Despite how much I dislike Facebook, this article started off decent, but took a strange (and disrepectful) turn into hacker culture and algorithms that was completely unfounded. Facebook addiction and the centralization of the Internet has literally nothing to do with the concept of algorithms. Sure, machine learning ventures at Facebook contribute to the need to track users and invade privacy, but that's not the fault of computer scientists working on these algorithms. That's the fault of Facebook's business model.
Facebook’s war on free will
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Re: Facebook’s war on free will
#92Just get off facebook.
While it was "easy" for me to drop Facebook, I realize that for others it's harder. And not because "it's addicting" but rather for practical reasons. My wife, who is still on Facebook uses it as a tool to coordinate social events, message teachers, stay in touch with family and even ask useful questions to specific groups. You can't force everyone in your life to communicate on your terms , unless you want to A) pis…
"You can't force everyone in your life to communicate on your terms..."
Isn't that what many people and groups on Facebook have done? Why feed that mentality?
People who will only communicate with you through Facebook are likely not worth communicating with, as that signals that they don't think you're worth the extra effort. Email and telephone are still quite valid and effective means of communication.
Re: Facebook’s war on free will
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some people are probably addicted to facebook, but for the vast majority I don't think your comparison is very good. In almost all cases you can switch to something different than facebook.
If all your friends are on Facebook: no, you really can't.
If your friends don't want to expend the effort to communicate with you via email, phone or other, non-Facebook means: they're not really your friends.
Re: Facebook’s war on free will
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just like we stopped using AOL, myspace, yahoo and napster, facebook will go the way of the dodo sooner or later. People have short term memories. If there's one thing true of the internet, it's that everything slides into obsolesce at some point.. gopher, FTP, icq, geocities, irc and a long list of one massive sites and technologies that are now dead.
Idk about that. I used to say that, and some days still do, but Facebook is pretty exceptional in scope and how normalized it is.
It will eventually become something else or be replaced, but that may take awhile.
Re: Facebook’s war on free will
#95> The problem is that when we outsource thinking to machines, we are really outsourcing thinking to the organisations that run the machines. This is the money quote of this article, and it's been on my mind quite a bit as of late. More than ever, we live in a world where there are many forces ready to take full advantage of our laziness. It takes a bit of introspection to really understand the tradeoffs that are appr…
I left Facebook about two years ago now. I nearly immediately lost contact with all of the people I'd spent my time with in the city (outside of work). I don't chase them down for other reasons, but it is striking how much it supplanted everything else.
After returning an old work phone I'd made the mistake of not copying all of their numbers over. I moved elsewhere within the city, and so I don't run into them in the neighbourhood anymore.
I really enjoy not getting sucked into checking it and getting 100 notices about people who are friends of friends of friends. Life feels more at a healthy pace, even if it feels like I have fewer friends. I didn't like the constant FOMO it generated -- that for some reason I needed to either be the most expressive person on FB, or always chase other people's posts and doings. It's not for me.
Re: Facebook’s war on free will
#96You could take a year-long class on the psychological influence (some call it social engineering) of Facebook and you'd barely scratch the surface. One example I find particularly interesting is how Facebook slowly expanded what would trigger a notification, keeping people fixated on that red box like rats to sugar water.
James Hamblin at The Atlantic experimented with putting his phone in grayscale mode to combat the power of brightly-colored notifications.
https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/480240/adventures-in...
Re: Facebook’s war on free will
#97“In a lot of ways Facebook is more like a government than a traditional company,” Zuckerberg has said. “We have this large community of people, and more than other technology companies we’re really setting policies.”
And this is why I am arguing for a serious revamping of regulation on these companies. As they collect more and more data, build shadow profiles of non-users, conduct "experiments" on their users, attacking individualism and rights to privacy, they are operating much more like a government than a corporation. Combine this with the massive financial clout they have and we are having our actual constitutional rights violated, while being told our Bill of rights don't apply to them because they are a corporation, not the government.
Re: Facebook’s war on free will
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate to defend Facebook, but I'm not sure about their data having no value for the users. One such example would be that they've connected people who were otherwise unknowing of each other. People have found long lost relatives due to the big data that Facebook has. I'd say that's value.
And I've seen friendships and families destroyed by arguments on FaceBook. We've also seen how much of it is truly fake, curated by foreign companies and political groups to push agendas.
Move fast and break social ties.
Re: Facebook’s war on free will
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
Disabled all that social media shit way back. Didn't look back once. People who mattered reached out, those who didn't, didn't. Life moved on. So much for all their "psychological influence".
Yeah, it seems like there's a thread on HN every week where half of us jump in to share our story. I haven't been on FB in over 5 years and am much happier without it. That said, I have other more tolerable addictions (like reddit).
My only issue with Reddit the amount of astroturfing that takes place.
Take a look at a community like /r/fitness, and you get a lot of people recommending a lifting program that requires you purchase a book.
The worst part is, once it's been brought up enough (read: astroturfed enough), users naturally start to parrot it to fit in.
Re: Facebook’s war on free will
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate to defend Facebook, but I'm not sure about their data having no value for the users. One such example would be that they've connected people who were otherwise unknowing of each other. People have found long lost relatives due to the big data that Facebook has. I'd say that's value.
Is there really value in an online connection to a distant person who you didn't know existed, at the expense of time you could be spending on face-to-face local relationships?
> Is there really value in an online connection to a distant person who you didn't know existed, at the expense of time you could be spending on face-to-face local relationships?
If you travel, yes. I know many people who have stayed with distant relatives while traveling the world. The same thing happened before Facebook but at least now people have some insight into the person/family before they turn up on the doorstep and also have the ability to keep in touch afterwards.
My immediate family is spread across three continents and Facebook is an essential tool for keeping in contact with them. We still talk on the phone/video chat, exchange emails/letters/postcards, and visit in person but it's difficult to beat the convenience and frequency of Facebook.