I log into Facebook about 6 times a year. Each time it is a waste of my time
Facebook lost around 2.8M U.S. users under 25 last year
191–200 of 365 posts
Re: Facebook lost around 2.8M U.S. users under 25 last year
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
Facebook's algorithm almost seems like a quintessential example of why you need to choose good metrics in optimization problems. Maximizing user engagement sounds great - it means people are using your website and enjoying it more, right? Turns out people weren't enjoying it more, they were using it more because Facebook was shoving controversial content (e.g. dubious-quality news, debates, crazy people) down people'…
But they get paid per eyeball, not by the enjoyment level of the people using the system. They don't care WHY you can't keep your eyes away, as long as you can't keep your eyes away. From their end, their metric was perfect.
Perfect in the short-term, sure, but if people are leaving the platform then their long-term eyeballs might be suffering for the sake of short-term eyeballs
Re: Facebook lost around 2.8M U.S. users under 25 last year
#193Facebook is becoming like how things would look if you did the wrong thing in SimCity: a dark gently smoking urban wasteland.
Re: Facebook lost around 2.8M U.S. users under 25 last year
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Facebook is used differently outside the US. When I worked at a telco in Afghanistan in 2014, Facebook was basically its own utility - SMBs and individuals used Facebook (and their precious cellular data) almost exclusively to message each other and conduct business. So much so that the most popular consumer/retail plans for Afghans were "Facebook usage plans" giving you X amount of data per month to be spent exclusi…
I've seen the effect you describe also in the Philippines and other developing countries I've visited. Some Filipinos don't seem to realise that FB is just a walled garden on the internet, not the internet itself. Also, I think your second point contributes to this: mobile is huge in the Philippines, they send more texts than any other country. And on top of that, social ties are a lot stronger than those in America,…
This is because of Facebook's Internet.org.
Facebook has zero-rating on mobile in the Philippines.
Re: Facebook lost around 2.8M U.S. users under 25 last year
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish the “of course ads are needed” weren’t true. I am waiting for the service that charges me $1/month so that I can demand zero garbage: no unwanted sharing, no ads, no spying; just a useful service for storing photos and updating friends and inviting people to events.
True, but if your friends also needed to pay $1 then many of them wouldn't, and then the service still wouldn't be useful to you (despite paying $1).
It could be an unofficial share, like Netflix subscriptions. "Somebody" needs to pay, but if you know someone who has, then you can use the service fairly easily.
Re: Facebook lost around 2.8M U.S. users under 25 last year
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
Facebook's algorithm almost seems like a quintessential example of why you need to choose good metrics in optimization problems. Maximizing user engagement sounds great - it means people are using your website and enjoying it more, right? Turns out people weren't enjoying it more, they were using it more because Facebook was shoving controversial content (e.g. dubious-quality news, debates, crazy people) down people'…
But they get paid per eyeball, not by the enjoyment level of the people using the system. They don't care WHY you can't keep your eyes away, as long as you can't keep your eyes away. From their end, their metric was perfect.
It's worse that that. Not only does FB as a company get paid per eyeball, the individual managers get paid per eyeball. Inside the org, the incentives are perverse.
https://www.wired.com/story/inside-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-...
Re: Facebook lost around 2.8M U.S. users under 25 last year
#197Facebook should watch out with Instagram. It feels considerably more draining now than it used to. There are messages, stories, suggested posts everywhere. On the search feed I often end up in auto-scrolling videos. These increase engagement and metrics. But, they produce an unwanted feeling of compulsion where instagram didn't before. I've uninstalled the app for a bit. I never felt like that about Instagram before,…
I have been using Instagram from 2011, with less than 100 subscriptions (mostly friends). Uninstalled it last month because of the compulsive story checks and the new messy algorithmic feed. Now I get there from iPad once a week.
Re: Facebook lost around 2.8M U.S. users under 25 last year
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whatsapp, Instagram and Snapchat are already far in the process of obsoleting Facebook and scooping up leaving and young users. 2 of those 3 are now owned by Facebook
And how long until Instagram suffers the same fate?
I think demise of Instagram is bit far off.
I'm traveling the world right now and observing people on the street and a lot of people browse Instagram more than any other apps.
Re: Facebook lost around 2.8M U.S. users under 25 last year
#199Facebook suffered from 2 waves of "Eternal September" [0]: wave 1: the addition of everybody outside your immediate friends and close family. You get the goofy uncle, the distant high school acquaintances, and all the work acquaintances from every previous job that submitted a "friend request" that you didn't reject out of politeness. The newsfeed gets polluted by nonsense such as forwarded memes, politics, and other…
What did for me was the influx of the "you won't believe what happens next, this video will make you cry" shares, and then political diatribes (you may call it virtue signaling) by well-meaning friends. Unfriended many people to cull my list to around 100 and FB has been more palatable since.
I would love an option like "do not show anything from this contact unless it is original content, or at most share of an original content". That would remove 90% of the crap from the feed (i.e. the "viral" part).
Re: Facebook lost around 2.8M U.S. users under 25 last year
#200Facebook suffered from 2 waves of "Eternal September" [0]: wave 1: the addition of everybody outside your immediate friends and close family. You get the goofy uncle, the distant high school acquaintances, and all the work acquaintances from every previous job that submitted a "friend request" that you didn't reject out of politeness. The newsfeed gets polluted by nonsense such as forwarded memes, politics, and other…
What I don't understand is what is FB thinking? Look at it this way: What do I want to see? Friend's image/text > Group image/text > Pages I like image/text > Friends of Friends image/text > Memes > Ads. What does FB want me to see? Ads > Doesn't matter. So what do they do? Ads > Memes > Friends of Friends image/video Pages/Group Image/Video > Friends Image/Video ------------------> Text. Why? What financial incentiv…
Because if they show you:
Ads > Friend's image/text > Group image/text > Pages I like image/text > Friends of Friends image/text > Memes
Then you'll go through a few and then leave the site.
Ads > Friend's image/text > Group image/text > Leave FB
They optimize how much time you spend on FB, so they can show you more ads. Thus, it makes sense to stick the stuff you really care about at the end. To make it hard to find. Because, then instead of coming to the site and getting what you want, you'll spend an hour trying to dig through the crap to find what you want.
More "engagement" is more ads. Nobody at facebook through about whether it makes sense to measure "engagement" alone, or to try and measure some form of "valuable engagement", or "useful engagement".