Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What should you think about when using Facebook?

veekaybee.github.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 240 posts

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#91

Post by ma2rten »

spraak wrote: post #13
nnd wrote: post #11

Even though Facebook by itself doesn't seem to provide much value anymore, it's incredible how much of a platform lock-in the have. For example, Facebook login becoming essentially a universal identity provider. The worst thing is even when you create a new account under a different name they still manage to track you down, and start suggesting adding friends from the old account. I wonder how they do this, by tracki…

I've wondered this too. I have friend suggestions for my work colleagues, even though my Facebook email is my own private address and I've never emailed them from that address. It's amazing and bothersome

The people who were recommended to you might have looked at your profile.

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#92

Post by kakarot »

afandian wrote: post #75
kakarot wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's the fear of reduced social contact (or dopamine withdrawal more likely) that was stopping me. Yeppp. I know exactly how you feel, brother. I gave up Facebook for New Years and will be deleting my account after I set up a blog so I have somewhere to blow off steam and tell bad jokes. The compromise that helped me overcome the feeling of being cut off was that I will have an open comments section and email addre…

I recently sent round an event-organising email and slipped in the facebook thing. Not everyone who replied mentioned it, but everyone that did said that they were thinking exactly the same thing. And if you need an extra kick, you can download an archive all your data. It had previous girlfriends, employers, places I signed in, private messages, ad agencies they passed my details on to, etc etc. All stuff I'd rather…

I downloaded an archive, for sure. I was actually just searching it for a specific message before I got on HN.

Sadly I lost the archive from my previous account. Lots of gems in there.

It's amazing the amounts of conversations we have on a weekly basis that we soon forget. We are just passing too much information through our body and mind to catch even a tenth of it permanently.

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#93

Post by riebschlager »

afandian wrote: post #37

This is an excellent blog post, though it made me sick reading it. I recently made the switch. I went from trying to limit how much I log in (to once or twice a week), to actually not logging in. I've been cold-turkey for two months (except for a couple of times when I had a very specific reason to check something). I thought it would be difficult. Turns out it's not so hard, and it's the fear of reduced social conta…

I'm now over one year Facebook-free. As with most things (especially online things) I don't even remember why it was so appealing in the first place. The fear of missing out fades really fast. And as someone else mentioned in this thread, I feel like I value actual friendship a bit more.

If anyone's interested in really ditching Facebook and preventing it from injecting junk into the sites you visit and tracking you, here's a list of URLs I've added to my hosts file. As the repo's name suggests, it helps make the internet suck less.

https://github.com/riebschlager/make-the-internet-suck-less/...

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#94

Post by germinalphrase »

Kluny wrote: post #74
afandian wrote: post #37

This is an excellent blog post, though it made me sick reading it. I recently made the switch. I went from trying to limit how much I log in (to once or twice a week), to actually not logging in. I've been cold-turkey for two months (except for a couple of times when I had a very specific reason to check something). I thought it would be difficult. Turns out it's not so hard, and it's the fear of reduced social conta…

> Turns out it's not so hard, and it's the fear of reduced social contact (or dopamine withdrawal more likely) that was stopping me. If you have a plan to replace the social interactions with other forms, you realise that the rest is just dross. This is the problem for me right now. I don't have a plan for replacing the social contact of facebook (and facebook isn't giving me anywhere close to what I need). I'm also…

I feel lucky in that I have a job that involves social interaction, but moving to a new city left me without any "third place". I definitely empathize with the loneliness that can stir up and so many public spaces seem designed around creating new social interactions between people who aren't already associated.

I read an article not long ago about upscale private clubs. I'm strongly attracted to the status/networking aspect often involved, but the idea of a place gather and socialize that doesn't require buying alcohol/coffee/food is appealing. Place it in a neighborhood. Keep the membership fees accessible to the people who live in that community and then offer some small perks that bars/coffee shops don't (e.g. free billiards on a real table). Hopefully, membership would make people a little more open to socializing with whomever show up, rather than the typical bar in which most people stick to their own group.

Does anyone have experience with private clubs (of any kind)? Did they open up social interaction in this way?

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#95

Post by afandian »

3rdkind wrote: post #87

Zuck: "Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the US or any other government direct access to our servers." Oh, well, but they seem to be hooked in there anyway: http://web.archive.org/web/20150826205104/https://bosnadev.c...

You argue either way over whether or not something "is", or "has been".

It's the "will be" that you should be wary of.

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#96

Post by Waterluvian »

afandian wrote: post #37

This is an excellent blog post, though it made me sick reading it. I recently made the switch. I went from trying to limit how much I log in (to once or twice a week), to actually not logging in. I've been cold-turkey for two months (except for a couple of times when I had a very specific reason to check something). I thought it would be difficult. Turns out it's not so hard, and it's the fear of reduced social conta…

I flat out deleted Facebook (the hidden option that truly deletes you). Turned out to improve my social life. I focused on and nurtured the friendships that truly mattered to me.

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#97

Post by kedean »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #49
siegecraft wrote: post #45

Does anyone have suggestions or best practices for using facebook securely (ie to maintain an account but not let it be linked w/ all of your other browsing activities)? I was thinking something like hosting a hardened/non-fingerprintable browser from a VPS/cloud provider somewhere and only using that to interact with the site.

Noscript can block js from Facebook, except when you're on Facebook.com.

How do we know facebook doesn't serve up tracking scripts from other domains?

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#98

Post by aantix »

treehau5 wrote: post #86
aantix wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strange; I've done the opposite. I engage with Facebook now more than ever. I'm 38 years old. I plan events with friends, I get to see their children grow up, new jobs, comfort them when they lose a parent.. There's never been a platform so emotionally engaging. It makes me feel in sync with their lives, even when I haven't seen them in a while. It's such an amazing platform.

I think Facebook is the ultimate realization of the American concept of "friendship" (maybe not your specific case) contrasted to the German version of friendship. In Germany, to call someone your friend, it is a great honor, it means something, it is an investment. Here in the states, "everyone is friends!" Yet it feels so superficial. Now we can just check in on them a couple times a day on their posts without the…

Strength of friendships in Germany can't be granular?

Aren't there just people that have been good to you in the present or past, that you want to see succeed, that you want to root for? Those are the perfect candidates for Facebook.

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#99

Post by greggman »

cJ0th wrote: post #79

The funny thing is, these are exactly the things I think about while on facebook. By being online for almost two decades I've developed a 6th sense for sketchy services and the whole UI of Facebook screams "SCAM!". The periodically reoccurring messages harassing you into uploading a picture of yourself, the prompt to denounce people who you believe are using a fake name or the vaguely described privacy settings don't…

Just making sure you know you can read your messages at messenger.com and avoid the rest.

Re: What should you think about when using Facebook?

#100

Post by marbletiles »

caminante wrote: post #46
anondon wrote: post #36

Genuine question : do you think a privacy oriented social network where users pay a small annual fee (around $5) would work? Think Whatsapp (use phone number as an id, no native discovery, only connect through phone contacts, encrypted user data only to prevent database leaks from causing damage) + Facebook (feed like feature, share photos, videos, direct messaging, group messaging). No user tracking, no ads, just a…

I don't think you can get such a service for "average joes." Though...Bloomberg Chat meets your criteria (ex-fee). It consists of ~300K financial users who pay ~$25K/year/terminal. Many argue this is the killer feature of Bloomberg. I agree. It's like an exclusive, digital country club.

... Though the privacy is more from non-Bloomberg users than from Bloomberg itself. Eg: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/may/10/bloomberg-gold...
Post reply on HN