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

Why do we keep using Facebook?

hackernoon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 76 posts

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#31

Post by herbst »

NiklasMort wrote: post #20

Unfortunately the amount of groups on Facebook is nowhere else to be found, especially important for people who move/travel a lot. Not to mention the majority of events & co often only is posted on FB.

I travel a lot plus mostly live in a different place than i originally grew up with, so moved quite a few times, so have plenty remote friends.

Still i dont miss it and i never felt i should get another FB profile. Even thought i dont had one the last 4 years.

What i am trying to say is that you most likely wont even know how irrelevant FB is for you life as long as you hold on to it for whatever reasons.

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#32

Post by jamesrcole »

speedplane wrote: post #28
Nothorized wrote: post #16

Ok, I am not be the "usual" reader of Hacker News (HN). I am reading HN since 2012 for disclaimer. So basically, Facebook (FB) is for socializing in real life. Since I am currently in exchange, It is useful to create parties and to invite people to them. It is also useful to talk with your friend on the other side of the earth (more than Whatsapp), to keep up to date with them. And it is also the best way to get into…

Have you tried dropping FB? Relying on old-fashioned txt message to ask your friends whatsup?

As an aside, it's funny that text messages can now be considered "old fashioned".

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#33

Post by herbst »

kisstheblade wrote: post #7

What I have found that everyone uses facebook to post stuff about themselves and voice their "important" opinions on stuff. Nobody uses it to "connect". Or for sure maybe sometimes but surely it's not the only way that people can connect in these days. I can connect with people in a myriad of ways, as always, even before facebook. I have seen absolutely no change in how "connected" I am after facebook has taken over.…

> What I have found that everyone uses facebook to post stuff about themselves and voice their "important" opinions on stuff.

I have got the very same impression. It ended up like a huge ego driven circle jerk. Most "communication" happens passively (likes, post emojis, passive comments, shares). And barely anyone is even interested in provided OC.

Its a sad place these days

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#34

Post by tim333 »

As a counter point to the article and most of the comments on HN, I like Facebook don't find it makes me feel bad. I suspect that in the studies showing a correlation between feeling bad and using Facebook the causation goes the other way. People who don't have enough friends and social life in the physical world both feel bad and go on Facebook as a substitute. This would be a simpler explanation for why they have 2bn users and growing - people like the service.

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#35

Post by jamesrcole »

skrebbel wrote: post #17
Kluny wrote: post #12

Based on the other comments so far, it sounds like HN'ers mostly don't use facebook and don't miss it. Fair enough, but I'm in the same camp as the article's author, and looking for a way out. I might be unique, but I didn't really have much of a social life before facebook. That's not causal relationship - before 2007ish I was a very introverted kid who didn't know how to make friends or form strong relationships. A…

> I want to hear about the new babies, jobs, city moves, projects, and parties that people have going on This is the point. We non Facebook users decided we don't care enough about that stuff. Or at least not until someone tells us about it in person. There's no real problem with hearing half a year late that a friend of a friend, who is also a direct acquaintance of sorts, became a parent.

You're generalising a lot about the motivations of users and non-users.

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#36

Post by jamesrcole »

srge wrote: post #19

It's been 2 years that I have deleted both my FB accounts (one for family and friends, the other for business), my IG account and my Twitter account. All accounts had many years of activity and substantial following. I never looked back and I am very much happier. What made me decide is that I realized that I had become an self inflicted obligation to create content to feed my online personas every days. Basically I…

I've heard other people make the same point, and I don't understand it. Why did you feel obligated to create content? A lot of the time I've used it, I've personally been happy just seeing what other people have posted.

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#37

Post by rsaarelm »

I stopped logging to Facebook years ago. I also haven't had much any interesting long-form online discussions in years and I miss them. Several people I know say Facebook comment threads and a curated friend group are just the sweet spot for them now. Still not going to log into Facebook, but I think there's an axis where my life is worse for that.

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#38

Post by mbrock »

tim333 wrote: post #34

As a counter point to the article and most of the comments on HN, I like Facebook don't find it makes me feel bad. I suspect that in the studies showing a correlation between feeling bad and using Facebook the causation goes the other way. People who don't have enough friends and social life in the physical world both feel bad and go on Facebook as a substitute. This would be a simpler explanation for why they have 2…

Like in so many situations, causality is more likely to be cyclical than linear. That's how malignant habits work: they appear to easily alleviate a symptom, but thereby prevent actual recovery or growth.

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#39

Post by mbrock »

ljamf wrote: post #22

Full disclosure up front: i work for a company which sells ads based on user behavior. I get that it's creepy, "spying" on users, but really, would you rather have ads from services which know nothing about you? Companies want to buy ads that users are interested in, obviously. If I have a company selling vegan food i would optimally only buy ads shown to people who are already vegan, right? And they probably don't w…

Of course I would rather get irrelevant ads than have irresponsible firms tracking the patterns of my online behavior. That seems like an extremely obvious choice.

Ads are not there for my benefits, they are memetic weapons deployed by corporations to nudge my subconscious. I haven't voluntarily clicked on a single ad in my entire life. They are 100% obnoxious, and these days, privacy violating to a staggering degree.

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#40

Post by tpeo »

How much does the average user actually use Facebook, specially nowadays?

I'd be rather surprised if the total amount of time spent on Facebook didn't have something like a power-law distribution. The only reason I have an account at all is so that, in the unlikely event that I might be notified of something that I actually care about or that someone might try to reach me, I'll know it. And I'm sure that is true of at least a portion of other users.

Having Facebook today is like having a landline seven years ago. I wonder if in seven years Facebook will only be used for marketing, too.

Post reply on HN