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Facebook is an attack on the open web

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Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#101

Post by gthtjtkt »

zelos wrote: post #61
gthtjtkt wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook was great in the early years. No ads, no political spam, no viral garbage, no pictures of what your friend ate for dinner, no psychologically manipulative algorithms. Just people talking to their friends and posting pictures of themselves hanging out. If someone made a new social network like that, I'd sign up today.

> no pictures of what your friend ate for dinner Posting pictures of your food should be a criminal offence. Nothing too serious, just a couple of years in prison or something.

I can't help but laugh when I imagine what this would've looked like before the internet existed.

"Look, honey, we got something in the mail from Katie and John! It's... oh... just a bunch of pictures of food. That's odd."

Meanwhile Katie and John are still at home, furiously stuffing envelopes with the same food pictures so they can send one to everybody in their address book.

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#102

Post by blurbleblurble »

supernumerary wrote: post #53
tobyjsullivan wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've enjoyed roughly the same experience but without the downsides. As far as events go, the neckbeard in me hasn't actually minded. I still get invited to "high quality" events (things my real-life friends are going to) and haven't really missed the lower quality events. Photos I just conveniently had solved by having all my photos on Google Photos anyways (I stopped trusting offline storage long ago). I think my Fa…

Suggest adding FB to your hosts file: https://gist.github.com/thomasbilk/1506210/2d20f47bbcca75b2f... No more accidental or ambiguous re-activation...

Yes! I've done this with a number of websites! It's been a really useful tool in developing self control.

Filtering: not just for censorship.

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#104

Post by rcjones »

MachinShinn- wrote: post #74

I'm baffled by some of the comments here... Is it so difficult for you guys to just have a facebook account that you don't check in on? You can still sign into random sites that require it that way, arrange meetups, etc but without 'scrolling your life away' I expect people like me who spend most of their day on the computer to have at least as much digital self discipline as I have, but perhaps that's a poor assumpt…

Seems like my feed encourages me to do less scrolling than ever. My feed has become a haven for linked and sponsored content, and there's the occasional spatter of original content from friends. I don't see a lot of the stuff I actually care about (photos of friends, their newborns, lengthy posts, etc.) without going straight to their pages.

I swear some of these personal posts never hit my home feed, they just get buried. This is odd as the personal stuff is the content I'm most likely to interact with. This is doubly confounding because the posts I don't see usually have a lot interaction among my close network, especially compared to the noise that's topping my feed.

More and more I find myself going directly to a handful of profiles and spending less time on FB because of the feed's noise.

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#105

Post by iamatworknow »

srge wrote: post #79
manyoso wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deleted my facebook account in January. For me it is 100% great and do not miss it even a little.

Deleted my account 2 years ago along with Twitter's and Instagram's. It's just a better life for me now. Less stress, less anger.

Facebook and Twitter I get, but you were being angered and stressed by Instagram? It's the only social media I actively use precisely because it's not stressful or rage inducing. I'm into photography so it gives me an outlet that way (even though taking a picture with a real camera, editing it on a computer, then sending it to my phone to post on Instagram is a bit of a pain), and the annoying content from other people is very rare.

I will say, however that they've stepped up their ad insertion and display algorithm a bit recently, in a bad way, which is unfortunate. But I certainly see much less of the spammy ideological content that I do on Facebook and Twitter.

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#106

Post by reitanqild »

zelos wrote: post #61
gthtjtkt wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook was great in the early years. No ads, no political spam, no viral garbage, no pictures of what your friend ate for dinner, no psychologically manipulative algorithms. Just people talking to their friends and posting pictures of themselves hanging out. If someone made a new social network like that, I'd sign up today.

> no pictures of what your friend ate for dinner Posting pictures of your food should be a criminal offence. Nothing too serious, just a couple of years in prison or something.

I hear you but I actually enjoy some pictures of peoples food, e.g. when my brother has made a nice wok.

I also miss the "going to the beach", "this was a nice day" etc.

I don't miss "join me on farmville", "1000 reasons why Trump and/or Hillary are dumb" etc.

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#107

Post by linkmotif »

Tossrock wrote: post #19

I deactivated my Facebook account several months ago, and it's been about 90% great, 10% frustrating. It's great for all the obvious reasons (less timesuck, less compulsion to endlessly scroll your life away, no notification interruptions). The frustrations are real, though. Primarily it's around events and photos. There are some communities I participate in that regularly organize events through Facebook, and now I…

Been 4-5 years without Facebook. Life for me has definitely been better than without. Same goes with Instagram. Something toxic about both of these platforms.

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#108

Post by mysterydip »

tobyjsullivan wrote: post #31
Tossrock wrote: post #19

I deactivated my Facebook account several months ago, and it's been about 90% great, 10% frustrating. It's great for all the obvious reasons (less timesuck, less compulsion to endlessly scroll your life away, no notification interruptions). The frustrations are real, though. Primarily it's around events and photos. There are some communities I participate in that regularly organize events through Facebook, and now I…

I've enjoyed roughly the same experience but without the downsides. As far as events go, the neckbeard in me hasn't actually minded. I still get invited to "high quality" events (things my real-life friends are going to) and haven't really missed the lower quality events. Photos I just conveniently had solved by having all my photos on Google Photos anyways (I stopped trusting offline storage long ago). I think my Fa…

> (I stopped trusting offline storage long ago).

Do you trust online storage? Meaning, do you have backups of your photos offline somewhere, or are you only in the cloud?

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#109

Post by exergy »

ambulancechaser wrote: post #77
exergy wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And contrarians who revel in their "I'm not snobbish like you all" Regular Joe aura. At least the ones who talk about why they quit stick to their own experiences rather than belittling others who still find value in it.

> At least the ones who talk about why they quit stick to their own experiences > I myself have no issues with the social network, I keep up with friends, family and it isn't a time suck for me anymore than HN.

I'm taking issue with his first sentence, not second.

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#110

Post by 5ilv3r »

patrickaljord wrote: post #96
nnfy wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem with an idle Facebook account is at least twofold: my activity is still being tracked against my will, and out of principle I refuse to support an organization which so blatantly disregards personal space.

> I refuse to support an organization which so blatantly disregards personal space. I suppose you have no cell phone and live in a place with no government then, because Facebook can't hold a candle to telcos and governments when it comes to disregarding your personal space.

Pretty sure protecting your personal space is the government's job. At least in the US. Not saying they are doing a good job in particular, but it's in the mission statement.
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