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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

#91

Post by alpinemeadow »

vinceguidry wrote: post #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 so…

I think you, like many, are confusing the impact of ubiquitous data on our mobile phones with Facebook. We are not more connected because Facebook. We are more connected because data pipes are everywhere and I can drink all the time.

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

#92

Post by ankmathur96 »

vinceguidry wrote: post #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 so…

An aspect of this which has not been very well engaged with is how people see Facebook and its products outside of America. A common response to this from pundits is that it's an American company and therefore American values and perspectives matter more (as if American perspectives are the definitively superior kind). Without question, Facebook-owned products have democratized communication in third world countries (like India for example) and empowered those people to take advantage of the internet and its convenience. There's more than can go into a HN comment here, but an example is street side stores that have hugely expanded their audience by taking orders on Whatsapp. It just wasn't accessible to do this before, and Facebook has made that happen.

At some level, much of the criticism of Facebook (especially DHH) don't even try to put into words what Facebook "breach" they're upset about. Is it Cambridge Analytica? Is it one of the drummed up NYT pieces? If you care about this problem, yelling and waiting for someone to break up Facebook isn't a solution. We need discourse to identity what realistic changes we as a community expect.

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

#94

Post by cm2012 »

I'm a Facebook advertiser. I can attest that there's lot of good products where the only cost effective and scalable way to reach your target market is through Facebook. Want to reach teachers with a time saving app? FB is the best way. Want to offer a SaaS tool to small businesses? FB is the best way to get it in front of them. Etc.

FB ads don't have 0 utility for consumers. A lot of products just couldn't reach the people who want them without it.

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

#95

Post by eysquared »

vinceguidry wrote: post #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 so…

I disagree. While Facebook may have started that way, they actively took steps to "drive engagement" and get people hooked. They gamified social media for ad revenue and turned the platform into what it is today.

Had it stayed merely as a way for people to connect then I don't think they would be seeing nearly the same amount of backlash.

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

#96

Post by jeffreyrogers »

I don't have a Facebook account and I admire DHH, but a lot of the criticism of Facebook seems over the top. Most people don't care about similar actions done by other companies (at least not at the same level), and don't seem to take much real action to mitigate the harms they see from Facebook. I think much of the criticism is a form of signaling, rather than an expression of a real belief.

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

#98

Post by herbst »

fbn79 wrote: post #64
vinceguidry wrote: post #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 so…

Facebook innovation was not to connect with friends (many other sites / services was doing it). Facebook innovation was the news feed: all friends news in a single time ordered infinite scrollable page. The value of facebook is how good it is to keep the newsfeed interesting.

We had a local social network that did that even before MySpace was a trend. Even phpbb had some skins that did made it more news feed like.

That was not exactly a Facebook thing really.

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

#99

Post by AlexandrB »

vasilipupkin wrote: post #42

this guy is obsessed with Facebook, while justifying his presence on Twitter which has the exact same business model, with various excuses. He is a troll trying to generate clicks and visibility. That's all. If he really was serious about hating the free social network / paid for by targeted advertising model, he would have gotten off Twitter. But he has a lot of followers there and it's an effective marketing tool f…

Twitter is terrible, but at least it's honest. There's no pretence of privacy through vague "controls". If Facebook just said: "Anything you post to Facebook is public, except PMs", it would be a lot more palatable. Instead it's a bait-and-switch, where Facebook lets you think some information is private, but uses it for its own purposes as if it's public.

Edit: Also consider that Twitter doesn't enforce a real-name policy. This means you can often maintain your own anonymity/privacy on Twitter simply by not using your real name.

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

#100

Post by x3n0ph3n3 »

parthdesai wrote: post #77
mAEStro-paNDa wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sympathize much with your stance on Facebook. However, I'm curious, what keeps Google from being an adversary in your perspective?

>what keeps Google from being an adversary in your perspective? If you visit a country where you don't speak the native language, Google maps will help navigate through the country or city. Even help with public transport. Youtube helps with DIY videos or programming talks. I wouldn't have discovered Khan academy without google. And before you say DuckDuckGo is an alternative, i have DuckDuckGo installed and i prefix…

I guess you've never been to South Korea, where Google Maps is crippled by law. You have to use a domestic app like Navier if you want to get around.
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