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Facebook is the worst thing that's ever happened to the internet

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Re: Facebook is the worst thing that's ever happened to the internet

#12
post #8

I'd be curious to hear what people think are the top 3, because I feel like Twitter and Instagram are strong contenders. Or if indeed Twitter belongs in the top spot.

Google is the worst by far. Page rank has horribly distorted the content and structure. It affects the way people write and think e.g. I have to reuse my title in post for google ranking! I have to include these keywords! I can’t link because I want to keep my “juice”. I’d guess a majority of all content on the internet is fake, created to manipulate page rankings. And that’s just the beginning, people believe a 30 second video needs to be stretched to at least 10 minutes because that’s want YouTube wants to rank in search. Amp? At least many of Facebooks worst features are locked inside their own garden. The page rank effect follows me into real life! I get emails every day, and even periodic phone calls from people trying to pay me to put their content on my site just so they can get back links.

Re: Facebook is the worst thing that's ever happened to the internet

#13
Facebook hijacked friendships/acquaintances and made us talk to each other in a different way that we would have in person. That's my primary beef against them.

As for the internet, they've consistently closed off integrations so as to become a closed platform that benefits from the internet but does not give back:

- APIs closed

- Integrations with other services: closed

- Hyperlinks to posts: hard to find for sharing and bookmarking.

They've become the new AOL (the kid on the block that doesn't play with others unless they have a toy he wants to steal from them).

Having said this, the closed platform may end up being a blessing in disguise, making it easier to cut off facebook from habits altogether.

Re: Facebook is the worst thing that's ever happened to the internet

#14
post #8

I'd be curious to hear what people think are the top 3, because I feel like Twitter and Instagram are strong contenders. Or if indeed Twitter belongs in the top spot.

I'd rate it a grab bag of google, twitter, and InstaFaceSnap.

If you forced me to choose just one that was the absolute worst, I'd probably choose Google. Google is definitely the "patient zero" or the "Typhoid Mary".

Re: Facebook is the worst thing that's ever happened to the internet

#16

Top reply: >What do you think of Facebook-owned products? IG started out like a mobile Flickr in the early days, a place for personal creativity and documentation, but now has become an ad-filled place to peacock, gather likes, and promote. I wonder about the psychological impact on people. His response: >Plenty of studies have confirmed that Instagram is having a terrible effect on the psychology of many people. Als…

I somewhat disagree with his assessment of influencers. Can they be annoying? Yes. Are they providing real value for companies to be able to connect with tribes of people? Yes. The influencer has single handedly upended the advertisement industry and taken money away from traditional media is a big way. I think it's given more jobs to people who don't work on Madison Avenue and maybe don't have technical skills, but…

> providing real value for companies to be able to connect with tribes of people

Listen to yourself holy shit

Re: Facebook is the worst thing that's ever happened to the internet

#17
post #8

I'd be curious to hear what people think are the top 3, because I feel like Twitter and Instagram are strong contenders. Or if indeed Twitter belongs in the top spot.

Google is the worst by far. Page rank has horribly distorted the content and structure. It affects the way people write and think e.g. I have to reuse my title in post for google ranking! I have to include these keywords! I can’t link because I want to keep my “juice”. I’d guess a majority of all content on the internet is fake, created to manipulate page rankings. And that’s just the beginning, people believe a 30 s…

In what world is this not the case? One without a search engine at all?

Any world where a search engine exists, people are going to try to do what ranks best. I would argue the world is better with a search engine (and these side effects) than without one.

Re: Facebook is the worst thing that's ever happened to the internet

#18

Top reply: >What do you think of Facebook-owned products? IG started out like a mobile Flickr in the early days, a place for personal creativity and documentation, but now has become an ad-filled place to peacock, gather likes, and promote. I wonder about the psychological impact on people. His response: >Plenty of studies have confirmed that Instagram is having a terrible effect on the psychology of many people. Als…

I somewhat disagree with his assessment of influencers. Can they be annoying? Yes. Are they providing real value for companies to be able to connect with tribes of people? Yes. The influencer has single handedly upended the advertisement industry and taken money away from traditional media is a big way. I think it's given more jobs to people who don't work on Madison Avenue and maybe don't have technical skills, but…

I'm guessing most people who don't like influencers would rather have newspapers than provide more value to companies and create an industry for people whose main talent is popularity.

Re: Facebook is the worst thing that's ever happened to the internet

#19
post #8

I'd be curious to hear what people think are the top 3, because I feel like Twitter and Instagram are strong contenders. Or if indeed Twitter belongs in the top spot.

The 2 worst thing to happen to the internet is too much advertising and data collection services masquerading as free products.

Re: Facebook is the worst thing that's ever happened to the internet

#20
Before Facebook, if I lost someone's contact information, and drifted outside of their social circle for a long enough time, chances were I would never ever see or speak to that person again.

Before Facebook, if people wanted to organize conversation and cooperation on an information technology platform, the options were to pay $X00-$X000 for a proprietary system, get lucky enough to know about mailing lists, have someone who knew sysadmin do it basically for free, or have everyone learn how to use something like IRC.

Social networking was an enormous pain in the ass. Facebook was the first platform that actually worked for people. Every subsequent social network took their cues from Facebook, it was a veritable sea change in the state of the Internet.

The problem here isn't Facebook, you'd be having these growing pains with any useful social networking technology platform. It's the unintended consequences of Facebook's universal accessibility. Anybody can use Facebook, and so everybody will. It's the story of technology all over again. Technology is invented, we have a honeymoon phase, then the real marriage begins. We're in the "just had a baby, now we need to get it to a year old so we can all relax" phase.

It'll get better.

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