (according to Rescuetime). I've never had the app, or messenger on my phone. So on Chrome, I added News Feed Eradicator (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat...) and my usage dropped down to about 5 minutes / day (still more than necessary).

Unlike a lot of people here (it seems), I get a lot of real usage out of Facebook though. For example, it's the number one source of events for my favorite hobby / workout. I wouldn't really be connected to the community and know what events are going on if I didn't have it.

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