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Facebook – You are the Product

lrb.co.uk

241–250 of 321 posts

Re: Facebook – You are the Product

#241
post #5

I stopped using Facebook years ago and I could not recommend it more. I found it to be mental pollution at best and and a total waste of time. If you want to 'keep in touch' with people, call or text them. Make an effort to actually interact with the people who matter to you.

I did, too. But I found that the marketing power of Facebook is just too good to ignore. I made an account again, just to have a few Pages dedicated to my projects. I didn't even reconnect with friends. Even without paid ads... just sharing my content on Facebook with related groups, my site traffic increased by 15% and my revenue by 25%.

More evidence that on facebook, the user is the product. If you're buying, it's a good market.

Re: Facebook – You are the Product

#242
post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So tell me, how do i replace around 5 different group chats i have on messenger which can have anywhere between 5-10 people in each chat? Music events that i go to are exclusively promoted on facebook. How do you recommend i find out about these events so that i can get a cheaper ticket price? if anyone wants to organize a plan that has more than 8 people, facebook groups make it much much easier. I personally hate f…

> if anyone wants to organize a plan that has more than 8 people, facebook groups make it much much easier. So, there is this thing which a little old: emails. It is wonderful to organize things. For group chats you also have some old shit like IRC. You get your beloved hashtag too.

Although beware that # does a slightly different thing.

Re: Facebook – You are the Product

#243
post #5

I stopped using Facebook years ago and I could not recommend it more. I found it to be mental pollution at best and and a total waste of time. If you want to 'keep in touch' with people, call or text them. Make an effort to actually interact with the people who matter to you.

Ah, the mandatory comment. Relevant: https://youtu.be/md4kM9AKjHs

Re: Facebook – You are the Product

#244
post #5

I stopped using Facebook years ago and I could not recommend it more. I found it to be mental pollution at best and and a total waste of time. If you want to 'keep in touch' with people, call or text them. Make an effort to actually interact with the people who matter to you.

So tell me, how do i replace around 5 different group chats i have on messenger which can have anywhere between 5-10 people in each chat? Music events that i go to are exclusively promoted on facebook. How do you recommend i find out about these events so that i can get a cheaper ticket price? if anyone wants to organize a plan that has more than 8 people, facebook groups make it much much easier. I personally hate f…

For me it was easy.. but then again I have few real friends, and those I keep in touch with by other means

Re: Facebook – You are the Product

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And that, in fact, _does_ makes it hard to avoid using facebook without being left out. I think you might mean _fear_ of being left out...friends will find other ways to contact you.

Or not. Maybe they just decide it's not worth the hassle of tracking down the outliers. I guess we can argue that anybody who's a real friend will message you using your preferred comm, though that cuts both ways. If you are a real friend, you'd message them back with their preferred system.

Or maybe they aren't real friends? I don't use it, friends still invite me to things. If something like how to communicate is in the way of your friendship, be thankful you're cutting out people that don't really matter in your life.

Re: Facebook – You are the Product

#246
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Facebook solves a real social problem With all due respect, until FB nominally solved this problem, you (I) never even knew this problem existed. Before it became trivial to share pictures with a long lost acquaintance using FB, we got by just fine showing pics to a tiny subset of friends. There was literally no idea in anyone's head that they needed to show pictures of their children to some guy they last spoke to…

Something about people wanting a faster horse.

For every "wanting a faster horse" I give you "new iPhones every 6 months", "smart bottles that remind you to drink more water" and "Internet-connected $400 juicer that requires special cartridges to make juice".

Re: Facebook – You are the Product

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that hard, you've just forgotten how to do these things without Facebook. >I personally hate facebook's mobile apps and some it's policies ( Internet.org comes 1st to my mind), but it's hard to completely stop using it. Try it! Deactivate your account for a week. Do it again later for two weeks. Maybe for a month. When you learn how to live without it, delete it.

I just rejoined facebook. I call it giving in again, but really, I see a lot more of what's going on in the city than I could otherwise. There are some websites that try to fill this gap (sites like Meetup or do512.com) and physical bulletin boards at the coffee shops, but FB is by FAR the easiest, and sometimes the only, way to find out about things. And yeah, you can text, you can call, but "if" everyone is on face…

Honestly I am not ready to simply delete my FB account, but I absolutely use it increasingly less. Every 3rd post is straight up an ad and generally an incredibly stupid ad. Social networks have become increasingly difficult to enjoy in my opinion because they have become insanely greedy and block the actual experience for why people want to be there.

In the past 3 months I am down an Instagram account and LinkedIn. Snapchat is probably next due to the absolutely awful interface and general pointlessness.

Re: Facebook – You are the Product

#248
post #146
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Facebook solves a real social problem With all due respect, until FB nominally solved this problem, you (I) never even knew this problem existed. Before it became trivial to share pictures with a long lost acquaintance using FB, we got by just fine showing pics to a tiny subset of friends. There was literally no idea in anyone's head that they needed to show pictures of their children to some guy they last spoke to…

That's the rhetoric of "the pressing 'demand' that must be satisfied". Each time I ask where the mass that actually 'demanded' something is, I get no answer.

Right, by a similar logic, there was never a demand for automobiles, so we can get rid of them without any loss.

Re: Facebook – You are the Product

#249
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Email is a system which you can assume virtually 100% of users have and doesn't force users to participate in a social network that has been shown to be harmful for a lot of users. Further email doesn't force you to participate in any particular service at all because it is a federated service. Assuming that someone should get a facebook to talk to you is like assuming someone should switch to sprint to call you. Ima…

I bet most teens do not use email for anything except work stuff.

How is your guess about other people useful info?

Re: Facebook – You are the Product

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think this is true. We always have that moment at parties, "Where's Kyle? Oh shit, he deleted his facebook and didn't see the invite, did anybody text him to tell him?!" No, we didn't, because 99% of our friends use the very useful party organizing app with integrated chat and picture sharing, Facebook.

Those aren't your friends buddy. >No, we didn't, because 99% of our friends use the very useful party organizing app with integrated chat and picture sharing, Facebook. My friends will actively invite me (I don't use facebook) to events if they want me there.

> Those aren't your friends buddy.

Um, so? He still wanted to go that party.

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