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Sheryl Sandberg’s New Job Is to Fix Facebook’s Reputation and Her Own

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Re: Sheryl Sandberg’s New Job Is to Fix Facebook’s Reputation and Her Own

#51
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook is the cigarette of our generation

Really? Besides "feeling good" (I assume?), I would be hard pressed to think of a single beneficial thing about cigarette. Facebook certainly has more productive uses than just making you feel good... the question is whether they're worth the downsides.

The smokers in my life all would go to the mat for how valuable smoking supposedly is to their lives; one person even goes so far as to think people who aren't constantly using nicotine are fundamentally misunderstanding what it means to be human. I take it you are not a smoker?

Re: Sheryl Sandberg’s New Job Is to Fix Facebook’s Reputation and Her Own

#52

To those of you saying Facebook provides no value, here are some concrete examples: - In countries where fraud is rampant and people try to sell basic goods on messaging platforms, marketplace allows small business owners and tradesmen to barter goods. This is leagues safer and more efficient than their old methods. Facebook provides a place where people can plan events and create “websites” for their shops and activ…

> Facebook pioneered removing anonymity

Not at all. There are so many fake accounts on Facebook that it's now impossible to tell who is real and who isn't. True, they removed anonymity, but they replaced it with fraud.

> Facebook allows me to stay connected to people I rarely see.

If you rarely see them or interact, how much true value are you gaining other than an abstract sense of nostalgia.

> Facebook gives me the ability to hear from people I don’t agree with

Hearing people that disagree with you isn't enough. You need quality to build a rich library of ideas. Facebook does no vetting, giving everyone a microphone regardless of how thought-out or truthful the message is.

> Facebook’s ADs

Good advertising on a platform may make the platform less bad, but it doesn't make it good. Who goes to Facebook to enjoy nice targeted ads?

Overall, the biggest issue is the first one. It's now impossible to tell what's real and what isn't on Facebook. The site is rife with bots and hacked accounts, you don't really know if you're talking to a person or someone with a hidden agenda.

Re: Sheryl Sandberg’s New Job Is to Fix Facebook’s Reputation and Her Own

#53
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook is the cigarette of our generation

Really? Besides "feeling good" (I assume?), I would be hard pressed to think of a single beneficial thing about cigarette. Facebook certainly has more productive uses than just making you feel good... the question is whether they're worth the downsides.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Uses

"Enhancing performance: Nicotine is frequently used for its performance-enhancing effects on cognition, alertness, and focus.[38] A meta-analysis of 41 double-blind, placebo-controlled studies concluded that nicotine or smoking had significant positive effects on aspects of fine motor abilities, alerting and orienting attention, and episodic and working memory.[39] A 2015 review noted that stimulation of the α4β2 nicotinic receptor is responsible for certain improvements in attentional performance;[40] ..."

Not that this is how most people use it (esp. because those who do smoke are likely not allowed to do so inside an office building, meaning they couldn't be e.g. programming at their multi-monitor desk while doing it; seems the half-life of nicotine in the body is 1-2 hours, so perhaps it could be net-beneficial to go outside briefly); nor that it couldn't be done via skin patches or other delivery mechanisms.

Re: Sheryl Sandberg’s New Job Is to Fix Facebook’s Reputation and Her Own

#54
post #5

Even if Facebook actually wanted to change, intended to change and put time, money, and talent to the task this would still be a serious uphill climb. The idea that anyone could rehabilitate their image when they have no such commitment is laughable. Does anyone seriously think what this really isn’t just crisis mangement? Every quarter that FB can stave off inevitable backlash and regulation is money in their pocket…

Facebook is the cigarette of our generation

No, it's our religion, our Opium for the people.

Re: Sheryl Sandberg’s New Job Is to Fix Facebook’s Reputation and Her Own

#55
post #33

MZ (screaming): you broke my Facebook, so you better damn fix it. CS: Whoah Mark, you know people want me to run for president. I can’t scorch my reputation fixing your dumb internet site. Plus enough of my shares have vested for me to leave with my pockets full of loot. It’s not like I ever have to work again. MZ: [redacted] CS: OK, I’ll do it. What did Mark promise her? Would love to know what deal she cut.

He just promised not to publish whatever private FB messages she's been sending... /s

[flagged]

Re: Sheryl Sandberg’s New Job Is to Fix Facebook’s Reputation and Her Own

#56
post #16

Fixing Facebook isn't a hard problem. Fixing it while keeping advertisers happy is pretty much impossible. If you try to be more vigilant on privacy settings then you give advertisers less choices to target people. And with Amazon moving into the ad market aggressively, and Google being the behemoth that they are the last thing you want is to hurt your advertising platform.

I don't think Facebook's problem is legitimate advertisers misusing personal information. Rather, it's the spammers, scammers, bots, and foreign spies that destroy trust in the system. If Facebook could get rid of those (not an easy problem), they could rebuild trust and keep legitimate big-money advertisers happy.

Re: Sheryl Sandberg’s New Job Is to Fix Facebook’s Reputation and Her Own

#57

To those of you saying Facebook provides no value, here are some concrete examples: - In countries where fraud is rampant and people try to sell basic goods on messaging platforms, marketplace allows small business owners and tradesmen to barter goods. This is leagues safer and more efficient than their old methods. Facebook provides a place where people can plan events and create “websites” for their shops and activ…

So what are you doing here with us losers? Are you aware that you sound a bit like a paid ad, or a lobbyist going through a list of talking points in the preferred corporate frames of reference?

What you're saying is unnecessary negative and brings little to the discussion as it doesn't include any targeted arguments, and what's more, the site guideline states that: "Please don't impute astroturfing or shillage. That degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about it, email us and we'll look at the data."

Re: Sheryl Sandberg’s New Job Is to Fix Facebook’s Reputation and Her Own

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Besides "feeling good" (I assume?), I would be hard pressed to think of a single beneficial thing about cigarette. Facebook certainly has more productive uses than just making you feel good... the question is whether they're worth the downsides.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine#Uses "Enhancing performance: Nicotine is frequently used for its performance-enhancing effects on cognition, alertness, and focus.[38] A meta-analysis of 41 double-blind, placebo-controlled studies concluded that nicotine or smoking had significant positive effects on aspects of fine motor abilities, alerting and orienting attention, and episodic and working memory.[39] A 2015 r…

Very interesting - the few times I've had a cigarette, I've definitely noticed a sense of clarity in thinking and alertness. For non-smokers, showers seem to be one of the rare times where one is left alone with ones thoughts to explore, while cigarette smokers may experience this with every smoking break.

Re: Sheryl Sandberg’s New Job Is to Fix Facebook’s Reputation and Her Own

#60
post #12

There is nothing FB or Sandberg can do to fix Facebook's reputation in my mind. I have deleted most of the content I have posted to FB and keep my account only because I sometimes use Messenger.

I esp. would not use Messenger. That would seem to be the "spyingest". But I'm assuming you have someone who is all-in on Messenger you would lose otherwise. Deleted FB and all content a year ago. Honestly, as I was on my way out, I was beginning to enjoy the "groups" I had discovered. Wish there were a lurker mode....

I found such too. But the quality of discussion is sub par even when the original idea was good.

Large share of the people who are still active on facebook seem to be types of people who have very few friends and like to shout their ideas into the abyss. Or alternatively very connected people who promote slogans to mindless crowd of agreeing zombies.

It's mostly result of "your aunt sees what you just said" which means that you rarely see anybody genuinely argue anything. Because the feeling of your aunt briging up your facebook discussion from two years back at summer cottage is not worth it. Facebook is shitty at managing interpersonal connections, kinda weird at this point. Then the lack of dislike button keeps noise levels high from people with no aunts. Even the few actual discussions typically develop into pointless drama.

Reddit has very bad problems with eternal September, but its not nearly brainless if you dig deep enough into subreddits.

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