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

Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

facebook.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 229 posts

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#201

Post by axaxs »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #195
axaxs wrote: post #148

So, not to discredit this number, but here are some things to consider - 1 - Bots. Lots of bots. 2 - Multiple accounts. I've seen people with as many as 4 accounts, used for different purposes(friend groups). 3 - 'Facebook is the internet'. Facebook is free(ie not charged as data usage), and therefore, 'the internet', in many poor nations. I'm not actually sure if this is Facebook's doing, a carrier agreement, etc, b…

> I'm not actually sure if this is Facebook's doing, a carrier agreement, etc This is absolutely in part Facebook's doing. They've struck numerous deals.

Doesn't surprise me. I don't want to make too harsh of accusations, but in my head, it feels just short of fraud. Not growing fast enough? Shrinking? Give a third world nation free internet to become users and pad the numbers. Tell advertisers and investors you're growing, but not precisely how and where.

Again, that's just my first instinct, not an accusation.

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#202

Post by ChuckMcM »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #194
ChuckMcM wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is an overreach to go from 'access to' to 'influence over'. Facebook has access to 1/4 of the worlds population but having access does not imply influence. Only that you can reach them. It is remarkable that one corporation owns the infrastructure on which 1/4 of the world's population communicates. That makes it an exceptionally good platform for surveillance because even people who are good at keeping th…

> I think it is an overreach to go from 'access to' to 'influence over' Facebook is a lot of people's primary source of news or even communication. Humans are a social species and massively influenced by what they hear from others.

I don't disagree, but I don't think Facebook is responsible for 'fake news' or even 'hate news'. As with any community there are actors within it which self select to group together and communicate. Now what it does do is allow what might be a dispersed group to become a 'local community' but Facebook's role in that is providing the access, not in influencing what those people do or say.

One need only step between rabidly conservative and rabidly liberal enclaves on Facebook to see different groups surrounding themselves with their own messaging.

To date I don't see Facebook exerting an editorial influence that is swaying meaningful sized groups. Sure there are groups that use Facebook to do that, but it isn't something you can buy or arrange for from the company.

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#203

Post by haterswillhate »

Why is that when you inform your customers in facebook, they block you.. but why facebook can inform 2 billion people without any blocking ?

Why is that suckerberg calls users fucking idiots, they only get more users ?

Why is that we support these multinational corporations, who cheat and lie as they please.. but we do not support local business owners?

Why is that facebook is doing psychology tests in they "platform" ?

Why these all corporations violate my privacy by spying and they all "google, facebook, twitter" are more or less CIA agents ?

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#204

Post by notacoward »

rdslw wrote: post #189
simonswords82 wrote: post #159

As insane as this number is, and it really is an incredible achievement, I'm left feeling Facebook hasn't delivered much real net positive value to the world just yet. Politics are in disarray. More people are "connected" online but more people than ever feel isolated in some way and mental health issues are on the rise. Highlight reels of your friends living a seemingly amazing life leave people feeling like they've…

None. When was the last time you consider 20 minutes spent on facebook browsing a well spent time?

Quite often. For one thing, it's the primary way I stay in touch with most of my non-immediate family, including my father and my half-brothers who live on the other side of the world. For another, it provides a higher density of humor and "awww!" than anything else in my life. Those are things I sorely need during/after a long day of work and housework and others' online negativity.

Facebook, and every other social media platform, is largely what you make of it. If you friend or follow garbage people, you'll have a garbage feed. If you carefully curate those lists, you can have a feed that's funny or touching or thought-provoking. "The common element of all your unsatisfying relationships is you" is not (just) a joke on a poster. It's good advice too, but not everyone's smart enough to take it.

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#205

Post by mliker »

simonswords82 wrote: post #159

As insane as this number is, and it really is an incredible achievement, I'm left feeling Facebook hasn't delivered much real net positive value to the world just yet. Politics are in disarray. More people are "connected" online but more people than ever feel isolated in some way and mental health issues are on the rise. Highlight reels of your friends living a seemingly amazing life leave people feeling like they've…

I personally didn't have much use of Facebook until I started using it to connect with those who suffer the same illness as me. Then I realized I had a worldwide support group to tap into. That's pretty important to me and to the billions who use this platform.

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#206

Post by formula_ninguna »

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #32

It is both amazing and deeply concerning that one corporation has influence over 1/4 of the world's population. It is even more concerning when you consider the outsized voting power of 1 person at that company.

it doesn't have influence of 1/4 of the world's population. first of all, 2 billions might be pure humans but some of them are bots. second of all, I have facebook, so what? how does it influence me? I spent 5 minutes per week if not per month chatting in facebook, use adblock, have no posts, no photo.

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#207

Post by nly »

I log in to mine about once a month, spend about 5 minutes getting frustrated with their horrific timeline that shows me nothing of people I care about by default, dismiss a few messages that I missed, and sign out.

I just signed in and the "news feed" shows 1 post from a friend 4 days ago. Everything else (I have a few hundred friends) is hidden.

As a social platform it just baffles me these days.

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#208

Post by frickinLasers »

omnifischer wrote: post #146
joeblau wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason I go with Safari Content blockers and /etc/hosts is because both of those solutions stop network requests before they even attempt to make a network request. uBlock is a good backup solution, but I want my computer to think Facebook doesn't even exist as a url, regardless of context. For example uBlock won't stop iMessage from trying to load Facebook's inline media content when someone messages me a Facebo…

for OSX blocking at DNS level: Posted a year ago in hn https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11793855 for linux use: https://github.com/tbds/FreeContributor/tree/master/data https://www.perpetual-beta.org/weblog/blocking-facebook-on-o...

> for linux use: https://github.com/tbds/FreeContributor/tree/master/data

This appears to be broken.

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#209

Post by King-Aaron »

racl101 wrote: post #192
labster wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume the point is Mark Zuckerburg's three cubic acres of money.

That's exactly what I was thinking. And you know what? That's good enough. Money and power. Pretty much sums up why most big companies exist. The part about making the world a better place I'm sure it's on their: "a nice to have" pile.

> "a nice to have" pile.

This pile is probably smaller than that other three-cubic-acres pile though.

Re: Facebook Hits 2 Billion Users

#210

Post by jerkstate »

notacoward wrote: post #166
simonswords82 wrote: post #159

As insane as this number is, and it really is an incredible achievement, I'm left feeling Facebook hasn't delivered much real net positive value to the world just yet. Politics are in disarray. More people are "connected" online but more people than ever feel isolated in some way and mental health issues are on the rise. Highlight reels of your friends living a seemingly amazing life leave people feeling like they've…

> what's the point I can think of two answers to that. (1) Why does there have to be a point? How many of the other companies we discuss here have a point, other than the enrichment of their founders/investors? Personally I loathe the "financial performance is a company's only duty" attitude (which is contrary to the actual law BTW), but if we're going to say companies should have a point then we should apply an equa…

There's another thread going on right now where people are vigorously debating what the point of Blue Apron is, a company with ~1/200 the market cap and ~1/5000 as many users.

Google is in a similar position as Facebook as a primary arbiter of information and it's also vigorously debated.

I'm not sure if it has ever been true that our arbiters of information were ever truly altruistic and good, but it's hard to imagine that they have ever let us down as badly as they have lately.

Post reply on HN