281–290 of 310 posts
How is this post not higher on HN? It's got 500 points at 14 hours.
Still, it's really nice that it still gets attention from the HN community, and even nicer that each time, the discussion is more productive and inquisitive.
It won't be a popular opinion here but here it goes: Well if it all goes to hell we will all be in the same handbasket. I'm simply not willing to cut people out of my life and miss out on things that are important to me because my data is mined and might be used against me. All these distributed platforms are a joke, no really they are technically cool but no one I care about is on them. Maybe if your entire social c…
> The best doesn't win, the easiest does. This is the crux of the challenge. Plenty of people are concerned about Facebook, not only for privacy concerns but also for its impact on public discourse. [1] But any viable alternative must be mindlessly easy. Salim Virani’s suggestion of phone and email instead of Facebook works in part — replacing Facebook as a messaging medium — but it doesn’t address the use of Faceboo…
As for replacing a personalised news feed, I still use Twitter and find that email newsletters, especially curations like getrevue keep me well-informed on professional news.
As for a personal feed, I found that Facebook wasn't really that great - lots of noise and I still missed things I thought were important. I haven't found a replacement, but didn't feel the need to replace something inadequate.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It may not be him that is dependent on a commercial product. I rarely, if ever, use Facebook as an active product. By this I mean I may post a generic status once or twice a month and may actively check my feed once or twice a week. However, if I were to completely close down my Facebook account, I would lose all of the passive information that is sent to me. This includes invitations to parties, people letting me kn…
However, if I were to completely close down my Facebook account, I would lose all of the passive information that is sent to me. Or you could just do a quick inventory of which of those groups / are still important to you. And then sign up again using a different device / email address. Along with, of course, a totally fake user name. And (slowly) sign up again for those pages. Which I guess would against FB's terms…
Even if you provided a fake name, you still agreed to the TOS, so they can proceed as if you're still bound by the legal implications.
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But what's the advantage of Facebook over email and/or texting? I feel like for anything other than wasting time Facebook is sluggish compared to either. If you're a Facebook user you have a cellphone and/or a computer, and can do everything Facebook does: share pictures, plan events, check-in with friends, family, and groups of people. And not share data* or be peppered with garbage advertisements. * I personally pa…
> But what's the advantage of Facebook over email and/or texting? Discoverability. Facebook has it inside the app. Email and texting require you to go out of band for it. It's impossible to exaggerate the value of this. Groups of people who had lost contact in high school have gotten back in touch in retirement, planned trips, and traveled to a place to meet up together because Facebook has in-band discoverability. B…
Also students are highly reliant on it. These types of loose connections but strong network effects are hard to break.
However... > Way cheaper than sending out a snail mail newsletter or even managing an email list.
This is true less frequently. Facebook used to be a good organic channel to build, but now FB is forcing more payments, by forcing ads to FB pages, and then again for boosting posts on those pages. Plus, the costs are rising.
> Groups of people who had lost contact in high school have gotten back in touch in retirement
I experienced this too, but I also had a controlled test, since I wanted to track down some high school friends who weren't on Facebook. Turned out not to be so hard, and caught up with a bunch of other old friends along the way. :)
Sometimes the alternatives offer other advantages we don't see if we frame the problem as replacing what we have now exactly.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But what's the advantage of Facebook over email and/or texting? I feel like for anything other than wasting time Facebook is sluggish compared to either. If you're a Facebook user you have a cellphone and/or a computer, and can do everything Facebook does: share pictures, plan events, check-in with friends, family, and groups of people. And not share data* or be peppered with garbage advertisements. * I personally pa…
> But what's the advantage of Facebook over email and/or texting? This is anecdata but among my friends, e-mail addresses and phone numbers tend to change more often than their Facebook profiles. I know people all over the world, but out of all of Facebook connections, I probably only have accurate contact details for 20% of them or less. The contacts I interact with most often are obviously in that bracket, but many…
I email/text close friends and family but if I want to get in touch with a past friend/travel companion/acquaintance, FB makes that easier.
Saying that, a lot of people I come across now have also stopped actively using FB and are very involved in Instagram. I found it odd that co-workers so easily and quickly follow an Instagram feed but FB, email, personal cell #s usually took longer to exchange. I'm assuming because with Instagram, there's a degree of curation and it's personal but not too personal.
I also found it odd that peoples' dogs had IG profiles and they would use those profiles to follow other co-workers' dogs. To each their own, I guess.
It won't be a popular opinion here but here it goes: Well if it all goes to hell we will all be in the same handbasket. I'm simply not willing to cut people out of my life and miss out on things that are important to me because my data is mined and might be used against me. All these distributed platforms are a joke, no really they are technically cool but no one I care about is on them. Maybe if your entire social c…
When I first wrote that post, years ago, I expected most people to ignore it as tinfoil-hat stuff. But as time has passed, people are becoming more aware. (Also, the implications are becoming more costly.)
I no longer write off the non-technical public as "they don't understand/care."
This gives me hope that alternatives can work, even alternatives that require network effects. (Though, I think the best alternatives won't be another social network but something more akin to easy ways for people to run their own group communications. I don't think a me-too will win here, but something more of a leap-frog.)
I haven't been on Facebook for years. The result? A weakening of my friendships and of my social life. I often hear the argument that "if they were your real friends you wouldn't need that" or some variation but the truth is that unplanned interactions are a major part of how friendships thrive. If you are no longer part of a place where a lot of these interactions happen, it will definitely affect your social life,…
you are unlikely to make more than a handful of "true" friends. as long as those are kept, what remains of the tens or hundreds of "friends" in Facebook is no more than a passing aquaintance, and they do not add much, if any, your life by reading their feeds or comments (any more than comments on HN).
Light acquaintances are actually a boon when travelling or trying new things. Facebook makes it quite straightforward to tap this resource, and surprisingly people are quite receptive to being called up by semi-distant people.
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> If Facebook were suddenly gone tomorrow, I would feel devastated (so many memories of my kids, deceased father, mom, all would be gone). I may not have articulated how I feel very well in that post. I should edit it to miss out on the things in other peoples lives I got to see and things I got to share with them because of Facebook. So you didn't take it completely out of context but you only commented on 1/2 of my…
> If I lost account access to Facebook, I'd create a new account and build my network again. If Facebook permits you to do so. They don't have to let you, and it is within their power to stop you. Whether they choose at this time to exercise such power seems to me less important than that they can , and that it's only up to you whether you participate in Facebook's privileged access to your friends, family, loved one…
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Signal has most of these features as well.
Sure, but Facebook Messenger has all my friends.
Getting friends to switch to Telegram from Skype was a pain. Turning around and saying, after they got cozy, "hey Telegram blows, come check out Signal!" would result in rolled eyes and nothing more.
I haven't been on Facebook for years. The result? A weakening of my friendships and of my social life. I often hear the argument that "if they were your real friends you wouldn't need that" or some variation but the truth is that unplanned interactions are a major part of how friendships thrive. If you are no longer part of a place where a lot of these interactions happen, it will definitely affect your social life,…
you are unlikely to make more than a handful of "true" friends. as long as those are kept, what remains of the tens or hundreds of "friends" in Facebook is no more than a passing aquaintance, and they do not add much, if any, your life by reading their feeds or comments (any more than comments on HN).
It's too easy these days to construct echo chambers to live in and discover only too late that you have drifted out into the fringes without ever realizing it.
This is one of the most surprising things about the Internet IMHO. I had thought for a long time that all of the conversation online would bring people together in shared understanding. Now I realize that it has more effectively allowed people to segregate themselves into like minded groups. In the old days there was only one or two big news stations and maybe a couple of local papers where people got their news and opinions. Sometimes the newsmen would say things that conflicted with your worldview and maybe on a rare occasion make you reconsider. Now you can customize the message to only ever hear what you want.
Social media can fight this a bit, if only because you don't get to choose your family and people notice if you selectively ignore them.