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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

#201

Post by camillomiller »

woodandsteel wrote: post #135

It's really very simple. Facebook was able to become a huge success because it could compete freely on the open web. Now that Facebook has become so powerful, it is trying to destroy the open web so no one can compete with it. Speaking of which, what wonder what its position is on net neutrality.

Facebook has become successful because for the first time in history it materialized the ungraspable matter that is the concept of relationship. It's like a magic device that shows the invisible treads that link the individuals in their own monadic lives. It's like a fucking superior level of intercommunication. And it's scary, and too powerful, and way over the point of no return. Plus, I don't think it's making the world a better place in any meaningful way.

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#202

Post by camillomiller »

cwyers wrote: post #37

The open web is an attack on the average user. It's unremittingly hostile as a place to go to if you aren't part of the culture that spawned it. Facebook does a very poor job of sheltering people from the worst of the open web, but it's about a billion times more bearable than the open web scaled up to modern adoption rates would be.

And why would "learning a culture" before getting to be a part of it be any bad? Why should we be entitled to a free pass to some place that needs a culture to be grasped? This is exactly facebook problem: lowering the bar is not a good thing per se, especially if you then pretend to run away from the responsibilities that come with it (i.e. being a fucking awesome amplifier for the worst shit ever)

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#203

Post by kerbalspacepro »

gre wrote: post #166
rcjones wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 b…

Use https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/news-feed-eradicat... and treat FB as a chat program.

This! Facebook is a great forum/chatroom if you use it that. Put your actual feeds in an RSS reader.

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#204

Post by b0rsuk »

s73ver wrote: post #191
b0rsuk wrote: post #182

There's a string of submissions critical of Facebook on HN recently. I agree and approve. But one thing interests me: doesn't Facebook have something like that, but in reverse ? I mean updates along the lines "We need more Facebook", "Open internet is for nerds", "Why more websites need to migrate to Facebook"... ? Unless you have a Facebook account, you don't know what's going on on the other side of the barricade.…

I'd be willing to offer a different take: You life in a smaller-ish job market. I'd be willing to bet you have fewer of the hip, "bleeding edge" startups, and places that hop on the newest technologies right away. I'm guessing most of the companies are more technologically conservative. I'm not saying that as a bad thing, by any means. More that, they would rather work with proven technologies where the problems are…

That's largely true for my city, but I made the query on a country-wide job aggregator. Reactjs still the least popular.

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#205

Post by camillomiller »

knieveltech wrote: post #89

Facebook is an attack on society itself. Ignorance of other people's stupidity, bigotry, and pettiness is a necessary lubricant for society to function.

Totally agree. Especially if the expression of such ignorance comes with a sense of pride and entitlement. It's easy to get entitled and proud, because nobody in real life would give you 200 nods to your racist musings while in line at Walmart. But 200 people press a stupid like button, and suddenly you feel like your idiotic and uneducated opinion has a great meaning. This is straightforward dangerous for representative democracies, which are founded on the subtle concept of an elite of better people that have a mandate to lead society. The fact that this mandate has been misused so many times is no excuse to suddenly drop all the good that comes from having someone who knows more in a position of power.

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#206

Post by cwyers »

camillomiller wrote: post #202
cwyers wrote: post #37

The open web is an attack on the average user. It's unremittingly hostile as a place to go to if you aren't part of the culture that spawned it. Facebook does a very poor job of sheltering people from the worst of the open web, but it's about a billion times more bearable than the open web scaled up to modern adoption rates would be.

And why would "learning a culture" before getting to be a part of it be any bad? Why should we be entitled to a free pass to some place that needs a culture to be grasped? This is exactly facebook problem: lowering the bar is not a good thing per se, especially if you then pretend to run away from the responsibilities that come with it (i.e. being a fucking awesome amplifier for the worst shit ever)

> And why would "learning a culture" before getting to be a part of it be any bad?

Because they don't want to. They don't want to learn it, they don't want to be a part of it. So they stay in a walled garden where they can participate in groups they want to participate in, with their own culture. And they're not the ones complaining about it, the open web advocates are complaining about their voluntary association with each other.

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#207

Post by always_good »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #124
res0nat0r wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've cut out Facebook without 99% of the hand wringing here. I just stop browsing the site. If someone wants to talk to me I get a popup on my Messenger app on my phone, and if I get an event invite it shows up there too. Problem solved.

Indeed. You can have a Facebook account and just... Not use it unless you need it for something. All the benefits of the 'I deleted Facebook' crowd without the downsides.

Almost all of these quitting posts just read like people coming to terms with their addiction.

Good for them, but they seem to mistake it as some sort of universal lifehack.

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#208

Post by haywirez »

Love the post(s), the reasons mentioned are precisely why I took the time to make my own site. There are so many unexplored opportunities with custom components that will never work on platforms, but too few are doing it. Alan Kay's talks completely changed my way of thinking - you need to take control of your tools.

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#209

Post by loceng »

Raphmedia wrote: post #198
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.

> If someone made a new social network like that, I'd sign up today. Make your own. Here's what I did for my local network of friends (who also all hate Facebook). Install Wordpress, add the free Buddypress plugin, purchase $50 BuddyPress theme. Throw on a server. There you go, your own private social network in under a week.

How active is it with your friends?

Re: Facebook is an attack on the open web

#210

Post by b0rsuk »

criddell wrote: post #99
irrational wrote: post #11

I have a feeling that Facebook will be on the decline. My teenagers and early-20 year-olds and their friends (not just local, but all over the US) think Facebook is for old people. I actually heard a 16 year old recently giving a speech where he mentioned Snapchat Stories, then, as an aside, said, "That's like Facebook or Pintrest for you old people."

Your 16 year old will eventually be old too. Facebook will still be there.

Remember Myspace ?
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