Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#31

Post by toomuchtodo » Mon, Oct 29, 2018, 5:34 PM UTC

MattBearman wrote: post #30

brobdingnagians wrote: post #12

I realized I was checking facebook a lot each day whenever I had a spare moment, but didn't have anything really interesting happening, and I wanted to engage more with those around me and have more time for down-time thinking. So I deleted the app, knowing that making the threshold higher for checking it would reduce my usage, now I might check facebook once a month on my desktop, and still nothing happening, so it…

This is exactly how my leaving facebook started. After a few months without the app I logged out on desktop, and then it wasn't long until I deactivated my account. I'd like to delete it entirely but at the moment too many people still use messenger to contact me.

Anytime I speak with someone on Messenger, I mention my cellphone # and email. Gotta prime that OOB comms pump, otherwise you'll never break free.

If only there was a Messenger API to setup an autoresponder with alternate contact info...

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#32

Post by ashelmire » Mon, Oct 29, 2018, 5:35 PM UTC

wgerard wrote: post #6

Anecdotal obviously, but I'm surprised at how pervasive the "Facebook listens to your conversations through the app" rumors are, even among the more technically literate. I'm curious how much of an effect that rumor had on this finding.

Whether or not they are actually listening to conversations, the effect is the same; ads that are way too personal.

I suspect they have much more information than what we tell them, and I mean raw data, not what's derived from collaborative filtering or other techniques. I wonder if our ISPs, streaming services, banks, visa, etc, share data. Maybe it's just the trackers all over the internet.

Getting ads for a specific product the day after discussing it in person could be luck... or not.

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#33

Post by casper345 » Mon, Oct 29, 2018, 5:35 PM UTC

Deleted my facebook but forgot how many of my other accounts I used facebook as signing up (another eye opener) So I reactivated my facebook to start migrating my accounts just to use my email as auth. Hopefully soon I can delete my facebook

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#34

Post by stephengillie » Mon, Oct 29, 2018, 5:35 PM UTC

iooi wrote: post #8

It doesn't matter, those same users will use the mobile web version instead. More importantly, Instagram usage has gone way up in that cohort. The title is pure clickbait.

That's the sad truth - this is just reporting the method of use. Other posters in this thread reported uninstalling the app to save phone resources, and instead use Facebook from a browser on their phone.

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#35

Post by sparkzilla » Mon, Oct 29, 2018, 5:35 PM UTC

The irony is that as Facebook tries to recapture young people by stuffing the app with Stories and other youth-oriented features, it puts off older users like me, who will never, ever use Stories, while still not being cool enough to attract the kids.

I think Facebook's decline is great. For too long it has sucked all the life out of the social networking space. Perhaps now we can see some real competition and innovation.

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#36

Post by ummonk » Mon, Oct 29, 2018, 5:36 PM UTC

How does this compare to how many have installed the Instagram app? Is Facebook as a company net positive or net negative with Americans aged 18-29?

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#37

Post by casper345 » Mon, Oct 29, 2018, 5:36 PM UTC

I wonder what the next form of "social media" there will be

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#38

Post by jseliger » Mon, Oct 29, 2018, 5:36 PM UTC

kozak wrote: post #2

"Deleted app" is not necessarily a good metric, considering that I prefer to use Facebook on my mobile phone as a web page instead of the app, simply because I like it that way. It's simply a more consistent and less intrusive experience IMO. Facebook is nagging me with Facebook Lite ads because it thinks that I don't have resources on the phone to run the app, but that's not the case at all.

Even more than that: "A new survey of more..."

People, the concept of "revealed preferences" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revealed_preference) is highly relevant here. What people say in surveys is often garbage, for all kinds of reasons, social desirability bias among them. This article is useless compared to actual measurements of people's phone and time.

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#39

Post by wgerard » Mon, Oct 29, 2018, 5:36 PM UTC

randyrand wrote: post #21

wgerard wrote: post #6

Anecdotal obviously, but I'm surprised at how pervasive the "Facebook listens to your conversations through the app" rumors are, even among the more technically literate. I'm curious how much of an effect that rumor had on this finding.

Do they not use your conversations for targeted ads? This is news to me, and surprising.

While anything's possible, it would be pretty shocking if Facebook figured out how to, on iOS (I can't speak for Android):

* Record audio if the app's killed completely

* Record audio with microphone permission disabled

* etc.

All of which have been claimed.

The far more likely scenario is that we're much more predictable than we think. Remember the target controversy when they figured out a teenage girl was pregnant before she had told her parents [1]? That happened in 2012. Imagine how much more advanced things have become since then.

1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-targ...

Re: Facebook exodus: Nearly half of young users have deleted the app

#40

Post by wgerard » Mon, Oct 29, 2018, 5:37 PM UTC

ashelmire wrote: post #32

wgerard wrote: post #6

Anecdotal obviously, but I'm surprised at how pervasive the "Facebook listens to your conversations through the app" rumors are, even among the more technically literate. I'm curious how much of an effect that rumor had on this finding.

Whether or not they are actually listening to conversations, the effect is the same; ads that are way too personal. I suspect they have much more information than what we tell them, and I mean raw data, not what's derived from collaborative filtering or other techniques. I wonder if our ISPs, streaming services, banks, visa, etc, share data. Maybe it's just the trackers all over the internet. Getting ads for a specif…

> I suspect they have much more information than what we tell them, and I mean raw data, not what's derived from collaborative filtering or other techniques. I wonder if our ISPs, streaming services, banks, visa, etc, share data. Maybe it's just the trackers all over the internet.

They absolutely do. You should download your FB data, if you have an account. It's basically a list of everywhere you've shopped/been/etc. 95% of it you likely didn't share intentionally. It's quite shocking.