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

#191

Post by stcredzero » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 12:12 AM UTC

b1r6 wrote: post #92

stcredzero wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's becoming boring and boring, so that's why I believe people are leaving. The problem with Facebook, is that either it's boring, or it's not boring, and in that case it's often far worse. Facebook latched onto the fact that outrage measures as "engagement" then other people latched onto that fact and started to use Facebook for their own outrage mongering purposes. Still, Instagram and WhatsApp are running strong…

I find that to be a really intriguing idea. Offering a gradient instead of platform ultimatums. Could this scale, is the question?

Could this scale, is the question?

In a way, it would be like shadowbanning, but more open.

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

#192

Post by JohnFen » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 12:13 AM UTC

two2two wrote: post #135

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…

> some employers (fewer and fewer these days) want to see my online presence.

That's a really huge red flag. I don't think that I'd be willing to risk taking a job with a company that asked for this.

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

#193

Post by sm4rk0 » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 12:14 AM UTC

jjrh wrote: post #118

tombert wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Instagram and WhatsApp are running strong with barely no competition You're not wrong, but I find it a bit frustrating how much resistance I get whenever I try and suggest using Signal instead of Whatsapp. As far as I can tell, it has pretty much all the features of Whatsapp that I use, without all the spying.

No one wants to install ANOTHER app just to talk to you. Most of us already have at least 3 messaging apps they use on a daily basis and probably a whole lot more they use on a weekly basis.

But why WhatsApp is one of those 3 and Signal is ANOTHER app? Not so long ago WhatsApp was ANOTHER. Now it's not. What changed?

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

#194

Post by frabcus » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 12:15 AM UTC

anarchy8 wrote: post #106

AdrianB1 wrote: post #94

I lost too many "friends" on Facebook: I knew these people for many years, but I was shocked what they posted - from stupid to incredible things, mostly politics and mostly far left. I started cutting all these people and I was left with less than 20 when I closed my account.

> mostly politics and mostly far left You're upset that your friends have different political opinions than you? And you're blaming Facebook for this? Why?

It's not difference of opinion that is the problem - it's often quality of argument. Political discussions generally these days are very low quality - not actually trying to work out the best policies that will work best for society. Just posting memes. Little listening. Each side in an echo chamber. People unable to explain why they think things.

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

#195

Post by JohnFen » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 12:15 AM UTC

nabla9 wrote: post #165

travisoneill1 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: Many new innovative companies are being founded in this space and those that are successful are richly rewarded (by selling to FB). The system is working exactly how it is supposed to.

>The system is working exactly how it is supposed to. US system is designed to be anti-markets and pro business, so you have a point. Good for startup, good for FB, bad for consumer and competition. It's still against what anti-trust law was supposed to be.

Also remember that in the US it's perfectly legal to be a monopoly. What is illegal is abusing your monopoly position by engaging in unfair practices (which is a rather fuzzy and hard-to-prove thing).

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

#196

Post by dmurray » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 12:16 AM UTC

ryana wrote: post #45

b_tterc_p wrote: post #8

> How the study was conducted: A total of 1,500 persons were interviewed to explore Americans’ use of digital platforms and new media. From January 3rd through February 4th, 2019, telephone interviews were conducted with respondents age 12 and older who were selected via Random Digit Dial (RDD) sampling through both landline phones and mobile phones. The survey was offered in both Spanish and English. Data was weight…

I am always sad to see responses like this. Statistics is a very well-defined mathematical discipline, and any good research firm will use weighting techniques to adjust for demographic-based likelihood of response. The results they get from this are very accurate. If you have concerns about Edison's methodology or application of standard survey weighting then I think that could be a fruitful conversation. But implyi…

Also, any methodology problems can be mitigated by the fact that they did the same survey with the same methodology in 2017, and compared their results. You expect to get better accuracy by asking people then and now "do you use Facebook?" than by asking them now "do you use Facebook, and did you use it two years ago?"

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

#197

Post by JohnFen » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 12:18 AM UTC

kissickas wrote: post #32

I'm shocked by the decrease in twitter usage (compared to other social networks) in 2017.[0] I have seen a huge uptick in friends tweeting, mostly in replies to Trump's tweets, and several times a week news stories come to the top of my feed purely generated by a single tweet of his. [0] the credited article for the story, linked in the second sentence https://www.marketplace.org/2019/03/06/tech/exclusive-look-n...

> I'm shocked by the decrease in twitter usage

I'm not. Twitter has degraded quite a lot.

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

#198

Post by georgeecollins » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 12:18 AM UTC

Even if you feel like it is impossible to leave Facebook, the truth is they make most of their money from ads served while you are in their ecosystem. Just spending less time on their platforms is good for you and good for reducing their relative power in the market.

We are all better off in a world where Facebook and Google face an economic harm if they abuse their monopoly power. I don't think consumer action is the best way to cause that harm, but it is the way that is available to everyone on this forum.

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

#199

Post by aboutruby » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 12:19 AM UTC

tungwaiyip wrote: post #185

Facebook's investor presentation shows MAU stay flat at 242 millions in Q4'18. I don't see a 15 millions drop. (The numbers for DAUs and MAUs do not include Instagram, WhatsApp, or Oculus users) https://s21.q4cdn.com/399680738/files/doc_financials/2018/Q4...

Thanks for the link, very interesting document, it really shows an impressive scale.

And for the metrics, it's probably coming from the fact that a lot of people use Messenger without using Facebook, but it's still considered "using Facebook".

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

#200

Post by dvtrn » Thu, Mar 07, 2019, 12:19 AM UTC

rconti wrote: post #99

kristopolous wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just like with twitter, it all depends on who you follow; Some content is dramatically better than others. And just like with twitter, most of the content is essentially garbage.

Agreed. And I think this is one reason I love FB and can't stand Twitter. I kept buying into the "follow important people on Twitter" and it's just crap. I don't care what a noted Icelandic volcanologist retweeted about canaries. I don't care what my favorite F1 driver retweeted about english football. I don't care. I don't follow "influencers" because I don't care what they think, but I thought at least getting thin…

Obviously you can follow celebrities on facebook and only follow friends on twitter but it doesn't feel like they're made for that use case, the 'reverse' of what I use it for.

Someone here not long ago on HN opened my eyes to the 'lists' feature of Twitter, it's been a remarkable improvement for me with the platform. "IRL" friends in one list, "Net" friends in another, sports commentary (because that's a thing I'm into), etc. etc. Crap is more or less 'siloed'.

I wish twitter promoted the feature more, to be honest, I think it can help with some of the gripes you have, if not for you maybe for others as it did with my experience on the platform.