Facebook Is the Junk Food of Socializing (2015) • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook Is the Junk Food of Socializing (2015)

#121

Post by nurettin » Mon, Nov 27, 2017, 5:24 AM UTC

anigbrowl wrote: post #60

caterama wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having quit Facebook some 4+ years ago, I think about these things too and have come to the conclusion that: a) I don't need to know about the project my distant friend is working on, or the food anyone is making or eating* . b) A solution that existed before Facebook were X-Mas cards. So, I think that's what I'll be doing when I no longer see my parents and close friends daily. * On a side note, my mom calls my gran…

This isn't helpful. Fine, you don't care about your distant friends/relatives daily activities, but that's no help to those of us who do . I live in California and some people who are personally important to me live in florida. I talk to them at least once a day but on an ad-hoc basis, so email isn't that suitable. Edit: corrected geographic confusion Really, what is the point of a post like yours other than to negat…

It seems the karma thing on HN works like this.

Re: Facebook Is the Junk Food of Socializing (2015)

#122

Post by morpheuskafka » Mon, Nov 27, 2017, 5:24 AM UTC

codezero wrote: post #67

jorgec wrote: post #63

In my experience, i tried to join facebook a couple of months ago and: a) It asked me for a lot of private information. I submit all of them. b) Then i entered. Facebook suggested me, a list of contacts. All of them are ugly people. c) And finally, facebook asked me for a real photo. I used a real photo the first time but i think facebook is a bit faulty.. d) The interface is a real mess. Conclusion: i am seasoned wi…

I’m confused about b) Were you expecting Facebook to only suggest attractive people, if so why?

It's a reasonable assumption, given that their objective is to hook users for as long as possible.

Re: Facebook Is the Junk Food of Socializing (2015)

#123

Post by 7171u » Mon, Nov 27, 2017, 5:25 AM UTC

I have deactivated FB since last Jan. Never felt any urge to return. But Reddit seems to be hard to quit as the majority of the time it delivers the garbage disguised as information. As a person who was on FB only for news feeds, Reddit seems to be the perfect shelter for me.

Re: Facebook Is the Junk Food of Socializing (2015)

#124

Post by jjeaff » Mon, Nov 27, 2017, 5:29 AM UTC

bitexploder wrote: post #111

rayiner wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There isn’t some set number of relationships you can have such that you’ve got to pick out the “important” ones.

I think in a philosophical sense that is true. However, our wetware is just wired to keep about 100 fellow people close. More than that and relationships seem to become very superficial. Most people only maintain a very small number of close relationships. Those are the "important" ones. Importance is sort of decided naturally, though.

100 seems high. I have heard it's more like 12 to 15.

Re: Facebook Is the Junk Food of Socializing (2015)

#125

Post by nordsieck » Mon, Nov 27, 2017, 5:36 AM UTC

morpheuskafka wrote: post #120

Anyone who choses to use FB is just not thinking. I could get joining Instagram, Snapchat, etc b/c of friends. But even if you don't care about privacy, don;t care about algorithms censoring human expression, and don't care about unauthorized physiological experiments to influence your emotions, why would you choose a platform with tons of ads, a terrible UI that fills up timelines with every time someone uploads a n…

> Anyone who choses to use FB is just not thinking.

One of the answers to your implied question is events. I belong to one of many, many subcultures who organize almost exclusively through facebook. This one happens to be related to dancing.

There are around 5 weekly events held regularly, along with a number regular of monthly-ish classes and around one special event per month held locally. Facebook is just way better than the alternative (meetup), and better than the old way (email lists).

Re: Facebook Is the Junk Food of Socializing (2015)

#126

Post by jamesrcole » Mon, Nov 27, 2017, 5:37 AM UTC

caterama wrote: post #55

rayiner wrote: post #42

These articles ignore people’s real alternatives. I’m in my 30s and have a small child. While I love to fly into Chicago or New York for a night of drinking with my still-single friends, that’s not really something I get to do more than once every couple of months. Seeing my wife’s extended family (3,000 miles away in the west coast) is a once every year thing, and seeing my extended family (7,000 miles away in Asia)…

Having quit Facebook some 4+ years ago, I think about these things too and have come to the conclusion that: a) I don't need to know about the project my distant friend is working on, or the food anyone is making or eating* . b) A solution that existed before Facebook were X-Mas cards. So, I think that's what I'll be doing when I no longer see my parents and close friends daily. * On a side note, my mom calls my gran…

> I don't need to know about ...

Surely the question is not about what you absolutely need or not. You could strip you life back to only necessities. Some people might find that fulfilling, but I suspect many wouldn't.

I think the question is more of cost/benefit. Do the benefits of something sufficiently outweigh their costs.

Re: Facebook Is the Junk Food of Socializing (2015)

#127

Post by jjeaff » Mon, Nov 27, 2017, 5:37 AM UTC

wutbrodo wrote: post #86

badestrand wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love it if Facebook worked that way for me. But unfortunately its just selfies and crappy shares of motivational or "funny" memes. The people that I am interested in mostly never post anything - and me neither, because I a) would like to share with close friends and family but not everyone I am connected to* and b) I find it too stressful to having to worry that my post won't garner many likes and thus will b…

> I would love it if Facebook worked that way for me. But unfortunately its just selfies and crappy shares of motivational or "funny" memes. I don't know much about Facebook's feed because I don't use it a ton, but can't you just unfollow the people who post this stuff? I'd imagine after doing this just a handful of times, your feed would become a lot better tuned to the kind of stuff you actually want to see. The ~o…

What I would like is the ability to filter out all reposts. If all you saw was original posts, it would clean up 90 percent of all the garbage.

Re: Facebook Is the Junk Food of Socializing (2015)

#128

Post by zabil » Mon, Nov 27, 2017, 5:40 AM UTC

To like someone, stop reading their feeds.

Re: Facebook Is the Junk Food of Socializing (2015)

#129

Post by m3kw9 » Mon, Nov 27, 2017, 5:48 AM UTC

I have this year deleted FB, but not my account. This after noticing trends of tailoring the exact news that stimulates you the most from what it knows about you. I’m thinking most of this junk quite useless to me and is eating up a lot of valuable time.

Re: Facebook Is the Junk Food of Socializing (2015)

#130

Post by arvin » Mon, Nov 27, 2017, 6:07 AM UTC

jjeaff wrote: post #124

bitexploder wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think in a philosophical sense that is true. However, our wetware is just wired to keep about 100 fellow people close. More than that and relationships seem to become very superficial. Most people only maintain a very small number of close relationships. Those are the "important" ones. Importance is sort of decided naturally, though.

100 seems high. I have heard it's more like 12 to 15.

I think bitexploder is referring to the "Dunbar's number" which is 150.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number

From the wiki: Dunbar's number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. By using the average human brain size and extrapolating from the results of primates, he proposed that humans can comfortably maintain only 150 stable relationships.