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

71–76 of 76 posts

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#71

Post by Terretta »

speedplane wrote: post #50
ship_it wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious, why are you still on there?

I don't have a moral or ideological opposition to FB, more of a practical one... I don't really know who my friends are on there or who I'm talking to when I post something. I know I could exhaustively go through my friends and sort them out... but it's a pain. So I keep the account and check in once every few months. If they fixed the problems, I'd use it more.

Fix your friends list. Consider one of these groups to keep it small and not-fake.

People you’ve:

- shared a roof with overnight

- been in their home or had them over

- shared a meal with (by invitation, not bumped into)

Don’t let FB water down your personal definition of ‘friend’.

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#72

Post by newscracker »

Sir_Substance wrote: post #18
newscracker wrote: post #11

It seems like people becoming increasingly physically isolated and not connecting even with neighbors makes online connections valuable. It's pervasive and avoids moving physically. And of course, the network effect of others being on Facebook.

>It seems like people becoming increasingly physically isolated and not connecting even with neighbors makes online connections valuable. This kind of thinking never held much water with me. You don't get to choose your neighbors, the odds that they'll be compatible with you in the way that might lead to meaningful friendships is extremely low. None of my parents friends are former neighbors. Lots of them are former…

You may be partially right. A few hours after I posted the comment, I realized that the urban vs. rural difference is also a factor here (like kilnos described in another comment). Before we had much larger concentrations of human population in cities, it seemed to me that people were a bit more than acquaintances even with neighbors. May not have been the thickest of friends, but were still around to connect with, gossip, reach out for some quick help, etc. I'm sure there were variations across geographies and cultures, but a "modern city life" has made many people more busy and stressed to form such connections and keep up.

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#73

Post by humanrebar »

kelnos wrote: post #67
humanrebar wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think companies like facebook can manipulate democracy, you have problems with open democracy, at least information-age democracy, not facebook in particular. Undergirding democracy is the idea that citizens are intelligent and trustworthy enough to deal with yellow journalism, propaganda, etc. Or, at least, that is a downside of the least bad approach to governance so far.

> Undergirding democracy is the idea that citizens are intelligent and trustworthy enough to deal with yellow journalism, propaganda, etc. The Nov 2016 US election, and the investigations into news propagation on sites like FB, is outright proof that citizens are in fact not intelligent enough on average to deal with this. I'm not trying to shit on people or be flippant, but... it's not looking good. Certainly censor…

There are serious implications to that conclusion. The citizens are the watchers in a democracy. If they can't be trusted to come to reasonable conclusions on their own, there is no other authority qualified to ensure they are properly informed and vetted.

It is circular, to say the least, to have the government regulate how to educate citizens about how to pick the next government.

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#74

Post by synicalx »

Unfortunately, FB is about the only way I can keep in contact with a lot of my old friends since they don't use any of the alternatives and are also scattered all over the world.

What is really creepy though, is signing up for a new account, on a new device, using a fake name, and a different email address, and having FB immediately start suggesting people you've know IRL for 20+ years. I get that there's a million ways they could work out who I am, but the fact that they go to that extent from the get-go is a more than a bit creepy.

I'm actually tempted to do a bit of an experiment next time I go overseas - buy a brand new device, with cash, on the other side of the world and sign up for email and then facebook using just that device and see if they can work out who I am. I'd half expect to see someone in a FB t-shirt lurking in some nearby bushes whispering into a mic...

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#75

Post by speedplane »

Terretta wrote: post #71
speedplane wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have a moral or ideological opposition to FB, more of a practical one... I don't really know who my friends are on there or who I'm talking to when I post something. I know I could exhaustively go through my friends and sort them out... but it's a pain. So I keep the account and check in once every few months. If they fixed the problems, I'd use it more.

Fix your friends list. Consider one of these groups to keep it small and not-fake. People you’ve: - shared a roof with overnight - been in their home or had them over - shared a meal with (by invitation, not bumped into) Don’t let FB water down your personal definition of ‘friend’.

I don't do this anymore, but long ago (I've had a FB account since at least 2005), I used to add friends I met while traveling. We'd have an awesome night in some foreign city, shared a roof, and ate dinner together... so I added them. At this point, I can't remember anything about them, but it'd meet your definition.

But it's not just friends I don't remember. It's that I have all my family on there, my ex's, my kindergarten classmates, my work colleagues. I'm wouldn't say the same think to Aunty Iris as I would to my college friends.

Re: Why do we keep using Facebook?

#76

Post by kelnos »

humanrebar wrote: post #73
kelnos wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Undergirding democracy is the idea that citizens are intelligent and trustworthy enough to deal with yellow journalism, propaganda, etc. The Nov 2016 US election, and the investigations into news propagation on sites like FB, is outright proof that citizens are in fact not intelligent enough on average to deal with this. I'm not trying to shit on people or be flippant, but... it's not looking good. Certainly censor…

There are serious implications to that conclusion. The citizens are the watchers in a democracy. If they can't be trusted to come to reasonable conclusions on their own, there is no other authority qualified to ensure they are properly informed and vetted. It is circular, to say the least, to have the government regulate how to educate citizens about how to pick the next government.

Yep, and that's one of the main reasons I'm finding the political climate in the US so depressing. The answer would seem to be "marginalize people who lack critical thinking ability", but... that's not really a solution.
Post reply on HN