Ask HN: What, if anything, will come after Facebook for human connection? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What, if anything, will come after Facebook for human connection?

#11

Post by gdfer » Sat, May 27, 2017, 11:52 PM UTC

big_spammer wrote: post #10

gdfer wrote: post #9

facebook was great for helping human connection but obviously comes with it's limitations. apps like facebook/whatsapp clearly expand the breadth of who we can connect to and how often, but there's so much more to tap into when it comes to human connection that text/photos won't do. the fact that you mention "if anything" is almost a little depressing to me. surely technology will have a lot more to offer. video chat…

Why is it "clearly virtual reality related"?

i think that people are beginning to find these more shallow ways of connecting less meaningful and while they will always serve a purpose, i think that technology such as virtual reality will enable people who are not in the same room together to connect with one another in more meaningful and real (feeling) ways.

Re: Ask HN: What, if anything, will come after Facebook for human connection?

#12

Post by kleer001 » Sun, May 28, 2017, 5:14 AM UTC

FrozenVoid wrote: post #7

I have a rule of thumb that i've developed over the years: anytime someone tells or asks about X's killer, its a sign X is firmly established in the market and will not go away anytime soon. When people actually start ignoring X in favor of Y, then it changes: people just stopped talking about Myspace and its flaws.

Now that's a delicious heuristic. Thank you!

Re: Ask HN: What, if anything, will come after Facebook for human connection?

#13

Post by patrics123 » Sun, May 28, 2017, 9:06 PM UTC

gdfer wrote: post #11

big_spammer wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it "clearly virtual reality related"?

i think that people are beginning to find these more shallow ways of connecting less meaningful and while they will always serve a purpose, i think that technology such as virtual reality will enable people who are not in the same room together to connect with one another in more meaningful and real (feeling) ways.

+1 for the VR "feeling transmitting Tech" thing.

however it might be a bit scary to use it in the long term I expect a short hype like with Chatroulette or SecondLife because everybody wants to try it at least one time but itl only stick with a few of those Initial Users and serve a real purpose there...

Re: Ask HN: What, if anything, will come after Facebook for human connection?

#14

Post by veddox » Sun, May 28, 2017, 10:45 PM UTC

> What, if anything, will come after Facebook for human connection?

"If anything"? I can pretty much guarantee you that in 50 years (or 100, to stay on the safe side), nobody will be using Facebook anymore. The question is not "if" but "what".

Speculating on coming tech is risky, but my prediction is a two-way trend: graphic and text-based communication. Email is one of the oldest computer communication tools around (and basically a continuation of the millenia-old practice of writing letters) and doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Text-based communication is ideal for formulating complex ideas and offers low storage/delivery costs. I don't know whether we'll still be calling it email, but I'm pretty sure we'll still be writing some sort of letters in 2100. On the other hand, private conversation is a lot more enjoyable when it is face-to-face, giving the participants the opportunity to latch on to non-linguistic cues such as voice inflection or facial expressions. Thus I would imagine that some sort of telepresence communication platform is going to be pretty important in 2100 (akin to Skype et al. today, though perhaps with elements of virtual reality).

tl;dr Facebook as a company isn't going to stick around for ever, but letters and visual chatting are here to stay.