U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says • Hacker News Board

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#131

Post by Chazprime » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 11:21 PM UTC

kojackst wrote: post #10

Note: personal opinion bellow It seems to me that the overall interest in Facebook is decreasing. The social network hasn't had any interesting feature added to it in the last couple of years. It's becoming boring and boring, so that's why I believe people are leaving. Still, Instagram and WhatsApp are running strong with barely no competition. We don't see any news about their user base decreasing and news channels…

Agree on the lack of features front.

I actually preferred the simpler design FB had back in 2013 or so before the big redesign. After that everything seemed to get busier and louder. Usability took a hit after that IMO.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#132

Post by JKCalhoun » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 11:24 PM UTC

jjrh wrote: post #113

time0ut wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I deleted my account years ago, but ended up creating a fake account under a fictitious identity for the odd event organized through Facebook. I log in every so often just to see what's up. It appears to be a mixture of paid content and two random friends posting memes. I have to think people are deriving some value from it, but I cannot imagine what it is.

I barely use facebook's website, I don't post anything but keep a account around for family, folks who want to use messenger and the odd event/group. It's a bit like having that hotmail address from highschool for the odd person who has that as your only contact point. I kept AIM and ICQ around for a long time for that reason. I think younger folks have migrated to Instagram, snapchat, etc. where they actually post/u…

Deleted FB account over a year ago.

Always wondered if we could create a lurker account that everyone shares — we share the password and just agree not to change the password, post, etc.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#133

Post by president » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 11:25 PM UTC

darpa_escapee wrote: post #97

kojackst wrote: post #10

Note: personal opinion bellow It seems to me that the overall interest in Facebook is decreasing. The social network hasn't had any interesting feature added to it in the last couple of years. It's becoming boring and boring, so that's why I believe people are leaving. Still, Instagram and WhatsApp are running strong with barely no competition. We don't see any news about their user base decreasing and news channels…

From what I've seen, Instagram is nearly 60% marketing/bot activity and ads are ruining the experience.

I couldn't agree more and don't forget about "aggregator" type accounts that just steal original content from other users. I am predicting that Instagram will last another 2-3 years before people get tired of the non-stop ads and spam.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#134

Post by diminoten » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 11:25 PM UTC

socrates1998 wrote: post #27

Anecdotally, I work with teenagers and none of them have a Facebook pages. It's viewed as a place for old people and parents. For me personally, it's almost impossible to deal with. Way too many political posts from my friends and family. It's probably best use for me is local events and an occasional major event from a friend/family member. Still, I find myself going there less and less. From a small business standp…

I just unsubscribed from all of the folks on FB that post political stuff.

Maybe they should make that a global option, something like "Hide Political Stories" or something.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#135

Post by two2two » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 11:26 PM UTC

ciacci1234 wrote: post #72

What are people's thoughts on not deleting FB to better secure your personal identity. In the context of leaving google's services, I see people say that they sit on their email so no one else can take it, but I never see that sentiment about deleting fb. Is it just that the bar to successfully impersonate someone via fb is higher and email is lot easier to manipulate? I am particularly interested because I am planni…

It's easy to not delete and stop using to serve your purpose. I loathe facebook et al., but some employers (fewer and fewer these days) want to see my online presence. To not have a facebook was considered strange, so for that reason, I keep it around. However, as far as maintaining an identity, or holding on to your custom facebook url, that’s a non-issue. Delete away, and create again—facebook is intelligent enough to reconnect you to all those people if need be. Personal identity is strengthened by other's endorsement. That's easy to get again with FB, especially if you're who you really are. It's difficult to take someone’s identity in that sense and it be valuable to the person doing it.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#136

Post by diminoten » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 11:27 PM UTC

JohnFen wrote: post #11

I'm not sure losing that age group has much to do with Facebook's scandals. This is purely anecdotal, but with my daughter and her social group, Facebook stopped being a service of interest to them quite a while back. Not because of data issues, but because (to use my daughter's words) "Facebook is for businesses and old people".

Oh yeah definitely, it's got nothing to do with privacy, it's just not a platform geared towards younger people, because it's a platform that caters to older people.

Kids these days don't give a shit about privacy. Why would they?

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#137

Post by romwell » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 11:27 PM UTC

echelon wrote: post #115

atwebb wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nextdoor really needs to get it's act together on siloing neighborhood discussions, it's basically built for this.

Nextdoor is terrible. I get push notified of every lost cat or dog. Or whenever the local grocery store is out of cabbage. Or "suspicious people" walking around. I can't find a way to get any value out of it.

>Or "suspicious people"

The bane of Nextdoor. Every person within 100 yards is suspicious, especially if they have "Hair color: african" (I kid you not, this one is from my neighborhood Nextdoor).

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#138

Post by hopler » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 11:27 PM UTC

ilovecaching wrote: post #89

socrates1998 wrote: post #27

Anecdotally, I work with teenagers and none of them have a Facebook pages. It's viewed as a place for old people and parents. For me personally, it's almost impossible to deal with. Way too many political posts from my friends and family. It's probably best use for me is local events and an occasional major event from a friend/family member. Still, I find myself going there less and less. From a small business standp…

The problem with the non ad driven model is that to you 5$ might be nothing, but some people 5$ is an impossible sum of money to spend a month on entertainment. Ads allow companies to offer first world products to customers who could desperately use technology to help them connect and trade in their local communities. I think the discussion on privacy and ad based platforms should really be orthogonal.

Facebook could charge different prices in different geoip zones, like IP licensing does.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#139

Post by sanxiyn » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 11:27 PM UTC

gwbas1c wrote: post #40

socrates1998 wrote: post #27

Anecdotally, I work with teenagers and none of them have a Facebook pages. It's viewed as a place for old people and parents. For me personally, it's almost impossible to deal with. Way too many political posts from my friends and family. It's probably best use for me is local events and an occasional major event from a friend/family member. Still, I find myself going there less and less. From a small business standp…

> For me personally, it's almost impossible to deal with. Way too many political posts from my friends and family. Bingo, that's what's doing it for me. Before the 2016 presidential election, Facebook was fun. It was also a great way to get news. But now, what I'm finding is that a lot of people on Facebook just don't know how to behave in a public forum. It makes it painful, because someone always knows someone who'…

I haven't noticed any change whatsoever since 2016 and Facebook continues to work great for me. But then I don't live in US.

Re: U.S. users are leaving Facebook by the millions, Edison Research says

#140

Post by magduf » Wed, Mar 06, 2019, 11:28 PM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #121

simonsarris wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The social network hasn't had any interesting feature added to it in the last couple of years. I actually found some great rugs (owners did not know what they had!) and furniture on the FB marketplace. Much better finds than on craigslist, and easier to verify that the seller is a human.

Agreed. Craigslist was tainted by the unsavory element of prostitution and stolen goods and isn’t a resource that I seek out. Facebook marketplaces seem like what eBay was in the 90s.

If I'm buying a used piece of furniture or whatever, I don't give a shit about prostitution going on elsewhere on the site.

What's really hurt Craigslist is all the scammers. You can't post anything of value on there without some scammer responding and telling you they're going to send you a cashier's check and have a personal assistant pick it up.

You don't have this problem at all on Facebook AFAICT. When someone responds to your ad on Facebook Marketplace, it's a real person who actually wants to buy your old junk.